Lodging

• There are few things more charming than a bed & breakfast in historic downtown Charleston. There are also few accommodations that are more expensive. So unless you are planning to do nothing but party all night and every day in downtown, it would be prudent to look elsewhere for lodging. We stayed in a Marriott on Lockwood Boulevard, which runs along the Ashley River. There are also a Courtyard by Marriott and a Best Western right next to it. The area is conveniently located for exploring many points in the Charleston area. It takes less than 10 minutes to drive to downtown, the Battery, and the Aquarium area. The bridge to James Island is basically just down the street, and Mount Pleasant is only 15 minutes away. Yes, you’ll have to pay for parking when you drive into downtown, but considering how much money you’re saving on lodging, you still come out well ahead.

We got our room at the Marriott via hotwire.com for less than $100 a night (the B&Bs downtown generally ran anywhere from $200 to $500 a night!) and were pretty satisfied with the accommodations. The hotel lobby was very open and beautiful, and the pool looked pretty nice, though it was often packed. Our room was fine — nothing special but clean and comfortable. The only peculiar thing was that it had a large shower stall instead of a bathtub. It was the first time I had seen that in a brand-name American hotel, but it really didn’t make any difference as I can’t remember the last time I took a bath instead of a shower in a hotel room.

Dining

• Charleston is right on the ocean, so you would expect good seafood there. One place we really liked was the Charleston Crab House, which has several locations in the area. We went to the James Island location to dodge the downtown crowd. It was still very busy, so definitely get reservations. The restaurant was situated right on the water and even has a small pier in the back so people can actually ride up to the restaurant in a boat. The tables along the windows have a terrific view of the water and the sunset.

The food is as good as the view. The she-crab soup is thick, creamy, and loaded with bits of crab meat and roe. The sauteed mussels are amazing, and the sauce is so good that you’ll wish they gave you more bread so you can soak up all the sauce. If you are a real shellfish nut, like we are, try the steamed crab pot. It contains two sides of snowcrab, a handful of mussels and shrimps, a piece of kielbasa, and chunks of potatoes and sweet onions.

• While doing research for dining options in Charleston, we saw a lot of good reviews for the Hominy Grill, and it more than lived up to the billing. The shrimp and grits, the most expensive item on the menu, is worth the price. The shrimps are grilled just right, preserving the fresh flavor. The grits have a nice thick texture and a strong garlicky, cheesy flavor that’s enhanced with bits of bacon and scallions. On weekends, the restaurant offers special blueberry cornmeal pancakes. The extra cornmeal in the batter gives the pancakes a grainy, crumbly texture, a nice departure from the norm. This place was so good that we went there twice for brunch during our three-and-a-half days in Charleston.
• If you can swing it, the dinner cruise by SpiritLine Cruises is a fabulous experience. The three-hour cruise includes a terrific three-course meal (with optional desserts, which weren’t all that impressive). The ship has two air-conditioned dining rooms, and a band plays throughout the night. There’s a nice observation deck to take in the views, and the cruise will provide you with plenty of beautiful sights. It circles the harbor, then heads out to sea a bit as the sun descends into the ocean. All the while, you can see pelicans gliding along the ship and dolphins surfacing here and there. When the ship turns back, it makes a loop under the Arthur Ravenel Bridge, which is lit up beautifully in the night sky, before returning to dock.

Miscellaneous

• If you like history, Charleston has plenty of it, and there are many different tours you can take. If you plan on visiting a couple of the plantations (which we recommend) and other historic properties in Charleston, look into getting the Charleston Heritage Passport, which gives you admission to nine historic properties, including the impressive Middleton Place Plantation.
• Two things to be sure to bring: Sunscreen and bug spray. The sun is unrelenting during the summer months, and it seems like thee are bugs everywhere you go. We were just walking along the Battery for a couple one afternoon and ended up with legs full of bug bites.
• Be careful when driving at night on the highways in the Charleston and James Island area. Whoever designed these roads had a thing for off ramps with hairpin turns, and many of the exits and the barrier walls around them are not very well marked. Also, a friend who lives in Charleston told us that cops like to lie in wait at either end of the bridge going from James Island to Johns Island, so make sure you obey the speed limit when going over that bridge.
• If you are driving along St. Andrews Boulevard/Ashley River Road to get to Drayton Hall and Middleton Place Plantation from downtown Charleston, beware: The brown signs that say “Historic Plantations” actually lead you down the wrong way. Maybe that’s the sign for some other historic plantations. Middleton Place and Drayton Hall have their own signs, which are green.

The waters of Charleston Harbor have been the site of many significant events in the history of the city, and we spent the first part of our third day in Charleston soaking up some of that history with a trip to Fort Sumter, the site of the first shots of the Civil War.

After scarfing down a couple of doughnuts we picked up at a Krispy Kreme the previous night, we set out for the Aquarium Wharf in downtown Charleston, where our ferry to Fort Sumter was to depart. Though it was only 8:30 in the morning when we left, we could feel the heat and humidity bearing down on us the instant we stepped outside the hotel. It would be another scorcher, though this was a little more tolerable than yesterday. We were, however, blessed with beautiful blue skies all day long.

A 35-minute boat ride ferried us from Charleston to Fort Sumter, a pentagon structure with low walls that perched on top of a rocky sandbar. The inside of the fort contained two levels. On the ground level laid a ring of cannons along the outer wall. Much of the fort’s internal walls laid in ruins. The second level contained a black structure that housed a museum (thankfully air conditioned) and a gift shop where you can buy copies of the Emancipation Proclamation for less than $3. Above the structure, at the back of the fort, laid a grassy noll that looked out over the ocean. At the center of the grassy noll, five flags fluttered high above the fort, whose American flag in 1861 became a popular patriotic symbol after Major Robert Anderson, the Union commander who commanded the fort, returned to the North with it after being forced to surrender Fort Sumter in the first battle of the Civil War. After Union forces regained control of the fort in February 1865, they commemorated the occasion with a flag-raising ceremony, at which point the stars and stripes rescued by Anderson was again hoisted high atop the fort.

After our ferry returned from Fort Sumter, we took a lunch break at Saffron’s Cafe & Bakery, a deli in a pink building off East Bay Street that was serving a sumptuous brunch buffet (it was the first time I saw snowcrab legs in a deli). We weren’t hungry enough for the buffet, though, and opted for the kiwi salad, spinach pie, and she-crab soup, all of which were excellent.

We then walked back to the Aquarium Wharf to visit the South Carolina Aquarium, where, surprisingly, there was a long line. The aquarium was divided into various sections according the different ecosystems in South Carolina (coastal waters, mountain, etc.). Some of the highlights included a penguins exhibit (though South Carolina is hardly the natural habitat for penguins) and a tank with four sea turtles. Of course, there are also your standard aquarium attractions: a big shark tank with gigantic fish, a petting zoo area with horseshoe crabs and starfish, and various tanks of small, colorful fish that could’ve come from your saltwater tank at home.

After spending a couple hours in the aquarium, we took a 20-minute stroll over to the Aiken-Rhett House, one of the historic properties in Charleston. The pastel yellow house, built in 1818 by Governor William Aiken, has survived virtually unaltered since 1858. We were very glad for one alteration that has been made — air conditioning in the ticket office and gift shop in the basement. It was welcomed relief after our walk under the sweltering afternoon sun.

Visitors to the house are led on an audio tour. We each received an MP3 player and headsets and set off exploring the interior of the house. Much has been preserved, including stretches of wallpaper in some of the rooms. Our tour included a stop on the second floor of the main house, which contained a row of small, cramped rooms that served as slave quarters, and these were rooms for the privileged, skilled slaves.

The back of the main house opened up to a courtyard that led to what used to be the front gates of the property. At each far corner of the courtyard stood a privy, and it brought a smirk to our faces when we pictured the former residents of the house dashing out from the main house and across the courtyard every time when nature called.

By the time we finished the house tour, it was after 4 p.m., and we had to get back to the hotel to prepare for our dinner date. Today being our first anniversary, I surprised Courtney with reservations for a dinner cruise around Charelston Harbor. We boarded our boat at Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant and set off into the harbor with a setting sun casting its last rays on our faces as we peered out from our table by the window. Another half hour or so, and we were making our way around the harbor while the sun had retracted its fiery blazes and dimmed the light on the evening sky. As our ship cleared the shipyards, the Battery, which was our first stop in Charleston two days ago, came into view. We had seen all those colorful old houses up close on Friday afternoon, and now we got to see them all in one frame.

At the front of the dining room, a blues trio began to play. Meanwhile, the staff started bringing out our food. We kicked off with good bread and some very soft and sweet butter, followed by she-crab soup (our third helping on this trip, and every one of them was good). Between the salad and the entrees — shrimp and grits for me and crab cakes for Courtney — the sun sank below the distant horizon, and the sky quickly grew dark. Around the ship, pelicans glided and dolphins frolicked, giving hints of their presence by occasionally poking their dorsal fin out of the waves. We made several trips up to the observation deck throughout dinner to take in the view and got some amazing views of the Charleston shoreline against the backdrop of the dusk sky.

After dinner, followed by an adventure on the dance floor to “Stand By Me”, we again went outside the dining room to take in the view and soak up the ocean breeze. By now, the sky was completely dark, and the ship was on its way back to the dock. Along the way, it made a loop around the Arthur Ravenel Bridge, the largest cable-stayed bridge in America that linked Charleston to Mount Pleasant. We had driven over this bridge on our way to the dinner cruise boarding point, and now we got a view of it from below as it was now enveloped in the soft glow of night lights. In the distance, heat lightning started to break out, lighting up patches of the sky with flashing tints of red. It was a very different view of Charleston Harbor, and a perfect way to cap our final night in the Holy City.

In the post-Revolutionary War years, Charleston became prosperous thanks in no small part to its plantations, with cotton and rice being the major cash crops and exports. Some of these plantations have been preserved, and we visited two of them today: Middleton Place and Drayton Hall.

Before the plantations, however, we hit up another famous Charleston establishment — the Hominy Grill — for breakfast. Situated in a quiet neighborhood of cute, historic homes, this tiny restaurant has been touted as one of the best places for breakfast in Charleston, and it did not disappoint. Courtney’s blueberry cornmeal pancakes were excellent, as the cornmeal gave the pancakes a crumbly texture that’s a delightful departure from the norm. I got the shrimp and grits, which cost twice as much as anything else on the menu. It was well worth it, however, as this was by far the most amazing shrimp and grits I’ve ever had. The grits were infused with a powerful garlicky and peppery flavor, much stronger than what one would usually associate with grits. The shrimps were cooked just right, allowing you to taste the freshness in every tender bite. The service was also very speedy, as we were in and out in about 30 minutes.

With our palate thoroughly satisfied, we headed to Middleton Place, home to four generations of Middletons, who played important roles in the course of American history, including the man who presided over the First Continental Congress, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a governor of South Carolina, and a signer of the Ordinance of Secession. That last act came back to haunt the Middletons as Union soldiers looted and burned the plantation for it near the end of the Civil War. Nonetheless, the house and the surrounding, expansive grounds survived and offered an amazingly serene sight. A 30-minute walk would take you through lush gardens, meandering woods, scenic streams and ponds, and well-preserved stables and workshops.

The plantation charged separate fees for various parts. We decided to tour the grounds and forgo the house itself, which looked pretty enough from the outside. As soon as we entered the grounds, we were greeted by a long reflection pond, on which floated a single white swan and its perfect reflection. As we made our way through the gardens, innumerable dragon flies of myriad colors — red, blue, green, gray, black — hovered around us. The woods were thick enough to block out much of the blazing midday sun, making our trek a little less demanding.

After weaving our way around the grounds, we came upon preserved shacks where old plantation tools were on display. At one barn, a volunteer explained how people on the plantation made the things they needed, everything from candles to coffee. One door down, a cooper — a woodsmith who makes casks and barrels — demonstrated the labor it took to make the hoops around barrels, not out of metal but from saplings. He finds the appropriate trees from the plantation grounds, then slowly trim them down to so thin that they can be bent into a hoop without snapping. One hoop, he said, usually takes eight hours. Finally, at the next barn, we saw a potter at work. She showed us some of the pots that workers on the plantation would make, including a very cool “thumb pot” that basically acted like a primitive sprinkler.

All the work demonstrated, it should be noted, were done by slaves. We got a glimpse of that dark side of plantation life when we popped into a small shed on the final stop of our tour. The names of all the slaves owned by the Middletons were printed on an exhibit that filled up a wall panel. Next to each slave’s name was the price for which that person was bought. It’s a solemn reminder that the beauty that surrounded us was built by the exploitation and abuse of an entire race.

By now sweating like pigs and feeling somewhat fatigued, we nonetheless pressed on. A five-minute drive back in the direction of Charleston put us at Drayton Hall, a mansion completed in 1742 that remained in use by the descendants of its builder into the 1960s. While Drayton Hall lacked the grandeur of Middleton Place, the house more resembled an English countryside manor than a Southern plantation. It was constructed by lumber baron John Drayton, and through seven generations, the Draytons  consciously decided against modernizing the house, so it never had electricity or modern toilet facilities (instead, there is a privy with two seats and a fireplace next to the house). When the National Trust for Historic Preservation purchased the property in the 1970s, it opted for preservation rather than restoration, meaning the house would remain as it was when the trust took it over rather than be made into what it would’ve looked like in the 18th century.

While we waited for the guided tour of the house to start, we took a stroll around the grounds. Standing in stark contrast of Middle Place, the grounds around Drayton Hall had relatively little woods. Instead, almost the entire property is covered by grass. As our tour guide would later explain, there were more extensive gardens on the property when it was in use back in the 18th century, but the trust has decided against trying to restore those, as it cannot find out for certain what the gardens looked like. So instead, we saw mostly lawn, with a path leading down to the Ashley River, which ran behind the property and where we saw a couple families out on boating excursions. The land on the opposite side of the river, the guide told us, is also owned by the trust, which managed to scoop it up to prevent a developer from building condominiums there.

The inside of the house was devoid of all furniture and decorations. The blue paint, amazingly, was preserved from the 18th century and required a monumental effort that involved re-attaching pieces of chipped and peeling paint back on to the walls. When we proceeded to the second floor, we could only stand on one side of the house, as the flooring on the other side has not yet been reinforced so that it would not threaten the structural integrity of the first-floor ceiling for people to stand on it.

Our tour concluded in the basement, where the guide gave us an account of the daily lives of the plantation mistress that shattered any illusions of Scarlett O’Hara. Girls began learning wifery chores at a  young age. They married early, usually in their mid- to late teens, at which point they left their home, possibly never to return again. In their new homes on other plantations, they were expected to be in charge of the household, making sure there was enough food, handling a lot of the sewing, overseeing the butchering of animals, and personally handling some of the important food-preparation tasks, such as pickling and scraping the intestines of butchered animals to make sausage. And that’s in addition to likely being pregnant every 18 months or so, likely losing a couple of her infants, and the very real possibility of dying in childbirth.

When we finished our plantation tour, the combination of heat and humidity had us feeling as exhausted as those plantation mistresses of old. The recirculated cold air in the car and in our hotel room was a welcomed respite as we rested in preparation for dinner. As beautiful as the plantations were, I couldn’t imagine living, and working, there during the scorching, air condition-less Charleston summers of yore.

After a five-hour drive, we made it into Charleston in the mid-afternoon on Friday. Temperatures were in the 90s, and it was humid and sunny. But that didn’t dissuade us from making the short drive from our hotel to the Battery and taking an hour-and-a-half stroll along the beautiful shoreline. Locals and tourists alike strolled up and down streets lined with colorful historic homes, some with cobblestone entranceways and back alleys. Clouds and the occasional breeze helped us stave off the heat and humidity, and we made it all the way to the Waterfront Park, which boasts a fountain in the likeness of a giant pineapple.

After afternoon excursion, we met up with a friend who lives in Charleston and hit up Chai’s on King Street for some amazing tapas. Though we had originally had our hearts set on Meritage, which, unbeknownst to us, had been shuttered, we were not disappointed with our plan B. We filled up on paella, mussels, duck confit lettuce wraps, and angel wings, and toasted with mojitos.

After dinner, we hopped over to the Market Pavillion Hotel rooftop bar. When we arrived, the security guy/bouncer at the door had just turned away the group in front of us on account of them having open-toed shoes, which apparently are not allowed on the rooftop (a strange policy). Right after that, however, the bouncer went inside the hotel and was detained at the front desk. We took advantage of the opportunity and quietly shuffled into the hotel and into an elevator, sandals and all. I’ve been to the rooftop bar a couple times before, and it is always one of my favorite places in Charleston. As a bonus, it wasn’t overly crowded tonight. Though we couldn’t find an open table, we were quite content to lie back on a few lounge chairs and sip our beverages for an hour while soaking up the cool night breeze as the city below us pulsed with its usual energy. When we left, the bouncer was back at his post. As we walked past him on our way out the door, I couldn’t help but wonder if he took a peek at our feet to see if we had the proper foot attire.

Photo by Tarpleyjy