We woke up to sunshine this morning, yay!
We googled breakfast places near us and found this boardwalk area not far from us so decided to go check it out.
Sunshine makes everything look so pretty doesn't it?
We found the marina, boardwalk area.
I've never seen boats stacked like this before.
Cool whirlygig in the parking lot.
We found a little second hand furniture store so of course I had to go in and check it out.
I found a cute little birdhouse that I bought.
Lots of other nice stuff too but of course none of it would fit in my suitcase.
The restaurant we'd come down to go to wasn't open until 11 so we looked for another one.
We found Page's Okra Grill which just happened to be on my list of places to try.
There were lots of colorful benches and chairs just outside the door.
I love these giant chairs and I love, love, love the color.
We had to wait a little bit to get seated but not long.
They had some really tasty looking banana pudding - need to keep room for that.
Great mantra!
They had some beautiful cakes and pies to chose from too.
I've always wanted to try making lights like this.
Beachy mural on the wall was great.
Excited about trying a new place.
My Honey had fried chicken livers, green beans and deep fried okra.
The livers had a strong flavor but I liked them.
I also really liked the okra but was surprised to find out that I DID NOT care for the green beans.
Normally I love green beans but these were cooked to a mush and watery, not good at all.
I had chicken and waffles and it was delicious.
It was a giant plate of food.
The waffles had corn kernels backed right into them, so yummy.
Sadly I was stuffed so I had no room at all to try any of the delightful looking desserts, maybe another time.
They had a pretty cool smoker out behind the restaurant, looks like a train almost.
There was a fixture store beside the restaurant and I wanted to go in and see what they had in there.
So many options.
There were some pretty funky door knobs and drawer pulls.
Like these ocean themed ones.
I love the parrot ones although I'm not sure where a person would use them?
I really like that they say what is in the cupboards, neat idea?
Who knew there were so many different options?
These would be great in a beachy themed place, or even in a bathroom.
If I actually needed some, it would be a super hard decision to make with so many options.
OOOh, I like the blingy ones!
More 'oceany' options.
and more - the seahorse is cute.
After breakfast and hardware browsing, we headed over to the downtown for a food tour that we had booked and we had to go back over this cool bridge to get there.
It looks really nice from a distance but it also looks really neat when you are right on it.
There are lots of old buildings in the downtown area in Charleston, I love this old brick one.
There are horse drawn carriages everywhere downtown.
Lots of places to book rides.
Aren't these buildings fabulous?
They just add a kind of charm.
I was hoping we might get a chance to go for a ride on one but we didn't.
It's so nice to see the sun out!
We had some time before our food tour so we thought we'd check out City Market.
There were about 3 or 4 buildings full of tables of vendors.
It was mainly the same old stuff that we always see but I did get a Christmas tree ornament.
It was surprisingly quiet - a few people around but not crowds and crowds.
There was a whole street full of stores so we meandered along and went into the ones that interested us.
Finally it was time to meet up with our Food Tour group.
We met up at a bar/restaurant - O'Bar
We were a pretty good group, around 12 or so.
We kind of did introductions then we headed out to our first stop.
Of course our guide, Dustin, gave us some history along the way.
He took us down a gorgeous little alley way.
It's so nice to see all the greenery.
It makes me long for spring back home.
There was one point where there was a break in the shrubs and trees that provided a perfect view of the church steeple and it was perfect timing because this acrobatic little fellow decided to do a little hanging act for our viewing pleasure.
The steeple is beautiful!
(The squirrel is still hanging in there).
I like this old grate, it's much more pleasing to look at then a regular old grate with a few bars across it.
Dustin told us that the reason there are so many old buildings still standing is because after the civil war, everyone had to free their slaves and the city became very poor.
It stayed that way for 120 years and they couldn't afford to tear down and rebuild so they basically just made do with what they had.
There are some new buildings around, it all blends together nicely.
We didn't go to this place, I just liked the name.
Our first stop was Poogan's Smokehouse.
It had that warehouse feel.
All those skylights allowed in so much light in and made it feel so open.
Part of our group.
We were right next to the bar and I liked the old brick.
I liked the posts and beams too.
I tried a spicy ginger beer and it was fantastic - probably the best one I've ever tasted.
We tried cornbread with butter - it was delicious.
We had pulled pork on a bun with a hush puppy and it was also crazy good.
My favourite dish of the tour today.
Love the vines growing up the wall.
The way it's growing and filling in the spaces it kind of reminds me of a piano.
Two things I love - sunshine and #1, My Honey!
More charming old homes.
So much character.
I love that they've withstood the test of time and that we get to enjoy them today.
I think these are the palmetto trees which are the South Carolina state ttee.
I like the round shape of the top.
Dustin was just full of a ton of interesting information that he shared with us.
He was an eccentric fellow with an oddball sense of humour and he totally made the tour.
I like that even the newer houses have fun colors.
This is the church steeple the squirrel was posing in front of earlier.
Quite the ornamental gate.
An old, beautiful cemetery.
Dustin told us that during a construction project, they'd uncovered a lot of bodies in the city.
He then went on to lament the fact that you weren't always allowed to keep things that you'd found, like bodies for instance.
Ha Ha.
Sounds morbid but I think it was just his warped sense of humour -the way he said it was actually really funny.
Humour from the church - love it.
Charleston is supposedly a very haunted city and they do ghost tours.
We did one in Salem when we were there and I enjoyed it but don't really feel the need to go on one again.
A close up of their cool licence plates.
Love the lantern and the scrolled hanger.
Definitely no shortage of old buildings around here.
Some funny bumper stickers.
Another pretty alley way.
Next stop was back at the Oyster House (O-Bar) where we'd first started.
There was the front bar area with that awesome fan.
We went upstairs to the dining room area though.
At this stop we tried shrimp & grits, hush puppies and fried green tomatoes.
There is another shot of Dustin, our tour guide.
He was telling us about how many Dustins there are compared to Justins and that they are his nemesis.
He sure was entertaining.
He had a deep southern accent which I loved.
This was when he was telling us that he also does ghost tours and taking kids is his favourite because he loves scaring them with his eerie, creepy, bloodcurdling screaming ability which he kindly performed for us.
I must admit, it was exceptional.
He also said the Fried Green tomatoes reminded him of the movie Fried Green Tomatoes and that sometimes you could great ideas from movies, like how they killed the guy and bbq'd him.
Ha ha - such a sinister sense of humour!
The next stop was right next door at the Charleston Crab House.
I just loved the decor inside.
We had the local traditional Low Country Boil.
Shrimp, corn on cob and fingerling potatoes all boiled together with some Old Bay Seasoning and a bit of spicy seasoning.
Charleston Crab House
On our way to the next spot, I just happened to like the pink, bold choice!
Another horse and carriage.
Our final stop, Kaminsky's Dessert Cafe.
We had bourbon pecan pie with a chocolate chip cookie dough crust.
Can you say 'YUMMITY YUM"
From there we went our separate ways.
Dustin the tour guide really made this one of the best food tours we've ever been, very enjoyable.
Since we were already downtown, we decided just to stay, wander around and do a bit more exploring.
We had seen a glimpse of the water so we headed in that direction.
It didn't take long at all to get there.
We walked along the waters edge.
We saw the Pineapple Fountain off in the distance which was one of the things we had on our list to see.
It's a very pretty fountain.
Selfie.
Another of our list locations to check out was Rainbow Row.
We googled directions and it wasn't that far so we went off in search of it.
There was a park kind of all along the water then these stunning homes along the park looking out to the water.
Like this one!
The trees were full of leaves.
I love a great tree lined road or path.
There were park benches here and there to sit and just enjoy that peacefullness.
Another stunning home.
Love the cobblestone road and the vine covered building.
The homes, WOW!
The sun, sunshine on my shoulder, makes me happy.
Sunshine anywhere makes me happy.
Love those doors.
Look at the colours!!!
So many.
Nice corbells.
I think we found it - Rainbow Row!
Just had to take a selfie in front of them.
That place looks old but beautiful.
I like that they don't try to hide their history even if it wasn't all good.
The other side.
The windows and doors on this building are so good.
They make the new buildings with an old look so they fit in.
This place is a hotel and according to Dustin, when you stay here, you get your own butler.
He commented that most people say they don't know what they would use a butler for but he would certainly have plenty of things for a butler to do, for instance, his shoes might need tying.
We decided to go back to O'Bar for a snack.
They had raw oysters on the half shell for a buck each which is a great price so we wanted to get some.
We ordered the truffle fries too.
I like the beams on the ceiling and the lights and the floor.
The place was filling up quickly.
Our oysters.
They weren't that good actually, very mild and I was missing the briny taste.
The fries were pretty good.
City Market is all closed up for the evening.
We walked around looking for a Pandora store that was supposed to be near by but we never did find it.
We also checked out a local grocer that Dustin thought might sell sorghum syrup.
My Honey has been looking for it forever and we've not found it yet.
We'll keep searching though.
We passed this place a few times so headed back to check it out for supper.
It was a bbq place and a greek place joined together.
I ordered the chickpea hummus and it was delicious.
My Honey had the bbq platter.
It had chicken wings, pulled pork, ribs and mac & cheese.
We sat out in the outdoor area to eat.
It was all enclosed but it was a tent, not a brick and mortar building.
They did have heaters in it so it was cozy.
You could smoke hookah's and lots of folks were, the aroma of it is nice.
After we ate, we walked back to the car and headed back to our room.
It was just after 9 but we had a full day so we were ready for some downtime.
It was a lovely day and tomorrow we'll be leaving and heading for Georgia.
That is all for today, until next time, be happy!
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