Mellow Yellow Invades SC: Charleston

Currently I'm sitting at a coffee shop in Greenville, SC in the midst of my 6 day holiday in South Carolina to visit friends and see regional sites.  Yesterday, I was in Charleston, SC on a day trip.

Charleston is about a three hour drive from Greenville.  So after waking up at about 4:45 am ET to workout, clean up and have breakfast, I left for Charleston at about 6:50 am.  I arrived in Charleston at about 10 am. 

The first site I visited wast Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired on April 12, 1861.

I arrived at the port/museum to dock the ferry to go out to Fort Sumter itself, which was a man made island.

The ferry ride itself is about a half hour long.  But at least it was a nice day.

Here's the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, which is a cable-stayed bridge over the Cooper River in South Carolina, USA, connecting downtown Charleston to Mount Pleasant. The eight lane bridge satisfied the capacity of U.S. Route 17 when it opened in 2005 to replace two obsolete cantilever truss bridges. This bridge is the third longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere.

A view of Charleston from the ferry.

A view of Fort Sumter from the ferry as we arrived. Notice we have no flag on the flagpole.

Since we were in the offseason, only two ferries run each day and I was on the first ride of the day. During the peak season, April through Thanksgiving, six ferries run each day from multiple locations. The park ranger said that since federal law prohibits flying the American flag at night with no light, they have to take it down each day before the last ferry leaves the fort.  Since I was on the first ride of the day and the flag is very large, the park ranger asked for volunteers to help hold the flag as it is raised back up the pole. Alas, I did volunteer to be a line leader.

Here's my views as we unfurled the flag.

It was a very nice day.

Here's some views of the fort:

We only spent an hour on Fort Sumter, but at the end of the visit we were treated to a shooting demonstration.

So after the shooting demonstration I boarded the ferry for my return visit.  I'm grateful that I was able to mark off another Civil War site that I wanted to visit. I'm very intrigued about the history of the Civil War. In fact, while I was waiting at the airport on my way into South Carolina I saw a man across from me reading one of my favorite books: James McPherson's The Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era.  While I lived in the DC area for one year after Carleton, I was able to visit these Civil War sites on weekend trips:

• Bull Run
• Antietam 
• Gettysburg
• Harper's Ferry (John Brown's raid)
• Wilderness
• Confederate White House (Richmond, VA)
• Chancellorsville (where Stonewall Jackson lost his right arm)
• Ellwood Manor (where Jackson's arm is buried)

I was just glad to start on the southern portion of my sightseeing, hopefully with more opportunities to come.

After the ferry returned to port, I walked about 10-15 blocks to Downtown Charleston to go on a tour of the city via horse carriage.

Apparently carriage tours are quite popular in Charleston, so the city regulates which route a carriage takes.  So theoretically you could take 8 different tours on eight different carriage rides.  I'll say in my myopic opinion this is an efficient way of looking at the city and it's worth the $25 fee.

Charleston has quite the English feel to it.  Traveling through the city reminded me of my days walking down the streets of Cambridge, England about 16 years ago.  For the houses are close together and have that English style (narrow, high and long towards the backyard).

Here's the Mile Newton house, built in the 1760s.  Newton was a very wealthy slave trader who used his house apparently for his business purposes.

Here Battery Park and White Port Gardens, which is in the rich historical part of town.  Across the street from this park are some of the most expensive houses in Charleston.

At the end of the tour, I was reminded that while Charleston has a historical past, it's still the 21st century.

After the tour, I decided to head off to an early dinner before heading back to Greenville. Based on recommendations, I decide to head to Magnolias, a local Southern-style restaurant.

I ordered the a cup of tomato soup and the Charleston crabcake, which is a crabcake on top of butter risotto with a side of collard greens.  In my myopic opinion, the dish tasted as good as it looks.

In short, my day trip was a success and I am a fan of Charleston.  To paraphrase General Douglas MacArthur, I have come through and I want to return.