Charleston, South Carolina is really, really old. It kind of looks like a town from the North Shore of Boston that has been shipped to the South and painted turquoise. The burg is big on a number of things, to name a few: Eating, history and frogs. Seriously, there was a frog in every window. Tim's parents had no explanation.
Some facts for you to take home tonight: The Civil War started at Fort Sumter which is a man-made island in Charleston Harbor. The Union actually won the Battle of Fort Sumter, but we all know they lost the war. You know the feeling. Also, the first successful submarine attack in history went down in the same Harbor. The H.L. Hunley belonged to the Confederate - can you believe they even had a submarine back then?!?! I mean, wasn't that before things like sunblock and airplanes??? New biggest fear of all time: Submarines.
C-town is haunted and lots of former high school football stars make a living on giving "haunted tours" of the city. There was this one plaque outside a house that said if you came by at night, you could see the ghost of a white man shooting the ghost of an Indian in the third story window. This was a Unitarian cemetery and strangely, most of the people buried there were born and died in Gloucester, Ma (Perfect Storm). Tim's dad made some comment about the people being "ripe" by the time they got to Charleston and Tim's mom got mad at him and then apologized to me.
Along with the colonial charm was also the small town delight that comes with any hamlet that had a boom in the mid-1900's. On King's street there were several retro businesses and store fronts such as this theater. It felt like we were on the set of the movie My Girl but when we walked past the American Apparel that was so neon it was probably visable from outer space, that was all ruined.
Where I might retire?
Tim's parents lived on Kiawah Island, which is actually 45 minutes outside of Charleston and not an island. There were a lot of critters there including gators which were in abundance and proved to be the ultimate golf course obstacle. I went running one morning and what I thought was the biggest iguana I had ever seen was actually a gator out for some sun. Shiver. When I had to run past it I did the weirdest jog/walk where I tried to take really smooth strides (no sudden movements) while getting the hell out of there at the same time. Picture the grace of a speed skater in running shoes and two sports bras.
Look at this though?!?! You can't get these vistas in Nyc. Not even from some one's roof top BBQ in Brooklyn.
Oh yeah, and to add to all the mystic wonder, South Carolina's governor went missing while we were there. His wife wasn't concerned and mentioned he needed time off from the kids which is particularly un-southern on Father's Day weekend. Anyway, they found him hiking old Appalachia so the anarchy only lasted six days.
Washing the sins away and the barbecue sauce off.
The sky darkened as we approached and when we got there, cloud cover was dense and the rain began to fall. By the time we got to the swimming hole, it was coming down like a shower with great water pressure and the "swimming hole" was more of a "hellish eddy." Pam and Tim dipped and both reported extremely cold temperatures. The day was very Lewis and Clark Fall Break - remember those weird four days in October we got off for no particular reason?
