Myrtle Beach Day 5:
This morning we were super ambitious and headed to Charleston - a little over two hours away. The plan was to be on a 10:30am walking tour of the city. We thought we left in good time but didn’t anticipate that much of the highway was through beach towns with stop lights. Of course we couldn’t see any of the beach because of all the trees. That is what makes this place beautiful and yet frustrating. Coloradoans are used to seeing all the sights from the road and here you just see trees.
Downtown Charleston is a very old and compact city. Luckily we have a compact rental car and were able to find a parking space and made it to the tour. Our tour guide was Therese and she is part of the Two Sisters Tour company. She is a retired lawyer and has lived in Charleston her whole life. We knew she would be good from the start when we bumped into the mayor of Charleston and it was apparent that they were good friends. In fact, there wasn’t a street we went down where she didn’t say hello to someone or a passing car slowed down to yell hello. Speaking of cars, there are several that navigate around these old narrow streets and Therese’s advice to us was that they will be very polite as they run you down so be careful! We are noticing that southern hospitality here. Most everyone that we have encountered in South Carolina are friendly and polite….unless apparently they’re behind the wheel!
Therese was a font of information about the history of Charleston and many of the houses. Charleston used to be a walled city and you can see remnants that archeologists have uncovered. There are over 100 houses noted as historic, with the oldest built in the late 1600’s. It is amazing that many of them have survived hurricanes. There was also a devastating earthquake in 1886 that damaged many houses. You can see the huge bolts that many of the houses have that were used to help stabilize the them after the quake.
The most interesting houses were the Charleston Single House style. Built in the 1700’s, the house is an English row house but is sideways from the street to optimize the breeze and is long and narrow with just 2 rooms on each floor, two stories tall to increase air flow. Also, the kitchen house was built behind the homes and not attached to decrease the chance of a fire burning down the entire home which happened quite often. Of course that is where the slaves lived as well. Therese said several times that “we don’t take slavery lightly and acknowledge that it is part of our history.”
Therese also pointed out Fort Sumpter which is on a sand bar off the coast and talked about some key Revolutionary and Civil War battles that took place in Charleston. I had to remind myself that this part of the country fought on the Confederate side of the Civil War!
Obviously we gained a lot of information from this tour and think that we really need to come back and spend more time here. You really can’t experience Charleston in just one day. Something to keep in mind if you want to come here is that tour guides don’t have to be certified anymore and anyone can conduct a tour and according to Therese, make up stories to entertain that aren’t exactly true!
After lunch we headed inland a bit to visit the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. It is on 464 acres so we took a little train ride through the property. We were surprised how swampy it was in places but is home to many birds like egrets and herons as well as turtles and alligators.
The plantation has been in the Drayton family since the 1600’s but the house was not as grand as I imagined. This is because the original house burned down, was rebuilt and then burned down again by Union Soldiers. When it was rebuilt for the 3rd time, it was just a “cabin” but then later a “victorian” addition was added on. We had a great tour guide who clued us in on the history of the family and home. The gardens surrounding the property were created by one of the owners for his wife to make her feel better about living there. Quite honestly they only used it as a vacation home and tried not to be there during the summer when it was hot, humid and buggy.
As we were strolling around the gardens, enjoying the old Live Oak trees with Spanish Moss, I realized why I couldn’t live there….alligators! It is unnerving to come upon one just sunbathing on the shore as you’re walking past! I guess we’ll stick with Grand Lake!
My regret from the busy day was that we didn’t go on the Slave tour on the plantation. The slave homes have recently been restored and they conduct tours and focus on their lives and paths to freedom. In fact, before the Civil War that plantation made the family wealthy because they grew rice there- only because the slaves knew how to grow it and braved the alligator and snake infested bogs to do all the work. After the slaves were freed, the plantation didn’t grow rice anymore because no one wanted to suffer the work.
A very long day but a great day!
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| Historic Charleston Alley |
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| The Pink House -the oldest 1670 |
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| Single House Style |
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| Dark round circles are the stabilizing bolts inserted after earthquake in the 1800’s |
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Rainbow Row
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| Sweet Water Grass baskets. They takes days to weave. |
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| Just behind the middle car was the slave auction area - over 40% of slaves auctioned here. |
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| Entry to Magnolia Plantation - very Gone With the Wind.. |
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| Cypress Knees - Cypress roots that help keep the tree upright in hurricane winds |
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| In the tree are herons - white Egrets are behind them in the same tree. The water looks like it has algae but it is a healthy plant similar to water lilies. |
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| A Joggling Board bench- originally designed in Scotland for arthritis relief and later used for courting! |
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| Magnolia Plantation House |
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| Seeing Cardinals are always a good thing |
Why I won’t ever live here!
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