Let's do the Charleston...

Another long weekend and we needed to get away...at least I needed to get away.

Charleston had been touted as even more beautiful than Savannah, and as we loved Savannah each time we'd been, we were keen to check it out.

Running free at Drayton Hall...note the "drippy, droppy, trees"!

 Armed with "The Southern Foodie" and "Frommer's The Carolina's & Georgia", I had applied copious post it notes - colour-coded - to restaurants we wanted to try, historic houses and plantations to explore, and other miscellaneous touristy information to take on board. We were ready!!

As usual, Dave drove while I buried my nose in books or my phone, trying to suss out where our next meal would be. We had made a pact that for three days there would be no WFOs (Wasted Food Opportunities) - meaning we would not be eating at any chain restaurants that we could find up the street in Middle Georgia. 

Charleston is known for its seafood - think shrimp and grits (like Savannah), fried oysters, crab cakes, Gullah food - with early African American slave origins, such as "dirty rice", gumbo, etc, which all sounded rather tasty to me!!

While researching, I had a text message from friends who were on a surprise weekend away to Charleston, too. We quickly established that we travelling about 10 miles behind them, heading in the same direction, so decided to meet for dinner.

"The Southern Foodie" listed a place on the Savannah Highway, on the south-western outskirts of Charleston, called The Glass Onion, which was en route, so we plugged it in to the sat nav and drove. Janine and Dave were already there when we arrived and we enjoyed a great Low Country meal, which included boiled peanuts, gumbo, fried green tomatoes, stuffed trout and grits, and chocolate and peanut butter pie!!!

Janine and Dave joined us for dinner...so much for a romantic weekend away!

Fried Green Tomatoes and Shrimp Popcorn - for the kids

Daniel trying to crack one of the boiled peanuts...

...tasted like dishwater to me! Not sure what all the fuss is about?!

Dave enjoyed his fried oysters and stout, and I enjoyed my salad and stuffed trout, with kale and grits...

 

Other family members also enjoyed their dinner...

                                

Piece de resistance: choc-peanut butter pie!

What could be better?? Well, the wait staff were incredibly friendly, and the music was pure, classic 80s at its best - Joy Division/New Order, Flock of Seagulls, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears...etc. I was a happy girl! Pity about the 3 year old who was fast spiraling out of control - but then it was after his bedtime, and he had been in a car for 4 hours!!

And so we bid the romantic couple good night, to speed off in their "Cool Car"!

After dinner we checked into our digs for the three nights - a Hilton chain motel, Home2 Suites - a cheaply built, but comfortably appointed place with breakfast included, a king sized bed for us and sofa bed for the kids, with a dividing curtain and kitchenette. It was fine.

Breakfasts at these places are never a quick in and out affair, with Daniel, especially. The self-serve breakfast area, like the Hampton Inns, also a Hilton chain, supplied cereals, oats, fruit, nuts, toast, bagels, waffles -  which you cook yourself in a contraption that spins 180 degrees so the waffle cooks evenly on both sides. 

Daniel, as per usual, isn't satisfied until he's had at least 3 bowls of cereal and a bagel so it takes at least an hour and a half before we can even get out the door. Ho hum!

Charleston is a richly historic town, with beautiful architecture, amazing seafood restaurants and beautiful shopping districts, but rather than head downtown on our first sortie, we chose to explore one of the old plantation houses and gardens, Drayton Hall. There are a number of plantation properties open to the public for tours, all touting various points of difference. Drayton Hall, while not as "pretty" as some of the others, claimed to be the only original house from 1738, while others had been burnt down, rebuilt or restored, and it had stayed in the Drayton family until 1974.
 





The languid Ashley River...

We had a tour - a painful experience with Daniel, who wanted to touch everything our guide had asked us NOT to touch - including the ancient and decaying plasterwork, wooden frames and window boxes, etc. The house was, we'd been told, in a similar state to when it was inhabited by the youngest son of the Drayton family - no plumbing, no heating or cooling and no electricity. Totally devoid of furniture or fixtures, our guide gave us insights into life in the day, complete with information about the lives of the house slaves who would have supported the household for over 150 years.

Rice farming was the primary crop of the plantation for a number of years, but after abolition, the Draytons had to find alternate sources of income, resorting to grazing cattle.

 Waiting for our tour...

  

Eric, our tour guide and graphic designer (he told us!), pointed out the ornateness of the columns indicated ones station - the riff raff were only admitted to the first floor, while the honoured guests and other landed gentry were welcomed on the 2nd floor.

Most of the work in the house, including the woodcarving and plasterwork was completed by slave labour. 

 The incredibly ornate designs were carved into wet plaster.

Heart pine boards, often the length of a tree, were used as flooring.

We were instructed by Eric to stand only on the carpets, which prevented us from leaning on the walls or window frames.  It was a hard one to enforce with Daniel. 

  
A rare moment of compliance and calm...

Groovy as they were, I thought it time Eric's pants made a date with a washing machine... 

 Love the drippy, droppy trees!

 Down in the kitchen...

One of the irritants for us, when travelling, is that we really want to see and do interesting things (for us) but which sometimes aren't all that interesting for the kids, and when they play up, as they invariably do, we incur the wrath in the form of "looks" or comments from others on the tours - usually, older ladies!! At one point, while Daniel was on the floor, "having a moment" during our tour of the house, one lady made the helpful aside, "nap time?!". I suppose in her eyes, and others, we should stay home with our children until they're "civilised" - another 5 years!? 

Well, when you're away from friends and family, and a weekend away without children isn't an option, we don't really have a choice...Dave and I have had too many years before kids to travel and see the world and having the chance to do so again while here isn't going to be passed up just to keep a few old biddies happy!!

Anyway, rant over - we were sort of stressed during the tour, and ready to kill the kids after, but felt sort of satisfied that we'd managed to see one of the plantations, something we hadn't managed to do in Georgia. With that, we headed into downtown Charleston, to have a bit of a wander and to get our bearings.

 

Outside one of the churches, we came across ladies making traditional Gullah basket ware...Isabella was given a lovely little woven crucifix with a flower on the end of it. Daniel snatched it off her, as soon as we were out of sight, and it became an "aeloplane"!! Smart boy!!

Charlestonians on their way to dinner...

And yet another beautiful home...

  


  

Tiffany glass apparently adorned the entrance...stunning!

 And this was the wedding gift to the Calhoun's daughter - referred to as the Wedding Cake House...just a few doors down.

Commemorating where the Civil War began...

Taking in the sea breeze!

Oleander bushes lined the eastern side of the Battery. I'd just finished reading Sue Monk Kidd's, "The Invention of Wings" about slavery in Charleston, and a potion of oleander flowers was made by the slaves attempting to escape. They were determined to run away, or "die trying".

Practising our ballet moves...

The ones that got away...

  

An anti-cruise liner protest banner

"Rainbow Row"

Charleston and Savannah are often compared, as both are stunning and mostly preserved historic towns on the south Atlantic coast, and people like to express a strong preference for one over the other. 

We've had two trips to Savannah since living here, and have loved it both times, but what we noticed about Charleston is its impressive scale - the incredibly impressive historic homes are massive and mostly privately owned and inhabited; there's a real feeling that this is a very vibrant, sophisticated town with an amazing dining and shopping scene. 

Savannah has its numerous beautiful garden squares with Spanish moss dripping from every oak, Charleston has its palmetto lined grand streets with beautiful mansions. Savannah is the groovy teenager, Charleston is the society lady. Savannah is shrimp and grits, Charleston is She-crab soup and dirty rice. 

And on to the food...

We had a quick and uninspiring lunch at a sports bar before our downtown stroll, but this was really just to shut the kids up until dinner, which we'd hoped would be more impressive. On one of the main dining streets, East Bay Street, we found a seafood restaurant with a short queue, called Blossom, and we had a beautiful seafood dinner in the courtyard.

Dave and I shared the She-crab soup, a Charleston delicacy, and for mains, I had a seafood stew with a tomato, bourbon base and a French pepper - delicious!!!, and Dave had shrimp and grits - a very tasty and garlicky rendition of a southern classic. The kids had something fried with chips - the usual restaurant fare for kids, and quite frankly, whatever keeps them quiet will do. We didn't have dessert as the whinge-o-meter was cranking, and we were too exhausted to try any more tricks to distract them for another half hour, so home we headed.

On Sunday, we had a few hours to fill in between two restaurant reservations - one at a French bistro for lunch, 39 Rue de Jean, and one for dinner at Hank's, a seafood restaurant. As it turned out, breakfast was another slow affair, so by the time we'd left the motel, it was time for lunch and our 11.30 am booking.

I don't think 11.45 am is too early for alcohol, especially when one is celebrating the fact that they are in foodie heaven, so a Kir Royale (champagne with creme de cassis) was ordered for me, and a Pernod for Dave. 

Soon after, our Moules Mariniere (mussels in white wine and garlic) and chips with aioli arrived, and I almost forgot I was dining with two small children!! Aah, finally, I had found my "happy place"!!

Before...

 ...and after!

 Even the toilets had cute French touches...

And this is the dessert menu, for next time...Daniel (and therefore, the rest of us) didn't last that long, sadly!

This was only lunch, but it was enough to make the trip to Charleton worthwhile, but the kids needed a bit of a stretch, so we checked out the Children's Museum of the Lowcountry. The museum was an interactive and imaginative play space with rooms dedicated to balls, water, shopping, a pirate ship, a castle, and craft. 

We spent over two hours there and had to literally drag the kids out, kicking and screaming - they had a ball!

 

   

We still had some time so we took a Charms of Charleston Tour with our friendly tour guide, Tiffany, who impressed us with her knowledge of the town, despite only moving here 10 years ago. We heard about the superstitions and myths of the town, including one tidbit: the patios' ceilings on the homes are painted a pale sky-blue, called "haint blue" to not only deter bugs and spiders from settling as it looks like the sky, but also ghosts, as it is the "colour of heaven"!? 

Tiffany also pointed out that the verandahs all face the same way to take in the breezes off the harbour, and the homes have "false" visitors' doors on the street ends of the verandahs - when open, visitors were welcome, when closed, keep moving!

Even the local prison had a beautifully ornate gate!

Another fascinating insight was given on the tour in the origins of the Charleston Dance. Tiffany explained that a group of orphans, who traveled and played music, created the dance and it became the world's first number one hit! More below:

"What happened when a former slave took beat-up old instruments and gave them to a bunch of orphans? Thousands of futures got a little brighter and a great American art form was born. In 1891, Reverend Daniel Joseph Jenkins opened his orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina. He soon had hundreds of children and needed a way to support them. Jenkins asked townspeople to donate old band instruments, some of which had last played in the hands of Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. He found teachers to show the kids how to play. Soon the orphanage had a band. And what a band it was.

The Jenkins Orphanage Band caused a sensation on the streets of Charleston. People called the band's style of music ""rag," a rhythm inspired by the African-American people who lived on the South Carolina and Georgia coast. The children performed as far away as Paris and London, and they earned enough money to support the orphanage that still exists today." 

Rockwell, A. F. & Bootman, C. (2013). Hey, Charleston!: The True Story of the Jenkins Orphanage Band. Carolrhoda Books.

The orphanage where it all began!

American Fire Stations are pretty cute with their dalmations out the front!

Hyman's Seafood is a Charleston institution - that's the city flag with the Palmetto tree and the crescent (smiley, not moon, Tiffany informed us!)

Sunday night in Charleston...

 

Shopping in the French Quarter

 

 

After our tour, we walked to dinner at Hank's, near the market district. I'd booked online, but inadvertently booked for the following Sunday, which wasn't going to be much use, but the hostess kindly found us a table, albeit near the front door - she probably thought we would need to make a hasty getaway at some point! 

We enjoyed a beautiful meal - a lovely, garlicky, She-crab soup with generous chunks of crab meat, followed by Seafood La Wanda - a seafood stew with a fried grit cake - yum!! Dave shared the soup and enjoyed a rich and delicately aniseed-infused bouillabaisse. It was also delicious but we both agreed, not as rich and complex as one he had made for me a few years ago. 

For dessert, Dave and I shared a lush pecan pie, and the kids had icecream. This was one of the rare meals we'd managed to enjoy relatively stress free, possibly due to the use of an electronic device!!

A queue outside any restaurant is always a good sign in my book...especially if you have a reservation!

Mmm, the calming glow of an electronic device...it bought us precious wining and dining time, anyway!

Hating my "She-crab soup"

Before: "Seafood la Wanda" with fried grit cake

About to embark on his bouillabaisse, but first, more wine!!

And after!

Our beautifully behaved child...

 ...and our other one!

 We just managed to squeeze in dessert...pecan pie for us and ice cream for the kids.

A short stroll past some more sights, before heading back to our digs for bed...

For our final day in Charleston, we thought we'd be brave - or stupid - again, and take a tour inside of one of the historic homes. We chose the Aiken-Rhett House, which was built in 1820, by Governor William Aiken Jr, and is described as an "urban plantation home".

As was typical amongst the wealthy of the day, the Aikens travelled to Europe on a "Grand Tour" returning home with French crystal chandeliers, paintings and sculptures. 

Beautifully well-behaved children...for this second, anyway!

Slave quarters to the left, main house in the middle, stables to the right

 

So this is where "plantation shutters" get their name!!

The "stonework" was an elaborate paint job on stucco - here's the exposed brickwork to prove it

We enjoyed an informative and evocative audio tour, which took us through each room of the house, which was in varying states of decay - the historic Charleston Foundation works to "conserve and protect" rather than restore the "historic layers" of the house. As such, most of the interior of the house had patchy paint work, with traces of brown floral wallpaper in the ball room, for example, which our audio guide had pointed out, had once been a rich red colour. The heat and humidity, and a cyclone or two hadn't been kind to the house, so there was quite a lot of imagination required to view it in it's heyday. 

Conservation work in action

Nonetheless, it was an interesting hour or so, and Dave and I enjoyed the family's private art gallery in particular, which was the only climate-controlled room in the house, with its marble sculptures and beautiful gilt framed paintings.

We had optimistically chosen to kit the kids up with audio sets as well, but as predicted, Daniel ditched his within 5 minutes of starting, and Isabella 20 minutes in. Daniel wanted to "run and race" and Isabella was too overwhelmed with the information on the audio, saying "I can't remember it all!" 

The kids did find a old "joggling board" which was a piece of veranda furniture in the 1800s, and they were content (and allowed to!) joggle away, while we continued with our tour for a bit...

Jiggling on the Joggling Board!

The stables, slave quarters and magnolia grove at the back of the house were impressive, and the kids finally find something to amuse them - a bare patch on the lawn, with sandy soil. Daniel took it upon himself to make "sand angels" and generally roll about and make a piglet of himself. Sigh! More disapproving looks from the older, ladies working in the house, and off we went!

Expansive garden with magnolia grove

Slave quarters 

Isabella gave up the audio tour around this point...she'd done well to get this far!

Note sandy patch of ground - that was Daniel's sandpit!

After that ordeal, the kids had a stretch at Waterfront Park, famous for its pineapple fountain - a symbol of hospitality in the south, though, sadly, out of action when we visited.

Charming gaslights adorned many of the buildings and were especially lovely at night

Before leaving Charleston we took it upon ourselves to brave one more meal out in public - just a cafe, this time, albeit one which served Belgian beer with its quiches and muffins! What's not to like about that?!

It was a cute place, decked out, as most shops are at this time, in Halloween or Fall decor. Once again, we resorted to the Device to keep the kids quiet while we ate and drank. Dave and I enjoyed our beers and quiche and the kids enjoyed their nutritionless muffins and choc-chip cookie...it kept them quiet.

 

"That chocolate biccie was yummy!!"

 

Time to let off some steam...again!

We felt that there was so much to see, do AND eat in Charleston, that we'd certainly like to come back, and Dave and I posited ages when we thought we'd like to be out in public with Daniel again - 5, 10, 20?? Anyway, the point is, we saw what we felt we could see, given the kids' attention spans and energy levels, and as frustrating for us and them as it sometimes was, we were glad we came.

Our drive home from little weekends away is usually pretty direct - it's not worth unloading the kids to look at roadside stalls, etc, but on this occasion, Monsieur had flaked it in the back seat, so we took the opportunity to sample some of the fare at the Carolina Cherry Company shop.

After all, who can resist an invitation like this...?







Being a cherry-lover from way back, I couldn't resist buying some Cherry Cider and jam, though the fudge, chutneys and caramel-covered pecans were pretty tempting! 

Gotta love the rocker on the porch!

... tomorrow's "muffin tops"?

By the time, we'd checked this out, the fella was stirring and it was time to head home - fat and happy!