Steve and Mandy's trip to Charleston, SC
March 22 to March 25 2003
Written by Steve

Saturday got off to a rough start.  Corey the cat decided that two hours before our flight would be a good time to practice his vanishing act.  After franticly searching inside and outside for him we decided that we had no choice but to run off to our flight.  We left our key with our neighbor and asked her to let her in the house if Corey turned up.

Our flight from Dulles down to Charleston (with a layover in Charlotte, NC) went without much incident.  We got into town early afternoon and checked into our hotel off of Rt 17 west of the city.  We made dinner reservations at a great little restaurant called 82 Queen and saw Steel Magnolias at the Dock Street Theater.

March 22, 2003 Charleston (Saturday)

Saturday started with breakfast at Hominy Grill.  This was an interesting little rest restaurant at the edge of the city.  They had all sorts of odd dishes, and had a nice outdoor seating area. 

After breakfast we took a walking tour that started from Washington Square in the middle of the city.  The tour took us on a nice walk around the neighborhoods of Charleston.  One of the spots that we saw was Rainbow Row which was painted as the backdrop for the play Porgy and Bess.

After the walking tour we went to check out the historic market.  Mandy bought a sweet grass basket at the market.  The sweet grass baskets are part of the Charleston culture that was brought over from Africa.  The Charleston area is the only place in the U. S. where they are made.

After walking all over downtown, we got dinner at Sticky Fingers Ribs.  They claim that they have the best ribs in the world.  The ribs were good, but the buffalo wings were better.  Their sauce rocks too. 

We then walked down to Battery Park on the Ashley River.  We caught a magnificent sunset, and relived some of Mandy's childhood memories of the gazebo in the park.  After sundown we had a problem.  The mosquitoes were coming out and we still had a couple of hours to kill before our ghost tour.  The Southend Brewery turned out to be the perfect place to take in a NCAA tournament game and have a couple of beers.  After having a couple of beers, the ghost tour seemed more fun than scary, but hey it was still a good time.

March 23, 2003 Charleston (Sunday)

Sunday was our trip up to Goose Creek and Cypress Gardens north of Charleston.  Goose Creek was where Mandy lived between the second and fourth grades.  Cypress Gardens was a lucky find that we went to simple because it was close to Goose Creek.

The day got started off right as I snuck out to the Krispy Kreme up the road from the hotel and brought some doughnuts back to the hotel room.  Mandy had never had a fresh Krispy Kreme doughnut before, so she didn't understand what a big deal having a store up the road from us was.  She understands now. 

We started our day out at Cypress Gardens.  They had a fantastic array of exhibits from butterflies to alligators.  There was a giant tortoise eating dinner.  It was fun to watch him pick the strawberries out of his bowl of vegetables.  The highlight of the gardens was the boat trip on the swamp.  They allowed us to row our own boat out into the swamp to take a close look at the natural interaction between the cypress trees and the swamp.  Near the boat dock an artificial church ruins had been built.  This site was used for filming the movie "The Patriot".  It's a wonder that we managed to not dump the camera in the water as we struggled to learn how to row our boat.  The trip to Cypress Gardens finished up with a walk around the swamp.  There were tons of flowers to be seen and some fire ants too.  Yikes!

After leaving Cypress Gardens, we went to Goose Creek to see the house that Mandy used to live in.  The house still looks great.  We couldn't believe how high the redbuds that Guy had planted had gotten.  After seeing the house, we went to the Wendy's that Mandy's aunt Lisa used to work at. 

We finished up the day by heading back into downtown Charleston.  We got dinner at A. W. Shucks, a great raw bar up by the historic market.

March 24, 2003 Charleston (Monday)

Monday was our trip to Magnolia Plantation.  This plantation had a huge grounds that was filled with all sorts of pretty gardens, plenty of spots for picture taking.  The best part of the plantation was the hedge maze.  I beat Mandy in a race to the middle.

After spending the afternoon at the Plantation, we headed back to downtown Charleston.  This time we just took a relaxed walk around the city and took in the sights.  We made return visits to the Southend Brewery and A. W. Shucks.  The top floor of the Southend Brewery offered some very nice views of the city.

March 25, 2003 Charleston (Tuesday)

We got up very early on Wednesday morning to catch our flight home.  Again the flight was uneventful.  We came home and discovered, to our great guilt, that Corey the cat had been locked in the master bathroom the whole time.  We have no idea how we managed to search the entire house 5 times and not notice that the bathroom door was closed.  Ugh.  Corey was fine though.

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