What I did on my summer vacation - part 5
Posted by Gypsy on May 30, 2008
My last day in Charleston, Nicole and I basically vegged out until meeting up with Joe for lunch. We grabbed a bite at a Joe Pasta, near Joe’s work. Everything there was nice, but it’s what came after that was awesome. We discovered Paolo’s was open and decided more gelato is always a good thing. Since Paolo changes the flavors daily, there were a new batch of options for me to choose from, but banana was one of them, so it was an easy choice. From there, we walked Joe to work, where Joe and I said our goodbyes, then Nicole and I opted to wander around a little. bit.
The night before, after dinner, Joe and Nicole drove me around historic Charleston so I could see some of the houses in the area. These are some of the oldest homes in Charleston. Many of them are at least 200 years old and are just architecturally amazing. Most of them are at least three stories tall, with piazzas on every floor and even rooftop gardens where I’m sure many sat to enjoy the breeze during the early years of the United States. I would give anything to have a few million dollars to buy any one of these homes.
One of these homes happens to be the Calhoun mansion, which was built in 1876. The Calhoun Mansion is the largest single family residence in Charleston, at 24,000 square feet, and has been featured on A&E’s America’s Castles. While Nicole and I were wandering around, we decided to stop by and take a tour of the home and I’m so glad we did. It’s currently owned by a local lawyer who uses it as his permanent residence, so of course pictures of the inside were not allowed, but there are a ton on the house’s Web site. The interior can also be found in the movie The Notebook as it was used to film the interior shots of Ali’s parent’s house. It’s packed to the brim with antiques, as the current owner is a big collector.
Even so, we were able to tour two of the houses three floors, including the 14 foot by 65 foot entrance way and the upstairs music room. This room has some amazing history of it’s own as it was built to have amazing acoustics. However, it was also built with a huge skylight, which was covered by a false ceiling when sailors took it over at one point. Above the false ceiling, the beautiful domed ceiling and skylight lay covered and forgotten about for three decades until the house was being restored and the false ceiling discovered and removed.
Even the outside is amazing with it’s perfectly manicured gardens and ornate fountains.
From here we just bummed around a little more until it was time to go to the airport. Joe was able to get off work and make it there in time to say goodbye to me one last time. We took one last picture and then I was off. Or so we though. I ended up having to change my flight once it kept getting delayed due to tornado warnigns. On the plus side, this meant one more night with Joe and Nicole and Nicole and I went to Hardee’s the next morning for breakfast before my flight, where I got to eat biscuits and gravy, the best breakfast dish ever. This time I was actually able to take off and head for home, with me and my bag arriving on the same flight.
I’ve said it to Joe and Nicole multiple times and I’ll say it again, this really was the best vacation ever. For the first time in a long time I came home from a trip feeling refreshed and reenergized. Joe and Nicole were the perfect hosts and the perfect tour guides through what has quickly become my favorite city in the world.
What I did on my summer vacation - part 4
Posted by Gypsy on May 28, 2008
After my minor disappointment with Boone Hall being so young, while we were relaxing Sunday night I did a little research into other area plantations, finally finding on that still had the original house. Even better, Drayton Hall hadn’t even been modernized since 1738 when it was built. In 270 years, it had only been restored. This means to this day there is no electricity or running water. It is the only plantation on the Ashley River to have survived to this day and it’s simply striking how beautiful the house and surrounding land is.
One great thing about this plantation is that no one lives here and there are no furnishings, so taking photographs inside the house is encouraged and we were able to walk through the entire house, including the basement areas where the slaves would do the cooking. One of the two most striking features of the house are the ceilings in two of the downstairs rooms. In the front room, the design was made from molded plaster. The amazing thing about that is that when it was made each mold could only be used to make one piece of the design. When the mold was made, they would put the plaster in and make one shape. This first molding was tossed because it would be too sharp. A second was made, which came out perfect. But then the mold was useless because any subsequent moldings would lose the detail. The second ceiling, in the side room, was actually hand carved from the plaster. It’s symmetrical, though if you look closely you can spot some differences, according to the tour guide. I didn’t spot them, though.
Once we were done looking at the rooms on the first floor, we went to the staircase that leads to the second floor. As with everything about this house, the stairs are perfectly symmetrical. This was the second striking feature of the house. The mahogany staircase was made from the first shipment of mahogany to ever reach the New World. It’s still in pristine condition to this day, which is astounding. Walking up them made me think of all the people who walked up those stairs before. We’re talking some of the most wealthy people in Charleston at the time, I have no doubt, as these stairs lead to the ballroom on the second floor.
We then quickly toured the second floor, where the ballroom is. We also got to walk out onto the upper piazza and look at the view from there, which is simply amazing. Before we left Drayton Hall, we also took a walk down by the Ashley River to enjoy the serenity and peace that can only be found siting outside on a beautiful day next to a still river.
Once we were done at Drayton Hall, Nicole took me to the Angel Tree. This is an oak tree that has been estimated to be 1,400 years old. It’s simply humongous. Many of the branches are either laying on the ground or supported by metal and wood rods because the weight of them would cause the tree to completely uproot itself.
Once we were done sightseeing for the day, the plan was to meet Joe for dinner somewhere near the Collage of Charleston, where he works. Since we still had time to kill once we finished up at the Angel Tree, we head out to Folly Pier to look at the ocean. We even saw a fisherman catch a shark, though because of local laws he had to throw him back. After that, Nicole and I were piered out and headed to meet Joe. We opted for seafood, even though Nicole isn’t a huge fan, and this is when I found my new favorite restaurant. It’s a place called Coast and it’s nestled in this pretty little alleyway. I had the Lobster and Crab Au Gratin, which was a lobster shell, cut lengthwise and stuff with lobster and crab meet mixed with parmesan cream sauce. To say it was delicious would be an understatement. It was heavenly.
What I did on my summer vacation - part 3
Posted by Gypsy on May 26, 2008
Well rested after a day of slacking off, we got up Sunday morning and got ready to do some more sightseeing. This time, we were off to Fort Sumter, the place where the Civil War began. For this we had to hop on a boat, which would take us out to Fort Sumter. In total, it’s a 2 hour trip (including sightseeing time at the fort). The trip out there lasted about 20 minutes, during which there is a narrator telling about the history of Fort Sumter. We sat on the steps leading up to the top deck of the boat, giving us a great view of the water.
There are six flags flying over Fort Sumter: the American flag, the South Carolina State flag and four different flags that were each at some point representative of the confederate states.
Once we were on the island, we were given the option of either a park ranger taking us around or just exploring on our own. I opted for exploring on our own so I could go at my own pace. It was actually really cool. The outer wall around the fort was once about 50 feet tall, but during the Civil War it was partially destroyed during the attacks. It’s still really cool to look at, though. While wandering, we actually found a part of the wall that still had Union artillery shells imbedded in the walls.
Throughout Fort Sumter, there is evidence of the attacks beyond the shells. Over one side wall is debris from the upper portions of the outer wall falling. Inside, you can see where they stored munitions. There’s also a museum there with a couple of the larger flags that flew over Fort Sumter and some of the weapons and uniforms of the Confederate Army. After looking around for about an hour, we boarded the boat and headed back to the shore, getting more narration about the sights we saw on the way back.
Feeling lazy because Joe and Nicole had to go back to work the next day, we head on home when we were back to shore. Joe cooked a nice dinner for us and Nicole popped open a bottle of the amazing wine they made for their anniversary. It was seriously amazing wine. Nicole also made a pecan pie, which I’d never had before. I’m now madly in love with pecan pie. It was so freaking good. Very sweet, made sweeter by the whipped cream we added to it. A perfect way to end a Sunday if you ask me.
What I did on my summer vacation - part 2
Posted by Gypsy on May 24, 2008
Plantations and country life aren’t the only things to see in the Charleston area and day two of my trip proved that when we decided to head downtown. After grabbing lunch at an Irish Pub (I had the fish and chips and it was wonderful) we went to this cute little candy store for some fresh made praline. I haven’t stepped on a scale, but I’m sure I gained a ton of weight on this trip. Luckily, we spent some time walking off the candy and lunch by going to the slave market. It’s important I note that by slave market, I’m not implying that slaves were sold here. This is actually where they would go to buy fresh meat and produce for the plantations. Now it’s just a market where you can buy handmade wares and the like.
Once we were done walking through there, we head off to buy tickets for a carriage ride around the city. There are a few different companies that offer these, so to keep from crowding any one area of town, the city set it up on a lottery system where the guide gets a route number and we head off in that direction. Joe and Nicole said the route we got wasn’t one of the best, but I think it was pretty good anyway. It took us through town by some of the older homes in the city and by what was once the jail back.
Later that night, we met up with friends of Joe and Nicole for dinner at this awesome thai place called Basil. This happens to be Joe’s favorite restaurant and he’s been hyping it up to me since he found out I was coming to visit. It definitely did not disappoint. Here I had garlic chicken, which was absolutely amazing. Luckily I saved room for desert, though, because once we were done with dinner we headed to a little place called Paolo’s Gelato. Hands down the best gelato I’ve had anywhere outside Italy. And it should be considering Paolo has many of the ingredients ship from Italy. It was also my lucky night as the flavors change daily and I happened to go there the one day of the week he was offering hazelnut. I don’t know how to describe it only to say if you are ever in Charleston (or Atlanta), Paolo’s is a must visit.
After a day of traveling and two days of sightseeing, the next day was spent having the laziest Saturday ever. The majority of our day was spent watching TV and relaxing before we finally got motivated to leave the house and see a movie. After that, we grabbed dinner at some quiet bistro before heading home to continue with the relaxing.
