25.08.2012 – 25.08.2012  27 °C

A nice slow start to our second day in the extremely gorgeous, Charleston, Sth Carolina. I think I was saying yesterday that we hadn’t seen any gorgeous Southern Town Homes… Well, we rectified that issue today!

First, we decided to forgo the pleasure of the free, but painfully slow, trolley and drove ourselves downtown. We drove all the way down to the foreshore and started to wander. No wonder we hadn’t seen any of the mansions yesterday, cause guess where they all are? Yep, down on the waterfront!

The historic district of Charleston is one big peninsular, and the tip of the peninsular is where the Grand Dames of Charleston are located. Good golly, I can only dream at owning homes like these… Ok, describing is going to be difficult (hopefully the photos tell a better story) but just in case you aren’t getting the feel, here goes… The smallest house I could find on the waterfront was two stories. Most are at least three, sometimes four or even five, with sweeping decks off every floor. Each mansion is painted and all colours of the rainbow are in evidence (although white with grey and green were predominant). Each deck is appropriately decorated, plenty of cane and wicker furniture adorns the porches. Most have gorgeous gardens, hedges, Sth Carolinian palms (the palm is the state emblem by the way), and flowers all in abundance. Think Gone with the Wind but in a harbour side city and you’ve pictured Charleston in one. It is no wonder that people come from all around the world to marvel at the truly spectacular mansions that grace this city.

We spent hours wandering from the foreshore, up the aptly named Bay St back up to Market St. Every block is filled with Ante Bellum Town Homes.. Just incredible.. When you see the houses here you can understand why slavery was so lucrative for these people. I can’t even begin to guess the amount of money that would be required to build one of these houses today (or to buy an existing one).. Let me tell you that there are no cheap US bargains here in Charleston!

We arrived up at Market St just before our usual lunch time but for once we decided to take a break and a relax and have a long lunch at the “Noisy Oyster”. D tested out the Apalachicola oysters (apparently not quite as good as straight from the bay but still pretty all right). M and I ordered the Crab and Lobster Dip and Tortilla chips, which was totally decadent and super duper good! I was still feeling a bit peckish so I also decided to have a bowl of chowder, which was pretty good but still not Washington State or Norway standard… I’m not sure I’m going to be able to top either of those meals… I also splashed out and had a very delicious Pina Colada to supplement my seafood lunch… Boozy lunch sitting with the window’s opening out on to Market St, warm breeze blowing, smell of salt in the air… Gotta love Southern dining!

We were all feeling rather bloated after lunch and knowing we had just consumed plenty of calories we hit the street to go check out some stores. M was keen to wander back up near to the visitor centre to find an art store. The art store proved to be a gold mine for M who promptly went ahead and bought some moulding thingys for her pottery. My gold mine was further back down towards the peninsular in the antique row. Its one thing about wandering thru a nice old rich city like Charleston plenty of top notch antique stores.. Not that I bought anything, but I love looking at gorgeous mahogany and rosewood furniture, old silverware etc… Not that I’m likely to ever buy any of this sort of stuff but I do love looking at it!

Our day ended with us taking a drive out to the beach off the shore of Charleston, Folly’s Beach. The beach is actually really good… Good waves, sand, warm water and a jetty.. Everything an aussie needs to spend the arvo! We didn’t hit the surf (no swimmers) but we did have a drink up on the deck overlooking the beach… we might just have to go for an early morning swim first thing tomorrow!

We grabbed some takeout Chinese on our way back to the hotel and fell into bed exhausted but pretty satisfied with our day of rubbing shoulders with the elite of South Carolina!

Song of the Day– James Blunt, You’re beautiful