Valentine's Day in Charleston, SC

Hey guys -

It's sad that this is my first blog post of 2018, but between me being sick and Glenn traveling a lot for work, we haven't been out and about too much. While I was on prednisone, I swapped my daily walk for a daily nap, and so have had nothing photo-worthy to share.

But, for Valentine's Day weekend, Glenn surprised me with a trip to Charleston. I had been there when I was a kid, and so had Glenn, but we didn't remember much.

It is a beautiful historic town with old houses, gas street lights and cobblestone streets. It's become much more commercialized than I remember too, though, with endless blocks of stores.

We stayed at the Francis Marion Hotel, which is right in the middle of the historic district.

Across the street, some 60,000 people had converged for their first event of the tourist season, SEWE, which stands for the Southeastern Wildlife Expo. This meant a lot of people who liked animals, or perhaps, liked to shoot animals.  There were a lot of folks in camo.

Anyway, the first night, we went to Hal's Chop House, a five star restaurant where we just walked in and lucked into two seats at the bar. Later, we were saying we could have probably sold them for $5000 a piece. We had steaks and were entertained by a piano and violin duo. The food was delicious!

Saturday, we walked through the historic district, got amazing massages at the hotel spa, and later took a horse-drawn carriage ride that was fun and educational. Sadly, it was cloudy and cool for most of the day, so our pics are less than vibrant. Oh well, folks. Luckily for you, this blog is free.

We walked to Rainbow Row, so named for the multi-colored houses.

We were told by the carriage driver that the houses were originally all crammed together like this (and delineated by paint color) so the British could pack as many people in as possible for more taxes. Unfortunately, later, when there were fires, this system ensured that everyone's house burned down more or less simultaneously, because there were no gaps to stop the fires from spreading.

Later, after the fires, people rebuilt their houses sideways on their lots to prevent this problem. For example:

Also, due to the hot summers and no AC, people built their porches to face South or West to catch any breezes coming off the water.

You'll see many of the porches have privacy doors on the side. They said that was because people dressed in heavy wool suits and dresses during the day, and when they came home, they would sit on the porch in cooler undergarments, and lock the privacy door if they were not properly attired for visitors.

Ok, so now, in no particular order, a bunch of pics.

Gas lanterns

The little front gardens and window boxes were so pretty. Often there were little "secret" gardens behind the homes.

Pretty sure this had been the Mayor's House

Gary, our Belgium Quarter Horse for the day, was not particular interested in being in our selfie.

This is the historic market (below), a building that goes on forever with stalls (similar to one in New Orleans) where people sell local crafts like sweetwater grass baskets, etc.

And, of course, no trip to Charleston would be complete without a stop at the Pounce Cat Cafe and Wine Bar, where you pay to pet kitty cats. Alas, we were there before they were open.

Saturday night, Glenn took me to a lovely restaurant called 82 Queen, where we ate outside under a giant magnolia tree.

The next day we flew back home.

Charleston was lovely. Unfortunately, Glenn had to start traveling again on Tuesday - heading to Atlanta first and then Richmond. I got a cold or something shortly after getting back home, but its been beautiful in Tampa - record highs around 85 degrees. Deuce and I have spent some time getting some sun.

So that's it for us. Hope you are all doing well and I hope to have more photo-worthy adventures soon!