Georgia On My Mind

We have been having a blast exploring around Charleston, but I have always wanted to go to Savannah. I just hear it is beautiful and magical and the pictures look perfect! So, last Saturday (July 13) we decided to take a day trip down there. We left early in the morning and drove down, and I loved the drive because we drove through the country on a little two way highway. That's my favorite way to drive, and even if it takes a little longer it's the way I prefer. It was both beautiful and hilarious because we saw lots of trees and rivers as well as these:

Signs like this still make me laugh. Boiled peanuts and peaches: what more could you possibly want? But you only get one peanut. Also, it's "boild." It's okay, spelling is hard.

The first thing we did when we got to Savannah was check out the St. John the Baptist Cathedral. It was beautiful! It reminded me a lot of the cathedral we saw in St. Louis, but this time we got to take pictures and just walk around instead of going to mass.

After the cathedral we headed over to walk around on River Street, which is the main thing to do in Savannah. It's the main street downtown but is unique in that there are lots of cute little shops and restaurants on the left side and then a big river on the right. You can walk on the cobblestone streets by the shops or right down by the water. Either way, it's awesome! There are lots of ways to get to River Street, but all of them involved really steep stairs haha.

Look at that hotty!!!

Like this.

Or this.

Or these.

Rusty loved watching the huge cargo carriers come through.

Us on the River Walk!

After we walked around on River Street we went and got lunch at a cool cafe (delish sandwiches and desserts!!) and then found ourselves at one of the oldest cemeteries in the country, Bonaventure. We walked around here and looked at the cool headstones and the dates (so old!) and just enjoyed walking around for a little. One of the cool things that we saw was when we were walking through a Jewish cemetery (I'm telling you, Bonaventure is HUGE) and noticed that most of the graves had lots of stones on them. We didn't know why, so we did what all inquisitive minds do and googled it. Turns out in the Jewish community, flowers are not used at funerals (they are excessive and not necessary because they were always buried that night instead of waiting) and so people will bring stones when they visit the gravesite. They collect a stone every time they think of that person and then bring all of them to the gravesite to leave there; kind of as a way of saying I was thinking about you and wishing you were with me. Pretty cool actually I think.

After the cemetery we drove out to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge which is a park that goes through some protected land where you can see lots of cool animals! You can even just drive through so no mosquitoes eat you (much appreciated) but you can still see everything. The best parts were:
finally seeing alligators in the wild
meeting a bird that looked like a miniature of the bird from Up.


I see signs all the time for alligators, and people tell me all the time where I shouldn't go so that I don't get eaten, but I have never actually seen one while I've been here except for a little baby we saw in a pond. Here we got to see five! It was really cool, and now I feel like I will be able to spot them in the pond around us here. (Sidenote: it's actually kind of funny because alligators are in all of the lakes and rivers around Charleston, but it doesn't stop people from swimming in them. They just say it's kind of eerie because you get in and see all of these alligators around you. Okay. What in the world?!? Are these people insane!?!?!) The bird was cool and liked to hop around which made him cooler.

After the wildlife stuff we went back downtown and walked through some parks and got some ice cream from a cute old fashioned placed that is very famous (pictures of celebrities all over the walls eating there) and delicious. (I still liked the one on Kiawah Island better though) When we were walking back to our car to go home it started raining. Something about the rain here is that it's not normal. Nothing is normal here haha. It will start raining and a little bit of rain will come down, and then literally within 1 minute it will be POURING. POURING, POURING, POURING. So we got caught in the rain and decided to just hide out under one of those little umbrella things that stores sometimes have outside above the door. We just waited and there because the other thing about the rain here is that if you wait 5 minutes it will stop and be sunny again. It's funny, but hiding out and eating our ice cream together while watching the rain is actually my favorite memory of Savannah.

History: Downtown Tour

We took a walking tour downtown on Saturday to find out a little bit more about the city. Charleston is so rich in history (it was settled in 1860) that there is just too much to be able to learn online. Plus, you miss out on the cool little stories and facts that only people who have lived here know. We found a Groupon for a tour before we even moved here, so we cashed that baby in. And boy was it a blast! I don't think I have ever enjoyed a tour so much; it truly made me love Charleston that much more. Our tour guide was named Ed and he was the best. He told things how they really are and told everything like one giant story. Here are a few things that I learned:

• Charleston used to have a wall around it (right up to the harbor) that was 16 feet tall. The wall was there for about 20 years until they decided to take it down. They took it down because it was no longer necessary (pirates stopped being a threat), and it was actually impeding commerce.

This brick inlay shows where the wall used to be. It's crazy that this side of it was all ocean and now there are a ton of buildings and houses there!

• Pirates stopped being a threat because of Blackbeard. Blackbeard's real name was Edward Teach, and he was one heck of a pirate. He was 6'4" at a time when everyone else was about 5'6". My favorite story that I learned about him was that one of his favorite pastimes was scaring old women and children, so he would wrap hemp up in his beard and then light it on fire. Then he would go up to them and tell them that he had just returned from hell, and his beard was the brimstone still burning to prove it. Hahaha. I love it. Well, ironically this great pirate was the downfall of piracy in Charleston. He went out in the harbor and commandeered a ship that had a lot of wealthy, important people on it (including one of the city councilmen and his 5 year old son). He told them that if they did not give him the money and medicine that he needed for his crew he would send their heads back in boxes to the city. Well, the city decided to give them whatever they asked and once he had it, Blackbeard took the ship and sent the people safely back to shore in a rowboat. The catch is, he sent them back naked. This was so horrifying and humiliating that Charleston vowed to put an end to piracy. Up until that point, piracy was looked down upon, but pirates were still allowed to come to Charleston to eat, drink, and... spend time with the ladies. After this, any time that a pirate would come ashore they hung him in the street and left his body to rot as a symbol to other pirates of their future. Pirates are very superstitious, and to them not being buried at sea like their heroes OR buried in a cemetery like good Christians was a fate worse than death. Well, this tactic worked and a few years later the wall was lowered.

This was a bar of sorts when Blackbeard was around, and one of his favorite places to stop.

• There are 88 churches in Charleston alone, and upwards of 800 in the greater Charleston area. It was called The Holy City, but not only for the amount of churches, but also because there were so many churches of different faiths that got along well. Also, as a side note, for every church there were at least 7 pubs and 4 brothels in the city. So... that changes the perspective a little bit. :) But still to this day, churches are all over Charleston.

St. Phillip's, originally built in 1680. Probably my favorite church downtown.

This is now a "ritzy" part of Charleston, a pretty expensive area. Which is all relative because any property in Charleston will cost you an arm and a leg. The funny thing is, this area used to be like the red-light district back in the 1800's. You can tell by the shutters what kind of people worked there (what kind of prostitutes you could get here).

Apparently blue shutters with moons cut out was the symbol for Irish women.

• Charleston boasts having the first theatre ever built in the United States. It was built in 1736 and was called the Playhouse in Dock Street. Later, it was destroyed in a fire and rebuilt as the Planter's Hotel. After the Civil War, everyone was too poor and too demoralized to care about the building so it became overrun with vines and rats. Later it was cleaned up and turned back into a theatre again. Now it is known as the Dock Street Theatre.

• In the mid 1800's there were 13 different fire companies in Charleston. They worked kind of like insurance companies. You would pick a company and pay them to watch over your house and to help you out if you ever had a fire. They would put a symbol on your house so that people would know they were the ones that you had chosen. Well, this would have worked fine but back then news of fires was essentially seeing the smoke and then every fire company would race out to the scene thinking that it could be one of their houses. The problem was that with so many companies going in the same direction on small one-way streets with their horse drawn carriage, it would take so long for the one company that needed to be there to get there that the house (and the neighbor's houses) would have already burned down. In 1882 the city decided to do away with the different companies and instead put in the first municipal fire department in the United States.

This was the fire station.

One symbol.

Another symbol. 

• The Old Market is often called the Slave Market. This is misleading because slaves were never sold there (which is something that any Charlestonian is quick to point out) but instead they were allowed to go to the Market and try to sell some of the things that they made. They would have to wear labels while there that had their name, their master's name, and their serial number. Slaves were, however, sold in private auction homes. A law was passed forbidding slaves to be sold in public (it looked bad to visitors getting off a boat because the first thing they saw was a human being sold like property) but they could still be sold in private. This is the only Slave Auction Building still standing in Charleston today. In the backyard (now a parking lot) a slave would play the fiddle and the rest of the slaves would have to dance. This wasn't for enjoyment or to be nice, this was to get them in shape. The ship/carriage ride to Charleston was long and had terrible conditions. Before they could be sold they had to be brought up to better physical condition. 

The old slave mart.

This parking lot was the backyard where the exercises happened.

• Rainbow Row is a row of houses that were painted in very bright, Caribbean colors. This was done because these bright colors reflect the heat of the sun so well.Today there are many laws dictating what colors house downtown can be painted and the renovations that can be done. These laws have made it so the houses on Rainbow Row have to be painted the same original colors they were painted before. With time, the bright paint of these houses had all faded to a dull grey. Because of everything that happened with the War Between the States nobody cared enough to change anything until the early 20th century when an old widow bought one of the houses and painted it bright pink again. She did this to spruce up the neighborhood and give a little big of hope. Her doing this caused a chain reaction and Rainbow Row was born again.

I love Rainbow Row. It is so pretty. Even better in person!

• Something else interesting about the architecture in Charleston is that the people wanted to build their houses like what was being built in Europe, which was large blocks instead of bricks. But, slaves here in Charleston were baking bricks so fast and often that anything else was entirely too expensive and unwise to use. So, they would build their house and buildings out of brick and then cover it with stucco and draw in fake lines that would make it look like they were just like the other buildings. Haha. Also, the same laws that deal with the colors of houses make it so that you cannot remodel this aspect of the house OR do any faux aging to a building either.

• One way to tell if a building is original or not is to look for these: they are earthquake bolts that were used after a big earthquake in 1886. They were put into the house to offer reinforcement, stability, and to help bring houses back together again. During this time Charleston was extremely poor. After the earthquake they couldn't afford to rebuild so they put in these bolts and turned them a 1/4 turn every day until the house straightened up again. 

• The porches in Charleston all face toward the ocean because of the breeze that comes from the coast. It is so hot here and that breeze was the only thing to give them sanity. They also had fake doors that would lead back to the porches to let neighbors and friends know if they were "indisposed" at the time. Back then, even showing an ankle was improper, so by closing the door to the porch the family could roll up their sleeves and their pants and cool off.

• Charleston played a big role in the Revolutionary War. The alleys down by the shore were (and still are) very narrow: 17 bricks wide. This was just wide enough for two British soldiers to stand next to each other and block everything off. 

A particular incident in Charleston also helped encourage American soldiers to fight in the war. There was an American soldier that was being held as a prisoner of war by the British and would only be released if he agreed to never fight against the British Army again. His wife and children were sick and dying, and so he agreed and signed the document so that he could be free to go and help them. When they died, he hated the British for keeping him away from them and decided that he would fight against them regardless of the oath that he had taken. When the British caught him again, they decided that they would hang him for his crimes. They thought that this would squash the rebellion, but just the opposite happened. People who had been on the fence about the War were outraged and decided to join the cause.

This was the house where he was kept prisoner until they decided what to do with him. 

During the Revolutionary War, a church was used as a lookout tower took three cannon balls through the roof. Because it was white it proved to be an easy target, so during the War they painted it black. This church (St. Michael's Church) is the oldest church in Charleston that is still the original edifice. It was built in 1752 and has survived the Revolutionary War, tornadoes, fires, hurricanes, and the Civil War.

One last thing about the Revolutionary War. I have mentioned before that the people here in South Carolina love the Palmetto tree, like a weird amount. It's all over cars and clothes and buildings. Well, hearing this story showed me why. When the British were fighting against the Colonies at Fort Moultrie, the palm trees acted as a great defense against the cannons. Apparently the logs of the fort were soft enough that they absorbed the cannonballs instead of shattering from the force. This allowed the soldiers to remove the cannonballs and load them into their own cannons and fire them at the British. This save countless lives and let them win that battle.

• The number four source of revenue for Charleston is filming. Things like The Patriot, Army Wives,  The Notebook and Dear John were all filmed here. A funny story is that there was an old lady that didn't want them to film by her house because they dumped dirt all over the sidewalk so that it looked like it was way back in the day. To protest, she drove her Jaguar up on her lawn and refused to move it. The film company offered her all kinds of money but she wouldn't budge. Eventually they had to build a HUGE wagon and park it out in front of her house to hide it. In response, the old lady would play Bach from her room upstairs with the window open when they were trying to film. Silly old woman. One of the reasons that filming is so popular here is because of the diversity. There are houses here from the 1700's, 1800's, and 1900's. Because of certain catastrophes such as fires, hurricanes, and the wars, some houses were destroyed while others survived. This has lead to the great diversity that can be found in downtown Charleston.

The peach house was built in  the 1700's, the brick and siding one was built in the 1900's and the one further down the street was built in the 1800's. Fires and destruction from the Civil War took out the houses and caused them to be rebuilt in different times.

• Charleston was also important in the Civil War. The paperwork for the Secession was done in a home in Charleston. This home.

• The streets downtown used to be cobblestone but there are only a few blocks that still are. These stones were brought over from England in the 1700's to be used as ballast in the ships. Once they got here they didn't need the extra weight anymore because they were bringing stuff back with them to England so they dumped here in Charleston. The people decided to use them for their streets.

That's pretty much it. I know it's a lot of history, but hey, I warned you in the title :)

Just Lately in June

Well, we've had a lot more great adventures here and are loving our summer! It's so nice to have a break from school and homework and to just be able to relax and hang out. I started writing about these things as they happened but then time got away from me and here it is the end of June, so here's a little summary of what we've been up to for June, sorry it's so long!

Tropical Storm Andrea

So, one new thing that happened was that we both experienced our first tropical storm. It rained soooo much it flooded a little bit in our neighborhood (luckily not in or by our apartments) and was windy... that's about it. I guess I should be glad that nothing happened, and I am, but still... a little disappointing Andrea. 

The part of our neighborhood that flooded. Apparently floods can get so bad downtown that people use kayaks to get around haha. 

USS Yorktown

There is a ton of history here (as I've said before) and it blows my mind. They literally have buildings here that are older than when Idaho became a state. And the stories of what happened here goes back to the settlement of the nation, and beyond that with the Native American tribes that lived in this area. Though I don't know why you would live here without air conditioning and bug spray, but that's besides the point. One of the first things that we did here was head out to tour the Yorktown. It sits in the Cooper River just off of Charleston Harbor  next to another ship and a submarine. You get to tour all three and they were all interesting. The Yorktown in so incredibly large, I just can't handle how it floats on water haha. And the submarine was so small I got claustrophobic so I don't even have any pictures of it haha. I hated it down there and have no idea how people live like that. 

The USS Yorktown is an aircraft carrier that was built during WWII. It has seen a lot of different places and has been a part of important incidents in the war. I can't remember how many people stayed on it at one time, but it was a lot. Somewhere between 3-4,000. As seen by this recipe calling for 10,000 chocolate chip cookies. :) 

The USS Yorktown

This is the USS Laffey

Beds

Barber shop on board :)

This is a sliver of the original flag that flew on the USS Laffey and made it through WWII.

Can you believe actual surgeries happened in this tiny room?

Command post!

Giant bullet. Probably has a more scientific name but I don't know it.

Chocolate chip cookie recipe. 500 eggs and 12 pounds of butter... 

Flight deck.

I did manage to get one picture of the submarine... :)

Mystery Theatre

So, this last weekend was great. We laughed so hard because we did the strangest things, at least for us. Definitely out of our comfort zone. Friday night we went to a Mystery Theatre that we found when we were walking around downtown and walked past this sign that said The Black Fedora Mystery Theatre. We decided to go inside and ended up talking to the manager and decided to go see the show called Inspector Noclues. It was supposed to be funny instead of serious, so we thought it was a good choice. Well, when we walked into the theatre we noticed that there was no stage. Just a small area at the front that was not nearly big enough for a whole play. As it started, we realized that it made sense because they use the audience. A lot. A whole lot. Like, both Rusty and I had multiple parts. If you know either of us at all, you know that this is not something that we would do. Ever. But let me tell you, it was HILARIOUS. Rusty played the part of a hippy and he did so good. His voice was absolutely hilarious and everyone loved him. I played a big boss lady and then had to go up to sing a song with a group of people. Anyways, the play was funny and cool because it was different and it was awesome to be able to participate. After the show we walked around downtown and went through the Old City Market. I love downtown here.

Outside the theatre!

Shaggin on the Cooper

Another thing that Rusty and I never do is dance. But... there was this swing dancing party going on at the pier down on the Cooper River and I really wanted to give it a try. Saturday afternoon we went to the beach and flew our kite, played in the sand, body surfed and walked on the pier. Then we went home and got ready for this dance. It couldn't have been in a more beautiful spot and the band there was awesome. They played all kinds of great songs and before I knew it, it was time to go. A few hours had passed without us even realizing it (well maybe he did, he didn't really love the dancing haha). It was so fun to try something new and I realized that I love dancing when I get to dance with him.

Where the dance was...

After the dance we went and played at a playground close by. We spun on these things until I almost puked.

Farmers Market

We've gone to the Farmers Market a few times here, and in a few different places. Every town has their own on a different day, so depending on when we want some fresh produce we just go there! And let me tell you, I have had some of the best peaches and tomatoes that I've ever had. The one downtown is the biggest because it not only has produce but it has food vendors come in too. One time we decided to get a gyro from this Greek tent and the lady there was so sweet. She just looked at us and asked if we were dating. And I said that we were married, and she said "Oh good. One day you two will have beautiful babies." Haha she was straight from Greece so she had a great accent which made it all better. 

Waterfront Park

One night we just wanted to chill and slackline in a park so we looked for one online. When we got there, it is actually really awesome! It's right on the Cooper River and has a whole bunch of art scultpures, a lot like the Art Park in Seattle. We got there and watched the sun set and saw a HUGE cargo ship go through too. 

Ponds = Alligators

So, any body of water here is full of some alligators. That's just a given. But somehow, up until now we have only seen one alligator: a baby one. But I know if we looked longer we would see them, but part of me doesn't want to just stand by a pond and look for alligators when I am close enough they could eat me. Because who knew, but alligators actually can run. Really super fast. And that is terrifying to me. Also, the playground at the camp where I work has a pond to one side that is separated by a fence but because of all the rain the fence and the ground now have a pretty big gap. Just big enough for an alligator to slide through. So guess what duty also comes with making sure children down kill themselves on the monkey bars? Yep, looking for gators. I honestly don't even understand how that just came out of my head. I never thought I would think that haha. Oh also, the first week of June three alligators were run over by cars. This is a whole new world that's for sure.

Party in the Park

So, the radio here is kind of hilarious. The stations are mostly gospel, and that's it. I finally found one country station that I just pretty much listen to all day every day when I'm driving around, and it is actually really good. They did this thing called Party in the Park every Tuesday in June. It was a free concert outside where they had up and coming country artists come and sing (the last one was Easton Corbin which was awesome!) Anyways, we went to three of those concerts and they were all a blast. The concerts were all at the Memorial Park in Mt. Pleasant.

Ravenel Bridge

So there are two bridges that go from the penninsula we live on over to Mt. Pleasant (where I work). I take one bridge every day called the Holt Bridge, and it's pretty cool. Nice view, nice bridge, whatever. But there is another bridge called the Ravenel Bridge and it is super awesome. It just looks cool and has these giant cables and is just huge. Also, this is the bridge that had a guy threatening to jump off a few weeks ago and the policeman got him to come down for Andolini's Pizza. So, that's cool I guess. Another cool thing about this bridge is that there is a pedestrian walkway on it! It has really cool views of Charleston and of the Cooper River going out to the ocean. You can also see Ft. Sumter and the USS Yorktown really well. Anyways, we decided to walk over this bridge on our way to one of the concerts and it was awesome. 2 1/2 miles long with some cool lookout points; definitely worth it for us.

Kiawah Island

Kiawah Island will definitely be added to more in the future because we just barely crossed over onto the island the Friday that we went out there. But it was tons of fun! It's a private island with really rich people living there... we just go to visit. If they will let us (we still haven't had to cross over the gates so we'll find out soon). When we went out we went to Freshfields Village to see an outdoor concert. They were actually really good and were big on audience participation so we ended up at the front doing some dancin :) After that we went to Vincent's Old Fashioned Soda Shop. It was so cute and everything was vintage, so obviously I was in love with it. After that we walked around the shops a little bit, played in a toy shop, and then went home.

The drive out to Kiawah Island is stunning. These giant live oak trees go across the road and are so big.

Paddle Boarding

Okay, easily the coolest thing I've done so far here. Maybe ever. We decided to try paddle boarding because we've never done it before and because it is "the thing to do" here. Everyone does it, or says they've done it before, and there are always people doing it when we go to Shem Creek. Shem Creek is also the place with all of the dolphins, so we thought what better way to hopefully see some dolphins! So we headed out there on Saturday at around 11 and got all set up. The place we went with is right on the water so we had our instruction and then walked ten feet and headed out. Literally as we were getting in the water we saw a dolphin. I just knew it was going to be a great day! During the whole trip we saw about twenty of them, sometimes as close as three feet away. I could hear them blowing water out of their blowholes and saw them so close. It was absolutely fantastic. We also decided to go up a smaller creek which was absolutely beautiful with all of these trees on one side and beautiful houses on the other. The water was so still and calm and we were jumping in and swimming around that I couldn't help but think that Andy Griffith was going to walk by sometime. Also, paddle boarding is actually not hard at all. I even ended up doing a little yoga :)

 

Sullivan's Island

There are lots of beaches around here but the two most popular are Folly and Isle of Palms. We heard about a beach called Sullivan's Island and decided to give it a shot on Saturday after we went paddle boarding, and I think we have found a new favorite. Each beach has something great about it (Folly has a cool pier, Isle of Palms is beautiful) but Sullivan's is cool because it is less popular and therefore less crowded. I didn't know why until we got there, but it's because they don't allow any alcohol on the beach. Well, obviously Rusty and I do not have any problem with that. And we loved that it wasn't crowded! We went out and body surfed and played in the water and had a great time. And bonus, we were really close to a cool lighthouse. And Rusty caught a crab. On accident. All great things.

Riverdogs Game

On Thursday we went to a baseball game! The Riverdogs are Charleston's team and they were playing a team from North Carolina called (get this haha) the Crawdads. The Riverdogs and the Crawdads. I really couldn't make these things up. The game was awesome and although I personally think that baseball games are slow and can be boring, they feel very summery to me and always make me happy it's summertime. And Rusty loves them so I can't complain to much. :) Oh and there was this cute little old man that was selling peanuts and he would go around and sing songs. I loved him.

Attempts to Hike

Rusty and I like to be outside and we like to hike. I got a book for my birthday about hikes to do in South Carolina and we finally whipped it out and decided that if we went in the evening it wouldn't be too hot. That was true, but we still didn't make it the whole hike. Here's why. We drive out to this place called Ion Swam in the National Forest and I am stoked. I was so excited to go to this swamp. We park the car and as soon as we get out there is a swarm of mosquitoes. Luckily we had our bug spray so we are just spraying everything; all over our clothes, our hair, our faces, the air around us. Absolutely everything. Then we start down the trail and there are all these things moving on the ground, which was really grossing me out. I couldn't handle it because I thought they were spiders. Good news though, they were just teeny tiny frogs. Which is better, but not by much. Anyways, every time we would stop all you could hear is this insanely loud buzzing coming from all around you. After a few minutes of this we just had to turn around. This swamp definitely beat us, and Rusty has some videos on his phone to prove it. We laughed so hard we wouldn't have been able to breathe even if the bug spray wasn't suffocating us.

I was trying to get a picture of the tiny frogs at a run while I escaped the mosquitoes... you can see one on the very left. 

I am not sure why, but after this hike we decided to still go try the other hike we had planned for that night. I guess we thought since it wasn't a swamp it would be better? We drove out to this place that was a ceremonial site for Native Americans. There is some significance about oyster shells being placed in a circle... but I don't know what it is. But it's the largest one of those in the country so that's.... cool. Walking through the woods to get out to the salt marsh was a little tricky. Here when you are hiking you have to think about spiders and snakes and frogs and mosquitoes and lizards which can make things a little complicated. But we made it out there. And good news, once we got out onto the marsh there were no bugs and it was BEAUTIFUL. Just like in a movie. Blue skies, beautiful green grass coming through the water, white birds diving down all around us. Just picturesque. We even found some crabs which has never happened to me before on a hike. This is a strange place.

You see crabs in random places here. Like on the sidewalks and climbing up trees.

Rusty's crabby friend.