THE REST OF THE STORY

Prior my last blog I talked about the first day of our trip to Charleston. Here is “The Rest of the Story”.

After we got a good nights sleep we set off on day two. First breakfast at Hominy Grill. Before I can continue I must make a detour. After a few visits to internet restaurant sites to get recommendations, and also checking out the Concierge at the motel, I have come to the conclusion that the most important thing for a true Charleston restaurant is how good their shrimp and grits are. Nearly every restaurant advertised that they have the best shrimp and grits in town. It was like the quest for the Holy Grail. Where can we get the best shrimp and grits? Hominy Grill was one of those places. Now I am not real high on shrimp and grits before noon, but it was on the menu.

Anyway, thanks to the concierge we got reservations at Hominy Grill, plugged the address into Maggie and away went. I was somewhat surprised when she announced “You have arrived’. The place from the outside hardly looked like a restaurant, but we went in and were greeted by the friendly staff who had a table waiting for us that the concierge reserved. We were a few minutes late but the owner came to greet us and told us that even though we were a bit late, she would allow us to order off the breakfast menu. She made us feel very welcome. I took the menu and noticed they had county ham for some of the entrees so I asked if I could have country ham, eggs, grits and biscuits. The waitress told me they did not serve country ham. Oh well. I started to ask about green eggs, but since there was no ham, I decided I had better not press my luck. Sandra ordered the obligatory shrimp and grits. All in all a fairy good meal, but it was evident to me that Charleston’s reputation was not estabalished on breakfast. I would still recommend the restaurant. The folks were really nice even if their menu was not exactly accurate and the price was about what you would expect.

The next big item of the day was a bus tour of the city. Now we could have purchased the historic walking tour, but as I stated before why walk when there are perfectly good gasoline burning buses trolling the city with genuine tour guides that have lived in the city for over two years. I have found that bus tours are generally worth their money because they will take you places you would not normally go by yourself. This was no exception. They talked about things we would not have known otherwise and promptly forgot once we finished the tour. This was evident in that there were a few places we wanted to go back to but could not remember how we got there. We looked for the slave museum for nearly and hour and finally decided that they must have relocated after the tour. I am sure that somewhere in Charleston there is a great slave museum, but we never found it again.

After the tour we went downtown to Central Market. This is a market downtown where anyone in the world can sell the stuff you wouldn’t buy anywhere else. You know the genuine country trinkets made in Taiwan. This is also where the gullah baskets are sold. Sandra warned me that they were very expensive and that she was not in the market for one, so naturally we wound up buying one. Some of those baskets costs more that a small car. They are made by descendents of the slaves in the area. Or at least that what their PR firm published. They won’t let you take their picture because they said it was against their religion. Personally I think it is to keep you from documenting their true ancestry. Any way, when you come to our house you can ooh and aw at it. I am truly in awe of how I was talked into paying so much for a basket. Vacations will do that to normally sane people. Oh after the basket purchase, we had some more truly great local cuisine, pizza. Not bad, pizza and nachos already. What more great culinary delight were to follow.

That night we went to Coast’s. You remember the place that we tried to go to the night before. This time we did not trust the local desk clerk, we called ahead for reservations. Sure enough we got their precisely at the time of the reservations and only had to wait for 30 minutes before the table was ready. Needless to say, I am beginning to think that Charleston is not big on being on time. The seafood there was really good though and I would recommend it, just make sure you have reservations.

That night we purchased tickets for the Gravesite Walking Tour. Notice the name waking in the title. Come to find out that this was somewhat of a misnomer. We arrived at 9:30 PM for our appointed date with the ghouls. Now I must point out we already had to walk a mile from the parking deck to get to the place that tour started. When we arrived, along with what must have been half the population of Charleston, I noticed all the young ladies that were conducting the tours. I convinced myself that maybe this would be ok. Two perky young ladies came out and began calling the names or their group. Soon our tour guide walked out and I got really excited because this guy must have been 75 if he was a day. My first thought was that this guy probably knew half the folks in the cemetery personally and that since he was such an old codger, I might actually be able to keep up with him. Well turns out I was half right. He did seem to know a lot about the folks planted around but he was not slow. First thing he said was that we were scheduled to be in the first graveyard in 5 minutes. Did I mention the walking part of the tour? Turns out this guy walks faster than I run. But I was proud of myself after the 1 mile run. Hadn’t done that since high school. I began to wonder if I wouldn’t be the latest addition to the tour. We lost about half our group. They seemed to be expecting to meet some of the local spooks personally and got upset that some ghosts didn’t rise from the grave to welcome them to Charleston. By the time we got back from the tour, we only had five folks left. Thankfully I was one of the five. I still had some nitroglycerin tablets left too. Take that you goofy ghosts. I was elated until I remembered we were still a mile from the parking deck. I slept well that night.

I would highly recommend a thrilling run through the cemetery to end the day. Make for some interesting and exhilarating dreams that night.

Next blog will finish out our whirlwind tour.