Charleston

Not too crowded on a Saturday morning in December.
There are 3 interconnecting free trolley routes in
Charleston.  Great idea!

We have tried to do the full on tourist thing here in Charleston.  We took a free trolley to one of the iconic breakfast places in the city.  The Hominy Grill is the place to breakfast.  After we arrived a crowd quickly lined up - waiting outside in the chill morning air.  We ate dinner at Magnolias - thanks to our daughter Meg & son-in-law Mike.  We managed to see the Slave Market, the open market, took a horse & carriage ride, and finished one of our evenings with a holiday concert by the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.  More info and pictures to come!

I'm sure my doctor would disagree.

Charleston's open air market with hundreds of vendors

Culture everywhere.  

Charleston Symphony Holiday Concert

Charleston is a hard place to leave.  Irene Rose the featured singer at the open market told of leaving for tours in Europe and in the Bahamas but ultimately she had to come back.  We heard the same story from one of our cab drivers.  No... he wasn't on tour but he had to come back after years up North!



While almost everyone we met was friendly we did have a funny feeling about our horse drawn carriage ride.  We got a good history of the city and of some of the homes.  Our driver talked about the number of men killed in the Civil War and then asked if anyone knew how many years of occupation the South had to endure after the war.  She asked how many years the Yankees remained in Charleston.  From the back of the carriage a voice loudly called out: "TOO LONG."  It was an uncomfortable moment.  Our guide was eager to point out the the Brown Family of Brown University made its money from slavery.  Yes, plenty of New England's old money came from the slave trade - a horrible and uncomfortable truth - but despite the economics the North did not go to war to maintain slavery.

One of the many opulent waterfront homes on the Battery in Charleston