Written by Kim
Our friend, Melissa, flew into Charleston to depart on a cruise tomorrow so we ventured to meet her for dinner. Rather than just have dinner we made a day trip of it. Charleston is a little over 2 1/2 hours from our house so the perfect distance for a day.
We got in town a little after 11. It was pretty busy as the Royal Caribbean ship, Enchantment, was in port for the day. Melissa goes out on a Carnival ship tomorrow. We walked around through the market for a bit before grabbing a snack at The Oyster House. It was a little chilly sitting outside with the wind blowing in the shade but the food was delicious.
We took a walking tour to learn some of the history of Charleston. It was an English colony settled by Barbado – English people who wanted to expand their plantations. They needed more land to build more investments to make money. Initially the city was walled like the old English villages. It was only approx 1 1/4 mile perimeter and within 30 years they grew out of the walls and took down the wooden inland facing walls leaving the brick wall that faced the harbor.
Unfortunately Charleston was a big slave market prior to the Civil War
Charleston is full of old churches. It was one of the colonies that was not created primarily for religious freedom but rather with business in mind. They wanted to create plantations and grow rice (which they learned to grow from the slaves who successfully grew rice in Sierra Leon), indigo and cotton.
The houses and gardens were beautiful. Most original houses were one room wide facing the street and very long. They typically had a porch on the long south side so that the house was protected from sun in the hot summer months. There are some streets that were built with the river rocks that were brought over on English ships. The rocks were used for ballast in the ships. Other streets were brick because there was a big brick industry in this area
The homes on the street facing the harbor are painted pastel colors as a tribute to their Caribbean Barbados history. This street is called Rainbow Row.
Many homes had beautiful window boxes or gardens and gorgeous iron gates.
We ended our visit having dinner with Melissa at the Boatyard in Isle of Palms a little north of the city center. Our seafood was delicious
Until next time…,
