![]() |
USA: South Carolina
starting catagory
|
Charleston is a fine place to visit
I was really surprised that this wonderful tourist oriented city hasn't been mentioned before. We flew our RV-6A there last month (April, 2007). Good restaurants, beauty and history are everywhere. Fort Sumter in the entrance to the harbor I where the first shot was fired to begin the United States Civil War and it is managed by the National Park Service. Several fine homes that have been restored for touring are hundreds of years old and each has a story to tell about some family and their successes and failures. The Aircraft Carrier Yorktown is availble for touring at patriot's point with many aircraft on board and movies about the carrier are shown in several locations. One special restaurant is Hyman's Seafood. They do not accept reservations but you go to the restaurant put you name on the list and stand outside on the sidewalk until called - it is worth the wait. On the tables they have brass plates containing the names of famous people that dined at the specific tables. Jody Foster and Linsey Wagnor (sorry if the names are spelled wrong) had used our little two place table in the past. In the surrounding area there are plantations like "Magnolia" that can be toured. There is also a bridge going from the downtown area to patriot's point that is a masterpiece - it was opened in 2005. We landed at the Executive airport south of town and they have Enterprize Rental cars with a rep in the FBO.
Bob Axsom |
The Hunley!
Also in Charleston,
Near the ocean, the Hunley is on display......the first submarine to sink a ship! Made from a locomotive boiler, stretched a foot by slicing it in half lengthwise and re-welding....too cool. Pierre |
Charleston also has an outstanding minor league ballpark right on the Ashley River. You can't beat a great sunset over the water with a cold beer in hand watching the baseball game and beautiful carolina girls parading by...we are so blessed down here in the Holy City!
|
39 Rue De Jean bouillabaisse
One other restaurant in Charleston I should mention. We stopped in for lunch about a half block from the visitor center at a restaurant called 39 Rue De Jean. I like bouillabaisse so when I saw it on the menu that's what I ordered. It was so good I couldn't talk. I took the bread and went after every last wet spot in the bowl before I gave up and set back and sighed - man that was good!
Bob Axsom |
Quote:
|
...And to further not nit-pick, Ft. Sumter was where the second shots of the War Between the States were fired. The first shots were directed at the Union steamer "Star of the West" which was en route to Ft. Sumter to relieve the troops stationed at the fort. Cadets from The Citadel (The Military College of SC) fired their cannons (Named after their girlfriends Lizzy and Betsy) at the steamer and scored a couple of hits. The steamer was turned away by the accurate fire. The cadets in command of the artillery were Cadets Haynesworth and Pickens. I had to memorize useless trivia such as this in order to successfully navigate my Knob year at The Citadel. Nuggets of trivia such as this would allow a Knob to score a couple of bites during a very stressful meal as upper-classmen quizzed the poor creatures...
Such fond memories... Don |
Charleston is absolutely a required stop if passing through South Carolina. The food and scenery are worth stopping.
|
Why Ft. Sumter even exists at all!
As a South Carolina native, I have a deep appreciation of Charleston and the state in general. It took being a mature adult to really appreciate it though.
My parents were both in the Army there at Ft. Moultrie on Sullivans' Island during WW2,and my older brother spent his first year of life sleeping in a drawer in the bedroom of my parents' yellow painted apartment building on what is now known as "Rainbow Row" circa 1946. I was born in Columbia, but that's another story. Our parents used to tell us stories of riding out hurricanes there just off the Battery in that yellow painted apartment building. Ft. Moultrie on the north side of Charleston Harbor, Ft. Sumter in the middle of the Harbor ( which incidently was only 90% finished in late 1860 and unmanned), Castle Pickney (near Charleston) and Ft. Johnson on the south side of the Harbor, were all there primarily for one reason. To protect Charleston from hostile invasion from the sea presumably by the British or others. A little known fact that I didn't know until I had ridden on one of those horse drawn carriage tours through downtown Charleston on those cobblestone streets.....that the Ashley River and the Cooper River (pronounced "Kuppa' Riva') came together to form the Atlantic Ocean! How 'bout that?? |
Quote:
|
| All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:41 AM. |