Charleston 2023

After being away for 15 years, Lance and I FINALLY got to go back to visit Charleston!!! Dad had a sibling trip planned there and asked Lance and I to be the tour guides which we happily obliged to do. I didn't take too many pictures because I already have pictures from when we lived there. We packed as much as we could into 4 days.

 

Angel Oak tree is still alive and going and sporting the resurrection fern.

Church of the Tides - it's such a pretty little church, isn't it? 

We visited the Old Slave Mart

Posing by the beautiful window boxes.

This is the story of the painting and scultpure:

"During the occupation of Charleston Town, the British commandeered Rebecca Motte's home at 27 King Street for their headquarters. Rebecca and her three daughters fled the city for their plantation home, "Buckhead," located mid-state on the Congaree River. Once again, Rebecca found her home in the hands of the enemy. The British, under Captain McPherson, built a moat with fortifications around "Buckhead," called it "Fort Motte."

The continental forces, led by General Francis Marion and Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lee, unable to rout the British from Rebecca's home with conventional gunfire, proposed burning her house down. With no regard for home or its contents, Rebecca agreed to the plan and even supplied the needed bow and arrows. The plan worked. The British fled the burning building and surrendered. The two armies then joined forces to fight the flames and saved Rebecca's home. In an ultimate show of southern hospitality, a grateful Rebecca Motte served the American and British officers dinner."

Probably my favorite thing was going to a concert at the Circular Church. There were a few opera numbers, folk songs, gospel songs, and slave songs. The gospel and slave songs were done by a family from Philadelphia. The father is a professor of gospel music and the mother and daughter sang. My gosh can they sing!!! Holy cow, it was just incredible! They even moved Garth to tears during Amazing Grace. It was also really neat to hear the history and story behind the lyrics of the slave songs, just an unbelievable evening all around.

We toured the war ship at Patriot's Point and of course the big aircraft carrier. 

We toured Ft. Sumter

In this brick you can see 3 little distinct fingers - the bricks were handmade by women and children.

Mortar made with oyster shells

Large cannons still lodged in the fort walls.

Aren't Mom and Dad just the cutest??! They're sitting in front of this beautiful and huge magnolia tree, in the gardens of the Nathaniel Russell House.

Walking tour with Lance telling us the stories of who's buried where and all the historical figures laid to rest in Charleston.

I think this is my favorite picture - the gardens and piazzas and courtyards in Charleston are just amazingly gorgeous!

Carriage tour! It brought back loads of memories for Lance.

Sibling picture in front of the Provost Dungeon and Old Exchange building. This was the hub of the city.

We took a dinner cruise around the harbor, unfortunately due to it being October it was dark outside so we didn't see much of the harbor.

We had to stop of Timbo's boiled peanuts!

More Angel Oak Tree

We found this darling old church right off Highway 61 and stopped to look at the cemetery. It was just so peaceful and serene there. 

 

This epitaph says "She was the model of the true hearted woman: modest, gentle, candid and sincere, kind, benevolent, and self sacrificing. Truly pious but without ostentation: she lived beloved and died without an enemy. 

We toured the BEAUTIFUL propterty at the Middleton Plantation. I forgot just how stunning the gardens are and the family mausoleum....wow. It just leaves you speechless. During lunch we found our little (BIG) alligator.

The group waiting to tour the house.

This tree is over 1000 years old and if you look toward the bottom trunk you can see a weird orange thing. It's actually quite large in person and I didn't like a fungus could be beautiful but this fungus was just so cool! It was extremely soft and velvety and up close looks like candy corn.

Resurrection fern all along the wall bordering the entire property.

It was very wet and muddy so Lance had to get creative with his rolled up pants. You can tell he's a tourist from a mile away, haha. Here he is posing by the family mausoleum.

We made it to the beach! It was chilly and rainy but it was fun to walk around and watch the birds.