Historic Charleston
We stayed at the Ansonborough Inn in the historic district. We enjoyed the
fresh cookies in the afternoon and evening. We spent our first afternoon
at the Charleston Museum, checking out the strange variety of exhibits.
Some were about local history, while others were just collected by someone
local a long time ago (see the 150 year old polar bear below...).
We picked up a self-guided walking tour book at the visitor center, and spent
pretty much a whole day walking around the city. We were surprised to
discover that the standard carriage ride is basically a carriage bus:
one or two horses pulling four rows of tourists. We didn't think that would
work with a wiggly little boy, so we arranged a private one. Evan really liked
the horses, but fell asleep shortly after we were underway.
Our hotel was a converted warehouse.
This polar bear has been one of the most popular items in the Charleston museum since it was installed in the 1800s.
Evan liked opening and closing the barrel.
This is a full scale model of the Huntley, which
disappeared off the coast of Charleston after
sinking a Union ship.
in our room at the Ansonborough Inn
This is the Episcopal Church. Our carriage driver
pointed out that it's on a hill (the Lowcountry
version of a hill...)
They stored gunpowder in this building. It has sand in the roof that would fall down and put out the fire if it ever exploded.
There's lots of decorative wrought iron in Charleston. This gate in front of the Episcopal Church has decorative pineapples, a symbol of hospitality.
The Dock Street Theatre
The Pink House was built in the 1690s and was a tavern and brothel.
The iron X on the side of the building is the anchor for a bar that runs the width of the building. These were added after the earthquake in 1886 damaged lots of buildings.
Each of the lions carved on this building has a different expression.
Looking south on Rainbow Row
We stopped in Washington Park so that Evan could practice walking around in the grass.
Paul thought this guy's name was funny.
These are new houses by Charleston standards, only 100 years old.
These scary looking spikes were added to protect the owners in case of a slave rebellion.
The Charleston single house is only one room wide. You can see the iron reinforcing bar between the top two windows.
Apparently people who live in the historic district don't want to step in horse pee when they leave their fancy houses. The horses wear diapers, but if there's an accident, the driver throws out a weighted flag to mark the spot and calls in Carriage Tour Sanitation to clean up the mess.
This is a private garden that we could look into only because they were working on the pool.
