Doing the Charleston

The travel guides warn against visiting Charleston, SC in the middle of summer. They say humid heat will spoil your trip. Luckily the guide books aren't always right. On Friday night two of my coworkers joined me for a road trip to the 4th busiest port on the East Coast. It's about 3 hours from Charlotte. We stayed at a dive hotel and then got up early to visit one of the historic forts when it opened at 9:30 a.m. Fort Moultrie is across the harbor from the more famous Fort Sumter. It's primary advantage over Sumter was that you could drive there, rather than taking a one-hour ferry ride. We were short on time and not too interested in getting seasick. Fort Moultrie was an active battle station during the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War II! We saw relics from each period and even saw a couple of underground controls rooms with vintage stuff from the 1940s. Very, very cool. And incidentally, though it was hot, a lovely seabreeze kept the day bearable.

The Fort is on the beach, where we wandered after the tour, stumbling on a wedding party hastily moving their gauze-draped chairs as the tide rapidly came in. A bunch of locals were standing in the shallows fishing flounder right off the shore. One of them was in her 50s or 60s, wearing a one-piece suit and aquasocks. She had the tattoo of a flounder on her inner thigh. Yes, I was staring at her, but you really couldn't miss the tattoo. We headed a few miles north to the Isle of Palms to see the waves (since the Fort and fishing were on the harbor side.) We didn't swim, which turned out to be lucky since a guy got bit by a shark there later that day. We just went to dip our toes in the water - the Atlantic is like bathwater compared to the frigid Pacific. Who knew? And the waves were decent enough for some surfers and boogie boarders to have fun. I'm definitely going back to camp on the beach and boogie board soon! (Must remember to pack a knife for warding off shark attacks.)

Food was next on the agenda - food is always high on the agenda when I travel. It's a family thing. We headed to historic Charleston 20 minutes away and over a nifty suspension bridge that looked like a ship. Boiled peanuts come complimentary with your meal at the legendary Hymans Restaurant. (I know it's legendary because it's in ever guidebook and because there are signed pictures of every star under the sun on the walls.) Boiled peanuts are a deep-south specialty, I guess. Slimy and soggy, but I like all kinds of peanuts, so they worked for me. So did the fried cornbread dough (hushpuppies) that came with my seared tuna. Sated, we set out to wander through the historic downtown: through the markets, into the French quarter and over to the part of town where one mansion after another featured double verandas and enormous windows. The entire city is under the protection of the historical society. Even changing your blinds requires city approval. But my is the result amazing! We came back along the harbor walk where yet more people were fishing - crab this time. You can tour about a half dozen of the historic homes in Charleston. One is 25,000 square feet or something insane like that.

We picked the more modest Aiken-Rhett House because it's in a state of "preservation" rather than "restoration." Never gave much thought to the difference, but rather than gussy the place up to look like it did in its heyday, the historical society has just left the place as is. You can see the same wallpaper and furnishings and remnants of Civil War life in nearly every room - albeit in various states of deterioration. Much of it was seriously damaged during Hurricane Hugo in the late 80s.

In all, Charleston more than met the raves - even in the middle of July. I'll be heading back soon, since our one-day whirlwind tour only scratched the surface of homes to tour, waves to ride and deep-fried food to inhale.