Thanksgiving + 2 Days
Nov. 27th, 2006 12:17 amSaturday was another fun-filled day in Charleston, SC. Sleeping in --as much as was allowed-- was delightful but we did have to get moving by early morning as we were joining Maurita for a tour of the Boone Hall Plantation on the edge of town.
The plantation grounds were rather nice, although rather sanitized. The huge manor house was actually built on the site in 1936; the original homestead and its successor, the first burned and the latter bulldozed to make space for the current house were much smaller wooden affairs with little aspect of the enormous genteel form we associated with Gone With the Wind's Terra.
Despite the lack of an over-the-top mansion, there were a number of buildings open for tours, including nine of the original twenty-odd slave homes along "Slave Street." As one might expect, these houses were single room structures with a loft and a single fireplace: my first apartment --hell, our trailer-- has more floor space. These buildings probably survived the passage of time because they were (a) still occupied by sharecroppers into the 1940s and (b) were constructed of brick manufactured on the premises in the late 1800s rather than susceptible wood.
By noon, we were on the road again, taking Maurita home so she could prepare for work, while
kent4str,
cuyahogarvr and I headed to our hotel to drop off various items and walk along the Charleston waterfront.
Walking down Meeting Street to the Battery area, we had plenty of opportunity to look through closed gates at the ornate antebellum houses and read numerous historical plaques. While most of the houses were lovely, I wouldn't want to own one: maintenance on a historic home must be hideously expensive, and the lack of space, street access and parking must be painful. Still, they were lovely.
The Waterside Park was a nice tour as well. I took a few long-distance shots of Fort Sumter, as well as a Norweigian Cruise Lines ship at the harbour.
Back at the hotel room again, we crashed for a short nap, pleasantly exhausted. Much snoring was performed by all.
We had dinner at Jim & Nick's, a barbecue restaurant just around the corner from our hotel. I was originally afraid that we wouldn't be able to get a seat, have dinner and escape again in time for our evening appointment but I was pleasantly surprised: we were seated instantly and dinner was served promptly. And the food wa great!
Because of the possibility of a delayed dinner, we had padded our schedule with lots of time, now unnecessary. To kill an hour or two, we went shopping --again-- along Market Street, making a special stop at a particular candy store to load up once more. And we were early for our evening tour: ghosts & graves!
Our 9:30 PM tour was quite popular: we were sent out in two large groups. I'm not a believer in ghosts or the supernatural, but the 1.5 hour tour took us to a few places we hadn't visited on our own, filled in some local historical colour and was generally a fun time. I managed to get some neat photos of two urban graveyards, lit only by the ambient street lighting. I hope they look as good on a computer screen as they did through the camera's viewfinder.
After our tour, returned to our hotel yet again and fell asleep in short order.
The plantation grounds were rather nice, although rather sanitized. The huge manor house was actually built on the site in 1936; the original homestead and its successor, the first burned and the latter bulldozed to make space for the current house were much smaller wooden affairs with little aspect of the enormous genteel form we associated with Gone With the Wind's Terra.
Despite the lack of an over-the-top mansion, there were a number of buildings open for tours, including nine of the original twenty-odd slave homes along "Slave Street." As one might expect, these houses were single room structures with a loft and a single fireplace: my first apartment --hell, our trailer-- has more floor space. These buildings probably survived the passage of time because they were (a) still occupied by sharecroppers into the 1940s and (b) were constructed of brick manufactured on the premises in the late 1800s rather than susceptible wood.
By noon, we were on the road again, taking Maurita home so she could prepare for work, while
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Walking down Meeting Street to the Battery area, we had plenty of opportunity to look through closed gates at the ornate antebellum houses and read numerous historical plaques. While most of the houses were lovely, I wouldn't want to own one: maintenance on a historic home must be hideously expensive, and the lack of space, street access and parking must be painful. Still, they were lovely.
The Waterside Park was a nice tour as well. I took a few long-distance shots of Fort Sumter, as well as a Norweigian Cruise Lines ship at the harbour.
Back at the hotel room again, we crashed for a short nap, pleasantly exhausted. Much snoring was performed by all.
We had dinner at Jim & Nick's, a barbecue restaurant just around the corner from our hotel. I was originally afraid that we wouldn't be able to get a seat, have dinner and escape again in time for our evening appointment but I was pleasantly surprised: we were seated instantly and dinner was served promptly. And the food wa great!
Because of the possibility of a delayed dinner, we had padded our schedule with lots of time, now unnecessary. To kill an hour or two, we went shopping --again-- along Market Street, making a special stop at a particular candy store to load up once more. And we were early for our evening tour: ghosts & graves!
Our 9:30 PM tour was quite popular: we were sent out in two large groups. I'm not a believer in ghosts or the supernatural, but the 1.5 hour tour took us to a few places we hadn't visited on our own, filled in some local historical colour and was generally a fun time. I managed to get some neat photos of two urban graveyards, lit only by the ambient street lighting. I hope they look as good on a computer screen as they did through the camera's viewfinder.
After our tour, returned to our hotel yet again and fell asleep in short order.