May 27, 2014

Tracy's sister Melody and her family are in Myrtle Beach this week, and they came up today to tour the USS North Carolina battleship in Wilmington.  That was loads of fun, though I didn't take any pictures, which makes me wonder:  if I don't take pictures of something, did it really happen?  :)

Anyway, the boys had fun playing and exploring here at home too, although they weren't too sure about the floating dock, especially with Jed trying his best to rock it.

If you click on the picture above to enlarge it, you'll see tiny crabs all over the little shore of the creek.  The tide was going out and they were crawling all over the place.  I can't wait to see what else we find out there!

May 22, 2014

Kirk and Diane stayed behind in Charleston for a few more days, then they too headed back to Wilmington.  No trip to this part of the country is complete without a meal of chitlins, fatback and pigs' feet.  Kirk was game; Diane was not.  haha  We drove them to the airport the next day with promises of a visit in Missouri some time in the foreseeable future.

May 17, 2014

Tracy and Jed headed down to the beach this morning for a swim.

Tracy decided the ocean water was a bit too cool for his liking

so they switched to the pool for one last swim before we headed back home.

We found this guy on Hwy 17 near the strand in Myrtle Beach. 
Gotta love some kitsch at the beach!  :)

May 16, 2014 - Part 22

This building has an interesting roof line.  We thought that was all there was to see, until we rounded the corner and found this sign:

The Charleston Earthquake of 1886 was a powerful intraplate earthquake estimated to have been between 6.6 and .3 on the Richter scale, one of the most powerful and damaging quakes to hit the southeastern United States.  It caused severe damage in Charleston, damaging 2,000 buildings and causing between five and eight million dollars' worth of damage (over $141 million in 2009 dollars), while in the whole city the buildings were only valued at approximately $24 million. Between 60 and 110 lives were lost.  It was felt as far away as Boston, Massachusetts to the north, Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin to the northwest, as far west as New Orleans, Louisiana, as far south as Cuba, and as far east as Bermuda.

Good thing the union was around to help us rebuild!  :)

May 16, 2014 - Part 21

A custom house or customs house was a building housing the offices for the government officials who processed the paperwork for the import and export of goods into and out of a country. Customs officials also collected customs duty on imported goods.  The custom house was typically located in a seaport or in a city on a major river with access to the ocean. These cities acted as a port of entry into a country. The government had officials at such locations to collect taxes and regulate commerce.

The City Market, or Centre Market, is a historic market complex downtown. Established in the 1790s, the market stretches for four city blocks from the architecturally-significant Market Hall, which faces Meeting Street, through a continuous series of one-story market sheds, the last of which terminates at East Bay Street. Today, the City Market's vendors sell souvenirs and other items ranging from jewelry to Gullah sweetgrass baskets.

 Tracy bought me a small bouquet of these sweetgrass roses.

 This pelican is made entirely of beads!

 You can probably guess which member of the family wanted to visit these two shops.  :)

May 16, 2014 - Part 20

It would be interesting to have the distinction of living in Charleston's largest private residence.  :)

May 16, 2014 - Part 19

These awards were scattered about the buildings around town that had been lovingly and authentically restored.

The brown colored emblem was proof of fire insurance for the building to which it was attached.  This ensured the building would receive preferential treatment in the event of a fire.

Another type of fire insurance emblem.

This is either a door knocker or a piece of art; I'm not sure which.

This is an interesting bit of art and history...these are decorative bolts that were used to shore up the building to which they were attached after an earthquake in the 1800s.  There were different types of bolts on lots of the buildings around town, but most of them weren't this attractive.  :)

Jed found a horse he wasn't afraid to pet.  :)

May 16, 2014 - Part 18

The lighting around town was varied and interesting.  This antler chandelier was in a street side pub - complete with stained glass windows.

This chandelier and the next were in the restaurant where we ate dinner - crab cakes and grits - yum!  

May 16, 2014 - Part 17

The downtown businesses were lovely too...

we were too busy swooning over the buildings to go inside very many of them, 

but it was great fun to window shop.

May 16, 2014 - Part 16

And the window boxes....the flowers in Charleston are so incredible.

Did I mention I took almost 2000 pictures?  :)

May 16, 2014 - Part 15

Remember I mentioned peeking over garden walls into secret gardens?  

Imagine finding this guy on the other side!  :)

Or these two.

Can you see how the branch in the middle of this picture is twisted like a corkscrew?

Click on the image to enlarge it if you can't see it.

Did you notice the ferns growing on these tree branches!  So cool!

These palmetto trees were everywhere.  It looked like we were much further south than I would have imagined Charleston to be.  They're in Wilmington, too, which has been a surprise to us, but they're ubiquitous in Charleston.