Today we went to Charleston and walked all over. We went to the City Market, which goes on forever, and I bought a necklace; we went to a museum about slavery in an old slave market; we went down to the waterfront; and we had a wonderful lunch at a place called Magnolias - I had blackened catfish with fried green tomatoes on a bed of jambalaya, and Travalon had seafood and grits. Then we split a piece of pecan pie for dessert. By then we had walked about four miles, so we were happy to hop on the free shuttle that goes around the city to see some more of the place, and it took us right back to our car in the visitors' center lot, which wasn't too expensive. Here are photos.
These aren't labeled because we didn't actually know what we were looking at, just that we liked it. Some of it reminded me of Havana, with the palm trees, pastel buildings, and narrow, cobblestone streets.
These photos are from the museum in the old slave market.
More photos that make me think of Havana.
As we drove to Savannah, we passed a little turnoff onto the Combahee River. A black bird was singing like crazy in a tree, and my birdsong app said it was a boat-tailed grackle. We have those back home, but I don't recall hearing one sing like that before.
As we drove toward Savannah, the sun was to our left, so I said, "Are we going northwest? Shouldn't we be going southeast? But look where the sun is!" But then we turned onto another highway, and the sun was to our right as it should have been. It was getting to be twilight, and we thought it would be a good time to go to the Savannah Wildlife Preserve and see some birds... but they closed at two! Two!! I could understand five, but two?? So we drove over an enormous bridge to Savannah and went to the Visitors' Center because it looked like the Open sign was on... but that was for the pizza place in the same building. Travalon called the horse carriage place and got us a ride at seven, so we headed downtown. It's not the busy season right now, so we only were charged for a group tour but somehow got a romantic tour just for the two of us. Unfortunately, because it was dark and George the beautiful black Percheron gelding was moving at a pretty good clip, a lot of Travalon's photos didn't turn out. But some did. This is a very old church that George Washington went to when he was in town.
The local movie theater was built in 1921.
The firehouse is still the original one, with a row of bricks turned the wide way to reinforce it.
This house is right by the firehouse. I can't remember if this was one of the haunted ones.
The Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.
Typical Savannah architecture with Spanish moss hanging off the branches of live oaks.
Another theater. This one is supposed to be very haunted.
This is a Presbyterian church.
There is a street well-known for shopping that has strands of lights above it.
Levy Jewelers changed colors.
This is that really old church again.
And this is City Hall! It's at the end of Bull Street, which our guide said was appropriate because that is what comes out of City Hall.
Hotel Indigo near our hotel also changes colors.
We thought these lit-up smokestacks were so cool, but apparently they don't belong to a factory but a Marriott hotel.
And look what we can see out our hotel window! It's City Hall!
There had been an English pub in Charleston that was closed unexpectedly due to unforeseen circumstances (according to the note on the door), so Travalon was overjoyed that there was one right across the street from the Hyatt hotel where we are staying called the Churchill Pub. We walked there and had seafood pies for dinner. So good! We also had pimento cheese croquettes while we waited for dinner. Those were really good too - as our waiter said, they were sort of Southern cheese curds. He was from Athens, Georgia, and his mom was friends with Kate from the B-52's so he had met her a bunch of times. That is another thing about traveling, besides seeing cool stuff and eating good food - you meet people who have had the most interesting life experiences. Of course, Colbert comes from Charleston, but I had no idea how to find his childhood home. Who knows? Maybe one of his ten older siblings still lives there.
Famous Hat
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