More Charleston City.........and Lowcountry...

St John the Baptist Cathedral

The Lowcountry is a geographic and cultural region located along South Carolina's coast. The region includes the South Carolina Sea Islands.  Once a location that was known for its agricultural wealth, the Lowcountry today is internationally renowned for its historic cities and communities, its natural beauty, and its unique cultural heritage, which have attracted millions of visitors and thousands of new residents.

These massive and beautiful doors to the Methodist Church are an example of the size of most of these churches in Charleston.   This entryway was flanked by Corinthian Greek style columns that were also massive.

These very large, private homes are examples of the 'mansions' along Charleston's southernmost Battery district, facing the open sea and the off shore islands, to include Fort Sumpter, where the first shot of the civil war was fired.





To the left is the Daughters of the Confederacy museum building.   The DAC is a society dedicated to greater historical understanding of the Civil War period.

The architecturally beautiful Dock Street Theater
offers many fine performances.

Stay tuned..........our next blog features Magnolia Plantation....the largest plantation in the Charleston area.....and owned by the Drayton family for 12 generations.







Downtown Charleston

Yesterday we dropped Ali off at the groomers for medicated bath....and they kept her for most of the day so we had the chance to drive to downtown Charleston and see the sights.....mostly the historic places on a combined trolley and walking tour.   Lots of beautiful old churches in the downtown area as well as many old, historic homes and buildings.    Here are a few photos of historic Charleston........neither of us had ever seen one place with so many gorgeous homes...the battery in the southern part of the city in particular evidenced mansion after mansion after mansion......just amazing!

Hibernian Society Building (Society was formed to promote Irish Benevolent programs)




Single House Decorated for the Holidays
 

Gateway to Unitarian Church - built 1754



 



Typical Double Entry House style.



 



Founded in 1670 as Charles Towne in honor of King Charles II of England, Charleston adopted its present name in 1783. It moved to its present location on Oyster Point in 1680 from a location on the west bank of the Ashley River known as Albemarle Point. By 1690, Charles Towne was the fifth largest city in North America, and it remained among the ten largest cities in the United States through the 1840 census. With a 2010 census population of 120,800, current trends put Charleston as the fastest-growing municipality in South Carolina. The city's statistical metropolitan area population was counted by the 2010 census at 664,607 – the second largest in the state – and the 75th largest statistical metropolitan area in the United States.

Charleston is also sometimes known as "Chucktown" by those who show a bit less reverence for British History in the US....and it is also often referred to as the Holy City due to the many churches that are located here.   Church steeples dot the city skyline and a walk downtown will eventually bring one to virtually every denomination.   The church architecture is wonderful, as evidenced here.......by the Circular Congregational Church built in the 1700s.   Pam and I went to services here today....partly to see the interior sancutary.....seating is crescent shaped and the ceiling has wonderful wood trusses to complement the dome shape....a gorgeous old church...very friendly parishoners too.



Circular Congregational Church







Charleston is fairly easy to get around in for folks from out of town....although we have managed the occasional wrong move that "ticked off" a local or two.   And yesterday, while traveling through a neighborhood following the GPS, we suddenly heard sirens and saw the police car in the rear view mirror.  We pulled to the right and so did he.....(wish I could say Pam was driving).   He mentioned we had been doing some 35 mph in a 25 mph zone and took my license and registration back to his vehicle.   Several minutes later he came back with a written warning.....so luck prevailed!!    When he handed us the warning he said "maybe she should drive".....my reply was "she drives faster than I do".....he chuckled.  

 



We had an interesting experience at a local bakery as well.   Using the internet we fould the Normandy Farm bakery was only a couple miles from the campground here on James Island.   We drove there to find, despite saying it was open on the door, it was closed.   There was a second door to the kitchen part of the bakery itself, where a few men were in there baking fresh bread.  Pam opened this door and inquired, and a very nice Mexican fellow invited us inside....in very broken English.....and proceeded to take two loaves of Sourdough and two loaves of Multi Grain from the shelf and put them in paper bags (still warm!).  (Note we had NOT said how many we wanted).....when we went to pay him he said "no....take and enjoy them....FREE".   Can you imagine??!!    Since we will be here for 5 more days I want to go back....but only when the restaurant / bakery retail side of the store is closed!!!    (How about them apples, Mary Gross......4 loaves of Free Bread!!!....but not from Standish...).

Here is an example of one of the narrow, downtown streets with some beautiful old homes.......

Tradd Street - Charleston


ALERT.......first Penguin Corner (hope you are tuned in, Debbie).....

 

Pam's painted rock Penguin Mom and Baby.

 

   Debbie Schultz works in the MD wing of Littleton Hospital.   She and Pam are long time friends.  Recently, I had the opportunity to meet Debbie....and after Pam introduced us and we talked for awhile Pam mentioned "Debbie paints rocks".   I turned my head toward Debbie and simply asked "why"?   Little did I know that Debbie is a very talented artist and she (with help from husband Steve) looks for rocks with certain shapes and then very creatively paints animals or scenes on them like she did here with the penguins.   The Penguins are with us on this trip (if you need to ask why please ask Pam!!), so we thought occasionally we would have a bit of fun with them.   So, having provided some background.......we are sure you can spot the penguins in this photo below......

 

The Penguins visit 15 Tradd St. Charleston, SC.









    We plan to be here in Charleston (before moving on to Hunting Island State Park near Beaufort, SC & Savannah, GA) for another 4 more days.   Stay tuned as we continue to explore Charleston....its Plantation houses beckon.   Here are a couple more of the places we have visited  as we close this blog entry.

 

Historic Mills House Hotel.....a gorgeous example of Charleston architecture.

 

Poogans Porch where we had fried green tomatoes, fried alligator and fried chicken and biscuits with collard greens (please, no emails, Dr. Robin, about all the fried food).


 
Signing off.......until next time......

 

Ali & Ken

 









 



James Island, SC



James Island, South Carolina



We are spending this week (Jan 1-8) at the Campground at James Island County Park.   This park is HUGE.....with many offerings including the 125 site campground, several dozen guest cottages for rent, a large water park, a very large dog park with lake, fresh and salt water fishing and many hiking trails.  Every Nov thru Dec the park hosts the Holiday Festival of Lights.....of course, with our Jan 1 arrival we JUST MISSED IT (UGH)!!!  The light festival this year involved 2 million lights and hundreds of scenes, to include the owl (below left), which is near the campground entrance and is still on (thankfully).   The light festival is a 3 mile long drive through the park, and each light display has a corporate or church or non profit sponsor.  It is said to be spectacular.

Ali has already been "tuckered out" at the dog park....altho surprisingly she shied away from the water.  There are many nice places for us to walk with her and we have found a couple of places where she can walk and explore off leash.  We will continue to explore all the park has to offer during the next 5 days of our stay.  This campground and park has proven to be a great find!

This afternoon we left Ali in the motorhome while we drove over to Wadmalaw Island to visit the ONLY tea plantation in the continental US.   The drive over to Wadmalaw was pretty (despite the light rain) and the road took us through many tree canopies......here is an example from a narrow lane we drove today....





The Charleston Tea Plantation grows some 125 acres of tea for the label American Classic Tea.  Jointly owned by the (very large) Bigelow Tea Group and third generation tea taster William Hall, the tea plantation grew from an experiment conducted in the 1960's by the Lipton Tea Co. to determine if tea could be grown the the United States.   The experiment concluded indeed it could grow if given the right climate and soil conditions:  hot and humid weather for several months, with lots of rainfall, and sandy soil with an acidic PH.   James Island provided the lesson that tea could be harvested in many coastal regions in the South East as well as the Southern Coastal Plains of California.   One of the reasons we do not see more tea plantations across the country is it is not considered an ideal "cash crop".   It takes 5 pounds of tea leaves to make 1 pound of tea.....so it is much like the returns of the maple syrup industry (which is 40 to 1).   The plantation grows all three types of tea: black, oolong and green......black tea is fermented for several hours....oolong for half that time and green tea is not fermented at all.   All other tea types are variants of these three.   Only the young tea leaves growing at the very top of the tea bushes are used for tea here at the plantation....and the tea is harvested annually from early May into October.   For the rest of the months the plants are dormant.   It is a very interesting enterprise........here you see photos of the tea bushes (up close):

PS......the official name of the tea plant is Camilla Sinensis....from the Chinese 'Tea Flower'.

 

On our drive back from the Tea Plantation, we were advised to make a stop at the Angel Oak Tree....purported to be upwards of 1500 years old.....we stopped for a 'look see'.....





The Angel Oak Tree (1500 years old??)





St John's Sanctuary

St John's Anglican Church

Pam & the Angel Oak
(Pam is NOT 1500 years old!!)

Nearby to the Angel Oak we discovered the St John's Anglican Church....said to be built in 1734.  A beautiful building whose sanctuary accomodates some 200 people.   With over 600 members, the church holds services three times each Sunday to accomodate all who attend.

 

A great day of exploring paid many dividends!   Stay tuned as tomorrow and the next day we are off to see Charleston's downtown historic areas.....and Ali has a 'playday' at the groomers.

James Island Saying......"Start your day slowly and slow down from there".



 

 



 

 

 



















Trip Has Begun.............!!

Greetings from the Traveling Tearoom.........our journey began the day after Christmas, one day ahead of original schedule, in an attempt to avoid the snow storm that had NH in its sights.   Our plan to drive to New Milford, CT to Pam's brother's house for our 1st night was partly successful....we made it to New Milford but her brother, Greg's, unplowed road proved too much for the Mini Cooper.....so we met Greg in town for dinner and spent the night in a dog friendly motel.   Next day, the 27th, our goal of reaching Northern VA was nearly thwarted by a fatal accident on the NJ TPKE that slowed us to less than 20 miles in a 2 1/2 hour period (crossword puzzles on Pam's new Kindle and a CD recording of the NPR show Wait Wait....Don't Tell Me helped us to remain sane!!)....and later, by normal commuter traffic from DC into Northern VA.....imagine, there are thousands of people who tolerate this traffic EVERY day??!!   Our persistance despite the later hours prevailed and we did make it to Fredericksburg, VA for night #2......Longs, SC and the waiting motorhome were now within reach.   And sure enough, a much less hectic day 3 on the road put us at the Willowtree Camping Resort at 4pm....allowing us to unpack the Mini Cooper before dark.....yay!!    Willowtree is a wonderful campground.....albeit its internet connectivity is very much less than desireable.....hence the delay to starting our blog until today.  

The first item on the agenda in Longs, SC was to have a baseplate installed on the Mini.....thus allowing it to be towed behind the motorhome.  The install also included a wiring harness to link up the Mini's lights with those on the Traveling Tearoom.  We delivered the Mini to Tippy Toe Repo.....yup, that's right.....Tippy Toe Repo......an RV storage and sales and service facility, whose owner adopted the name from his days of repossessing campers in the middle of the night (you tippy toe to the camper to be repossesed so as not to be heard)......and he kept the name for as he says "which name are you going to remember.....tippy toe repo or Don's sales and service and storage???.....he does have a point!!   Here is a link to his website if, for no other reason, to prove we are not pulling your collective legs  http://tippytoerepo.com/ .   Seven hours later the install was complete, and our Willowtree Campground friends, Virginia and Chester, provided transport the 8 miles to Tippy Toe.    The baseplate install went well and here is a photo of the Mini getting ready to be trailed down the highways behind the Tuscany (the Motorhome is a 2009 Damon Tuscany....41 feet long, to give you a perspective when looking at the photo).   You can't really see it but there is a hitch from the motorhome to the Mini baseplate.....making us some 60 feet long going down the road.  (Anyone out there want to drive??).

 

With plans to depart Willow Tree and Longs on the first day of the New Year, we headed to the Willow Tree clubhouse for a New Year's Eve "bash".....if you can call it that when the average age of attendees is 60 something.   We sat with Chester and Virginia (from Washington State) and their friends Mike and Gail, from Lancaster County PA and Larry and Robin, also from PA; and enjoyed music from the DJ provided by the campground.   There were eats galore and lots of booze on the tables....but we teatotallers kept it to water.   With a next morning departure scheduled, we said our good nights and Happy New Years about 10:30pm and headed back to the camper.  We thoroughly enjoyed our abbreviated stay at the party.

 

Ali having been fed and walked next morning, we finished our own breakfast, unhooked the water and sewer and electric lines,  brought up the levelers, brought down the TV antenna, brought in the slide outs, started the motorhome and departed following the usual outside walkabout inspection to make sure nothing was forgotten  (one does NOT want to drive down the road with broken water hoses or electrical cords in tow or a TV antenna sticking up waiting for the first low lying branch on a Live Oak tree)!!!     Our only miscue on the 100 mile trip south to Charleston, SC was a dangling windshield wiper (on the driver's side, of course) when the wipers were turned on to displace a few drops of rain.   A 15 minute pullover later....which included a visit from a very nice SC State Trooper to check on our welfare.....seemed to solve that problem; and we were back on the road to Charleston.  About 3pm we pulled into the James Island County Park Campground just outside the city, where we will spend the next week enjoying such as the Charleston Tea Plantation (we are the Traveling Tearoom after all) as well as the historic downtown and some other area "must sees" that will be highlighted in future blog editions.

 

One last thing before closing our first blog.....some editions will include a "penguin corner"....a bit of fun we plan to have along our journey.....thanks to our good (and very talented) friend, Debbie Schultz of Landaff.....so STAY TUNED!!!!!!!!!!