Charleston!

We have moved on to the coast, and are camping in a great campground in Mt. Pleasant, SC, which is basically a suburb of Charleston. We had an interesting view as we drove in:

It looks like all these boats are in the grass in front of the houses! Once you get closer you can see the water:

There is water everywhere! Between the harbor, rivers, sloughs, inlets… there are water paths through all the grass, so boats go way inland through the paths- it is sooo different from what we are used to, and very cool to see!

Our campground is quite nice, with a lake, rental bikes, a game room, activities for kids, and waffles on Saturday and pancakes on Sunday- who could ask for anything more? 

We took a break from real estate and went to tour the Yorktown, a WWII era air craft carrier. 

We have been to the Midway in San Diego many times, and have always enjoyed it!  The Yorktown had good information, and is still in need of a lot of refurbishment.  There was a lot of up and down ladders- we got a workout!  The Yorktown fought in the Pacific fleet during WWII, and was modernized for jets in the 50’s. It saw service off the coast of Viet Nam, and it recovered the Apollo 8 astronauts and capsule in 1968.

The next day we went into Charleston.  We took a carriage ride, which was fun and interesting.  Billy, our guide, was very funny, and he gave us a lot of information about the history of Charleston.  Here is a picture of Billy and Francis, the horse who pulled the carriage:

Billy told us about earthquakes that hit Charleston in 1886, and showed us some buildings that have been repaired from that damage:

Those big round things on the brick that are next to the long boards that run parallel to the ground are part of the repair- they basically ran giant bars with screws through the building and then turned the screws until they pulled the walls back up to vertical- crazy!

We had lunch and Billy was right- the seafood here is raw oysters or is fried shrimp or possibly shrimp and grits or crabcakes.  I have eaten shrimp and grits 4 times so far, and each time they are different.  If you want fish, it is usually flounder or catfish- not swordfish, halibut, mahi mahi or tilpia, or anything we usually see in California! 

We walked through the market, where you can buy sweetgrass baskets, benne cookies, art, and other mementos of Charleston. We got the cookies- delicious!

We walked to Rainbow Row: 

My picture is from the wrong end, so here are a couple others I found online (don’t tell anyone!):

Very pretty! Some of the roads are cobblestones and are very difficult to walk on- be sure you are wearing the right shoes!

After taking a couple days off from real estate hunting, we will get back to it tomorrow!