Thanksgiving + 2 Days

Saturday 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.

Thanksgiving + 2 Days

Saturday 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.

Thanksgiving + 3 Days

Sunday started almost as early as Saturday. I have to get out of the habit of early mornings... I need more sleep than this.

Still, we got ourselves showered, dressed and checked out of the hotel and on our way to Maurita's place in Mount Pleasant. After a brief stop, the four of us and Maurita's roomie, Sarah, headed to Locklear's for brunch. Towards noon, we said our good-byes, loaded into our minivan and cuyahogarvr's car and headed back to DC. Traffic, with the exception of a few knots of stop-and-go, was largely smooth through South Carolina and North Carolina. Things got ugly north of Richmond, VA, but we anticipated that.

Some observations about the Carolinas:

1. What is North Carolina's obsession with billboards? There seemed more posted there than all other states I've visited combined. Some houses had huge monstrosities in their front yards; some were large enough to shade the entire home.

2. South of the Border, a tacky tourist pseudo-themed shopping & entertainment park just inside the South Carolina border form North Carolina, is tacky beyond all belief. Can we cut back the billboards related to it by, oh, 90%? That would still leave several dozen on both the north and south approaches.

3. Is there any part of South Carolina that isn't built in a swamp? It seemed every area of the state through which we drove was six inches above the water table. Standing pools of water were everywhere. It's like one big flood plain. Can anyone actually get flood insurance in that state?

In all, it was a delightful trip, although I was warned by locals that the summer is incredibly hot and humid: I'll have to restrict my visits to fall and winter months, but I hope we can come again soon.

Thanksgiving + 3 Days

Sunday started almost as early as Saturday. I have to get out of the habit of early mornings... I need more sleep than this.

Still, we got ourselves showered, dressed and checked out of the hotel and on our way to Maurita's place in Mount Pleasant. After a brief stop, the four of us and Maurita's roomie, Sarah, headed to Locklear's for brunch. Towards noon, we said our good-byes, loaded into our minivan and cuyahogarvr's car and headed back to DC. Traffic, with the exception of a few knots of stop-and-go, was largely smooth through South Carolina and North Carolina. Things got ugly north of Richmond, VA, but we anticipated that.

Some observations about the Carolinas:

1. What is North Carolina's obsession with billboards? There seemed more posted there than all other states I've visited combined. Some houses had huge monstrosities in their front yards; some were large enough to shade the entire home.

2. South of the Border, a tacky tourist pseudo-themed shopping & entertainment park just inside the South Carolina border form North Carolina, is tacky beyond all belief. Can we cut back the billboards related to it by, oh, 90%? That would still leave several dozen on both the north and south approaches.

3. Is there any part of South Carolina that isn't built in a swamp? It seemed every area of the state through which we drove was six inches above the water table. Standing pools of water were everywhere. It's like one big flood plain. Can anyone actually get flood insurance in that state?

In all, it was a delightful trip, although I was warned by locals that the summer is incredibly hot and humid: I'll have to restrict my visits to fall and winter months, but I hope we can come again soon.

Mainstream square dance class, Week #11

Tonight's class session went very well. Some folks were a little late arriving because of a lack of parking but the warm-up tips were exceptionally smooth. Even though two new dancers were absent last week, they quickly tackled the missed material without difficulty.

After the review & warm-up, we introduced: turn thru, ferris wheel, dixie style to a wave, pass to the center and cloverleaf. While we could have talked our way through each of the calls, time pressure made us opt to use a demo square to demonstrate cloverleaf and turn thru.

We have three more classes, two of which will cover new calls and the last one will cover flourishes and review the entire list, workshopping anything which may be causing issues. At least, that's the plan currently.

Mainstream square dance class, Week #11

Tonight's class session went very well. Some folks were a little late arriving because of a lack of parking but the warm-up tips were exceptionally smooth. Even though two new dancers were absent last week, they quickly tackled the missed material without difficulty.

After the review & warm-up, we introduced: turn thru, ferris wheel, dixie style to a wave, pass to the center and cloverleaf. While we could have talked our way through each of the calls, time pressure made us opt to use a demo square to demonstrate cloverleaf and turn thru.

We have three more classes, two of which will cover new calls and the last one will cover flourishes and review the entire list, workshopping anything which may be causing issues. At least, that's the plan currently.