A beautiful afternoon in Charleston

From Nicolas’ Graduation, we drove to downtown Charleston for lunch at a restaurant recommended by a couple we had met in the campground.

Poogan’s Porch is a Charleston establishment, well-known for their classic low-county meals.

It’s a victorian house in the oldest neighborhood of Charleston, which was converted to a restaurant back in 1976, and became a popular gathering place.

It’s namesake was Poogan, a family dog that was left behind when the family sold the house and moved away . . . poor doggie!  He continued to hang out on the porch, even after it became a restaurant, and now he’s memorialized in the garden.

 

We had a really good lunch – Tom tried the shrimp & grits, I had their buttermilk fried chicken (which was incredible!), Nicolas had chicken & dumplings, and Bryce had pulled pork.  Oh, and the guys even had deep-fried alligator!!  Tastes like chicken!

 

 

Nicolas thought it was a little fancy . . . but we enjoyed it, and besides, it was a special occasion!  Nicolas was impressed that the Manager recognized his patch, and called him Petty Officer!  He also gave us a 15% military  discount – cool!

Nicolas was dozing off by the end of lunch, so we needed to get him outside, walking around a bit, to wake him up!

Across the street from the restaurant was this nice-looking hotel,

(I wonder if I’d get a free room?)

and a beautiful old church.    

St. Michael’s

We walked down Meeting Street, towards the waterfront, past many beautiful old . . . and I mean OLD . . . houses.

 

This area of Charleston was part of the original English settlement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the houses have been around since the 1700s,

and some even longer.

The house, the gardens, even the driveways, are beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the yards had these bushes in them – I think it’s honeysuckle – and they smelled AMAZING!

 

Meeting Street ends in Battery Park, on the waterfront.  It’s a beautiful park, full of live oak trees, and there were lots of people around,

including a field trip . . . probably more 4th graders!  Several of them were pretty excited to see “a real live Sailor”!

“Rainbow Row” is just across the street from the park -

- quite a nice location, overlooking the park and the waterfront!

We walked along King Street back towards the parking garage, admiring more old houses and beautiful gardens.

 

 

It’s amazing that so many of these houses have been around for more than 250 years!

This garage looks like it used to be a church.

In one area, the trees overhanging this wall have been trimmed to create a canopy over the sidewalk – pretty cool!

There were lots of others out touring the town on this beautiful afternoon – many of them in tour busses, and others on horse & carriage.

 

We enjoyed our “historic walking tour” . . . even if there weren’t any forts!

Back at the base, Nicolas went to his room to change out of his uniform and pack his things for leave.  He and Tom took the truck to fill it with diesel, and Bryce packed up the back of the RV.  We were all set to move on to our next stop!

We are going to be in “vacation mode” while Nicolas travels with us, so it’ll be a fun and busy 10 days!

 

On a side note . . . all this pictures in this blog post were taken with the camera in my new Samsung S5 phone – really good quality . . . although it felt a little awkward to carry around, and I was always afraid I was going to drop it!  For the most part, I think I’ll still use my Nikon D3100, but it’s nice to know I can get good photos with the phone, too.