We spent our third day of vacation exploring downtown Charleston. We started off early in the morning at Market Street. Every tourist has to visit these booths in the old marketplace. The booths are local crafters, retailers, artists, bakeries, etc. We enjoyed looking at all the fun things to buy, and Camyll and I both purchased a few things. I purchased a turquoise necklace and earring set, my souvenir of the trip. We also purchased our traditional Christmas tree ornaments to represent a place we'd visited this year.
The market is full of basket makers that make beautiful baskets and such from reeds. I would LOVE to have one, but they average about $300 for one of these large ones pictured. The small ones are $50-$100, which is just not worth it in my mind for a basket. But they sure are beautiful and unique.
After the market, we made our way out to the waterfront. The boys were excited to play in a big fountain.
We walked to a pier that has big swings lining one side all the way from the shore to the end of the pier, one every 30 feet or so. We enjoyed resting our tired feet and letting the kids run around a bit.
Down at the end of the pier, the big bridge going from Charleston over to Mt. Pleasant could be seen, along with the battleship we'd be visiting in a day or two.
We made our way down the waterfront toward the Battery, and the boys found plenty of opportunity to play in every fountain along the way.
At least one child was content to ride in the stroller.
I love this park along the waterfront. I do have to add that Cooper, being in the midst of potty training, was running along and decided he needed to go pee, and just dropped his pants and started peeing in one of the hedges seen in this picture. We yelled for him to stop, and frantically ran to him to try to stop him, but once a little one in the midst of potty training starts to go, there's just no stopping him mid-stream. So there we were, standing in the middle of a park with a bunch of people around (who were staring hard at us probably wondering what kind of people would let their kid pee like that in a public park), and us having nothing to do but hope that Coop finished quickly enough that we wouldn't get in trouble for it. Sheesh!
More crazy kid time.
Charleston is full of these beautiful little alleyways in between houses and buildings.
The kids were crazy, we were all hungry, and us adults were about done wrangling crazy kids. So we split up for lunch. Nate, Coop and I went to a great traditional seafood restaurant called "Amen Street." I love they way they use the old buildings and architecture everywhere in Charleston. They sat us in the back, since we had a child in tow, and so we had a nice quiet lunch.
Coop was excited to try some fish, shrimp, and hush puppies, which in SC are more like fritters. We had a very enjoyable lunch, and felt refreshed afterward.
We met back up with Camyll and her family at the Old Charleston Exchange Building & Provost Dungeon. The old building was erected in the 1770s as a custom and exchange house. At that point in time, the water came right up to the building, which was built right on the sea wall to enable it to receive ships and their shipments.
The above-ground floors of the Exchange Building are a museum of 18th and 19th century furniture, clothes, and other political memorabilia of those days. I could have spent a few hours looking at it all, but only had a few minutes. Boo hoo. Nate and Coop have very little (NO) interest in such things.
Several signers of the Declaration of Independence were from Charleston, and the Declaration of Independence was read aloud from the balcony of the building to the inhabitants of Charleston.
There was a copy of the Declaration of Independence for visitors to sign. With help from Dad, Cooper added his name to the signers.
The old post office and bank are in the museum.
Down in the "basement" is the old dungeon. We took a brief guided tour, which thrilled me. I LOVE historical things, and learning about the history of Charleston and this building fascinated me. I was glad that Camyll and Jason shared some of the same interest, and that it was their idea, and I was able to hop on the opportunity, since Nate was outnumbered. :)
The brickwork is original. It's interesting that the architectural form, bricks, and mortar were the same as those we would see later at Fort Sumter, even though the two structures were built nearly 100 years apart.
The arched brick amazed me.
Among other things, one of the first things we saw in the basement was an old suit of armor that was found on Sullivan's Island, just across the bay from Charleston. It's believed to be Spanish, and you can even see where the poor wearer was dealt the deadly blow in the gut with a sword.
In the dungeon, portions of the old sea wall, dating back to the late 1600s can be seen. This was part of the wall that encompassed the city.
Here you can see where the street level begins. When it was built, the dungeon was on street level, but over time, the streets rise due to development and such. This picture shows the old entrance steps, and these are the original entrance doors.
More of the original sea wall.
My camera died, so I didn't get any pictures of the dungeon part. It was just a small section of the basement, but is where the likes of Blackbeard the Pirate (and many other pirates) were held prior to execution in the late 1700s. Later, during the time of the American Revolution, the dungeon was used by the British to imprison rebels (Americans), until the Patriots took hold of the city in the 1780s, and then it was the Loyals to the British Crown that were held there. In the 1800s slaves were held in the dungeon and bought and sold in the building, just steps from where the Declaration of Independence had been read. I think few remaining buildings in America are full of such rich history as this little building. I'm glad we stopped and were able to learn so much.
Our learning for the day wasn't over. After our tour of the dungeon, we made our way over to the aquarium. The boys loved playing in the water fountain wall at the entrance.
There was a Madagascar exhibit, and the kids got to see some meerkats up close and personal.
Cooper could have cared less about the aquarium and sea life we had yet to see. He just wanted to drive the safari jeep on exhibit. Even after we dragged/bribed him away from it, he kept begging all the way through the aquarium to go back to the jeep. We had to make one more visit to it before we left.
Jaisie was excited to look at just about anything.
The big tank at the aquarium is pretty spectacular. Calvin got up close and personal with a shark.
Coop enjoyed the fist for at least a few minutes.
He thought this puffer fish was really cool. One of the other neat creatures we saw was a big sea turtle in the tank. She was HUGE! The kids also got to see some live divers working in the tank.
Cooper LOVED the hands-on exhibit where he got to touch a sea urchin, hermit crabs, horseshoe crabs, and the likes.
Camyll and Jason suck outside for a photo op with the bridge.
Coop was back inside pretending to be ship's captain.
We were all exhausted by the end of the day. The boys fell asleep within minutes of getting in the car.
However, the night was still young for Nathan and I. We had a nice date night planned while Camyll and Jason so generously stayed home with the kids.
We went to dinner at "Slightly North of Broad (SNOB)" and had a delicious dinner. Then we walked down the street to view the famous Rainbow Row houses, which are all brightly colored. After the Civil War, the city was in near slum conditions, and these houses were painted by the African-American residents in the bright Carribean color scheme as a sort of rebellion toward slave owners. The houses have always thus remained brightly colored.
Many of the streets in Charleston are breathtaking. After we walked to Rainbow Row, I chose a small alleyway lush with plants,and we made our way between houses out to the next street, which was in the French Quarter, a part of the city that was within the original "walled in" portion of Charleston. Many houses in the French Quarter are historic and date back to the late 1700s.
It was getting dark, and our good camera had died, and it was getting dark, so I didn't get to take many pictures of our walk through the French Quarter, which is my favorite part of Charleston. I would walk every street and read every plaque if I were allowed the time.
We walked past the Dock St. Theater, which is the first site of theatrical productions in the United States. My picture from my camera phone was awful.
Here a picture I took from off the Internet.
There are several historic churches in the area, dating back to the 1700s also.
We passed by St. Phillips Episcopal Church, which was the first congregation in Charleston. The cemetery of the church holds the graves of Edward Rutledge (the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence), and John C. Calhoun (former U.S. Vice President). It is a cool old cemetery, which I would have loved to wander through, but I could only peek through the cast iron fence, and take a picture. Many of the headstones had dates of the late 1600s and 1700s. What amazing history in Charleston!!
We finished our walk through the French Quarter as it was getting very dark. It was time for me to relinquish the night. Nate had been such a good sport to allow me to revel in the historical aspect of the city on our date night. Our self-guided, romantic tour was one of my favorite parts of our vacation, and was a great end to day three.
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