Recent Visit to Charleston Harbor and Downtown

 

During our brief visit to Charleston, South Carolina last month, Melissa and I decided to explore its famous harbor and downtown.  We went on a tour boat and were treated to various historical and geographic aspects of the area, including Fort Sumter (see bottom picture), the site of the start of the American Civil War on April 12, 1861.  The U.S.S. Yorktown...not the famous aircraft carrier of the Battle of Midway fame (it sank in the Pacific)...but the new ship commissioned to replace it in 1943...is also in Charleston Harbor on the eastern Mount Pleasant side.  Both Ft. Sumter and the Yorktown have tours, but we were pressed for time and let the harbor ride work for us.  Afterwards we walked the streets of downtown Charleston.  The sidewalks around the harbor and immediate surroundings were often blocked by construction and barricades, but once we got further south and west to Market Street, things became easier.  All along Market Street are long brick buildings that provide a flea-market type of people's marketplace (2nd photo from the top).  We turned south at Church Street, on which is located St. Philip's Church...its steeple makes it the tallest in the city, which has prohibited any building from being taller than it.  Down the road on the right side is a special coffee shop, Bitty and Beau's, a chain with 23 stores (one to open soon in Jacksonville) that distinguishes itself by employing those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  When we got there the store was about to close, but I managed to get a decaffeinated caffè americano to go...click HERE for the company's website.  Eventually we looped around on our downtown walk and made it toward the garage where we were parked...on the way we were passed by horse-drawn carriages, one of which was followed by a car whose business specializes in cleaning the streets of horse poop.  At the end of our walk we cut through the beautiful Gaillard Center to get to our parking garage.  I would have preferred a little more time to explore the area...I was disappointed that the Slave Market Museum had just closed when we passed by.  Still, I'm glad we visited...maybe at a future time we'll get to explore a little more deeply, and maybe even sit a spell at Bitty and Beau's...