R Island: May 9-11, 2014 Charleston SC

Charleston, SC: As we arrived early in the day - about 10:30; we quickly squared the boat away, had some lunch, took quick showers and headed to the Visitor's Center. We caught a 2:30 shuttle bus tour and began to get re-acquainted with Charleston. (Last stop of towns that we have visited in the past).

Charleston is a great mix of different architecture for houses and lots and lots of churches. One style of home we particularly like is a home built "sideways" on a narrow lot. As the pictures show, it is built 1 room wide and porches down the side with an external stair to upper floors. These homes caught the breeze as it traveled between houses and each room had front and back windows for good ventilation. The single door indicated privacy, as this was a single family home. Another good thing is that people were taxed by the width of their house and this saved money.

One room wide.

Private entrances.

The university of Charleston is located right downtown. Mostly a non-vehicle accessible campus but Ger really liked this passing view of the main "street".

There are lots of Churches in Charleston and thought we would share a few.

And many neat houses....

Did Obama move south?

Look at the labor that went into this 200 years ago!

We now see brick clad houses..

The salmon house on Battery Street (overlooks Ft. Sumter). Real estate taxes are reported to be $80,000 per year!

Rope detail around the door indicates a seafaring man lived here.

The lion is actually a decorative cap over structural plate and cables used to support the house after an earthquake. "1/4 turn per month and the house would be straight in 3 years!" Listen up California.

After the tour we walked down the street, and across from the main fire station, had some good down-home cooking at "Justine's Kitchen". Judie had fried chicken and Gerry had fried oysters with okra and cold slaw. Then a cab back to the marina and some rest. Our boat is so far away in the picture below - can't be seen.

Saturday we visited the Downtown Market; four blocks long and full of local merchants and their works. We did some early Christmas Shopping before grabbing lunch at the Charleston Crab House where we enjoyed King and Queen Crab claws, Shrimp, mussels, sausage, potatoes and corn - along with soft drinks. Then walked to the Harris-Teeter grocery store for some much needed shopping before calling the marina for a ride back.

Happy Mothers Day (as applicable) to all those reading this; hope the rest did not forget! We slept in a little before heading to town for brunch at "Another Broken Egg". The last time we were here, this was a French restaurant with wonderful she-crab soup. After breakfast, we took a quiet stroll to the waterfront and headed back to the boat. Judie did LOTS of laundry while Ger tried to blogg and got totally frustrated with the wifi service, which is why we are so far behind. He was not happy and Judie knew it; Sorry!