Beautiful Sites in Charleston, SC

After our rainy Wilmington stay, we headed south to Charleston with Tom's brothers in tow.  The drive took us through traffic-laden Myrtle beach - why anyone still enjoys going there is beyond me.

Our friends Brad & Jodie just bought a new house in old Mt. Pleasant - right over the bridge from Charleston - so they took us in for Easter weekend. 

After a quick tour of their place (awesome!), Brad took us over to a BBQ place called Home Team on Sullivan's Island for lunch.  Sullivan's Island was a cool, laid back beach area with lots of open air restaurants.  In a lot of ways, the vibe was similar to college spring break... except that the crowd was 10-15 years older (ie - more our style).  Lunch was great - especially the mac 'n cheese which won a best-in-Charleston award recently.  

 After lunch, Brad took us to the waterfront right next to Fort Moultrie on the island.  This fort was the site of an American victory against the British a few days before Independence Day, 1776.  Pretty cool.  We could see Charleston and Fort Sumter from the beach.  After only a few hours here (and not even in Charleston proper), we knew we liked the vibe.

After re-grouping at the house, we headed downtown to Charleston.  We parked down at the Battery and walked all over: down Rainbow Row, by the famous market, through College of Charleston, up King Street, and more.  We can all really see this as a potential place to relocate.  We had dinner at King Street Grill and called it a night... at least until Tom realized he had food poisoning.  :-/

College of Charleston entrance

Brad & Jodie went to an Easter Sunday service at Boone Hall Plantation, which we were also contemplating a bit until Tom got sick.  He spent the entire day in bed on Sunday, but by the evening was able to eat a few saltines... not the ideal way to spend one's time in Charleston.  While he was sick, the rest of us went back into the city to walk around the more residential areas.  The gardens and intricate, unique details of every house are just mindblowing.  Unfortunately, so are the prices.  Most of what we saw today was in the million-dollar range, but many of the houses will rent out a floor for a reasonable amount, and lots of the businesses in the commercial area will rent out 2nd/3rd floor apartments just like in New York (but with much lower price tags).  There are definitely options here!  And it doesn't take long to get down to the waterfront for a run.  Aside from the charm, the walkability is one of the greatest things about Charleston.

We took a quick tour by the Charleston Water Dogs minor league stadium, and then since Tom was still sick and his youngest brother had to go back to NC for class, the rest of his brothers headed home.  Brad, Jodie, & I took a walk in their neighborhood (and it's such a cool neighborhood with parks, baseball fields, and awesome views & houses).  We walked out to this park that used to be a foot bridge (I think in the 1800s/1900s).  Hurricane Hugo destroyed part of it in the mid-80's, and now it's basically a park jutting out through the marsh with a tiny fishing pier at the end.  How awesome to be able to walk to this from your house!!!

Monday morning, Tom and I headed for Savannah, GA.  More posts to come!