We had hoped to take a big, fancy trip for our 10th anniversary, but then we decided to redo our master bathroom. That sort of deflated our big plans, but we came up with a spending amount that was reasonable, and I set about finding us somewhere else to go.
I knew I wanted to go to a beach, and I knew it would need to be within driving distance. And I also knew we'd need to drop Biscuit off at my parents' house on the way.
So Charleston was the place.
Charleston is on a peninsula with a river on each side and the harbor at the bottom. It has a busy port with lots of ships coming in and out. We wanted an ocean view, so we booked an oceanfront room on Isle of Palms, about 20 minutes from downtown Charleston.
I usually do the event planning for our trips, but we decided that for this trip, we'd play it by ear. I planned two things for the whole week -- a walking tour and a dinner with my best childhood friend, which were both set for Tuesday.
The walking tour was led by a former photojournalist who started her own event photography business. When she and her family went on vacation to a big theme park, her family didn't allow her to take her camera. So she told her husband that they were going to stop at every single one of the roaming photographers in the park AND buy the photos they took.
And that gave her the idea for her tour business.
Her family got off the boat in Charleston in the mid-1700s, and she has her camera skills. So she combined the two with a 90-minute walking tour on which she takes pictures of her customers. She bases the tour around her family's history and how the big historical events in Charleston affected them. I've done many tours there, but I learned a good handful of things I had never known before.
One of her stories was about her great-great-great grandmother. Now, you never know if these stories have been, shall we say, enhanced through the years, but even so, this was a good one.
Her great-great-great grandmother lived down near the harbor during the Revolutionary War. A British officer came up to talk to her. She said to him, "Perhaps you've met my fiance," and she gave his name. The British soldier said, "No, I haven't had the pleasure." To which she replied, "Well, if you should find yourself fleeing Charleston in a hurry, take a glance over your shoulder, and you'll be able to make his acquaintance."
At one point during the tour, I decided to make sure our guide was truly from Charleston. This probably wasn't very nice of me, but I found out that she is indeed a Charlestonian.
She had just told us about a man who taught himself how to do ironwork like the swirls and curls you see on the gates and fences around Charleston. He wanted to be able to make repairs to older ironwork, and he wanted to be able to make new pieces that looked old. So I just casually mentioned to her that some of the art students in Savannah had created sterling silver pendants of some of the prettier fencework there. She just looked at me for a second and said, "Uh-hunh," and started telling another story about her family.
I looked at Jeff and winked. He didn't get it at the time, but later, I told him, "People from Charleston don't like people from Savannah. They think Savannah is beneath them."
Jeff said, "You knew that and poked her anyway?"
"Yes, I did," I told him. "I just had to make sure she was the real deal."
The tour ended up being Jeff and me and one other couple, so the tour lady took lots of pictures of us.
As part of the tour package, you get downloads of two photos. Then, of course, you can buy others. We had 27 photos to choose from. I narrowed ours down to seven and had already spotted my two favorites. When Jeff looked through them, he picked the same two favorites.
Here are our two favorite photos:
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| The church in the background is St. Philip's. It's the oldest church in Charleston. |
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| Our tour took us down several back alleys to see walls and iron gates and fences. |
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