Charleston, South Carolina

After some travel back home to Michigan, we flew back to South Carolina and moved back to Fika. Our boat patiently awaited us on Johns Island, just outside of Charleston.

Once we recovered from the travel, we picked a day to get up and pull ourselves together right away in the morning, order an Uber, and get dropped off at The Battery on the southern tip of Charleston. Unfortunately, when we arrived at The Battery, we found it under construction, obscuring the waterfront view.

Enjoying the shade of the trees in the park at The Battery.

Regardless, we enjoyed the shaded park. It was already SO HOT that day, and we were sweating. As we walked in the shaded trees, we noticed a lot of nests and very large baby birds. We discovered that the oak trees in the park were a regular nesting area, a rookery, for Night Herons! We enjoyed walking around and spotting nests and birds in the trees. At least, until they started to poop on us. Then we left and started to head toward Rainbow Row!

On our way up the eastern waterfront of Charleston toward Rainbow Row, we found a small cobblestone alley listed on Google Maps. We took a short side quest to find it and enjoyed the walk through an old-feeling alley for a couple of blocks.

Then we found Rainbow Row, took a few pictures, and acknowledged that it was, indeed, a row of pastel-colored houses. These homes were constructed in the 1740s and used by merchants to run their businesses on the ground floor and live on the upper floor. After the Civil War, it became a bit of a slum until part of the group of 13 homes was purchased in the 1930s, and the tide began to turn with restoration of the homes and the first coat of pastel pink.

A few of the 13 historical houses on Rainbow Row. The lower flowers served as the shops for the merchants who lived in the upper floors in the 1700s.

We were sweating even more after we passed Rainbow Row, so we took a water break and reapplied sunscreen in the shade of a nearby building. It was only 10:30 am, but we are from Michigan, and this heat and humidity are a lot for us to deal with! 😆

Signs around the fountain let us know it was okay to wade in the fountain on the first two steps!

We continued north along the parks and waterfront and found the Pineapple Fountain. To our great joy, we found this fountain to be a place where we could wade into the fountain water. Gwynnie and I (Alison) took off our shoes and enjoyed the cool water, while Chris and Ewan enjoyed taking pictures of the fountain. We met another family there and got ideas of where to eat in the area and some neat local attractions.

Thank the Lord for air conditioning, cold drinks, and fried food to reinvigorate ourselves!

When we were done wading, we decided an early lunch (and air conditioning) was in order and found ourselves in The Griffon, just up the road. It reminded us of a restaurant back home (Crazy Horse in Holland, MI!) with all of the dollar bills covering all spaces of the wall. We decided on a light lunch of appetizers and cold drinks to keep us going, hoping to find more delicious food later. We enjoyed wings, fried pickles, and french fries!

From there, we walked through town to the City Market. The City Market is several blocks of covered, long market space where vendors sell all sorts of goods. Our favorites were the sweetgrass baskets, well-known and historically significant in Charleston. We had watched a few videos about the baskets before our adventure day, and it was fun to see the artistry of the baskets in person! If you’d like to learn more, we watched this video and this video (both kid-friendly).

After the City Market, we found an ice cream shop called “Off Track.” The treat hit the spot and provided a well-deserved break from the heat and walking. All of the flavors we chose were delicious!

Then, we walked to the Fort Sumter Visitor Center. We tried to catch one of the free city buses, but each one we tried to get to was either 40 minutes delayed or passed the stop early. So we walked!

This ranger helped the kids understand the history around the beginning of the American Civil War and had lots of other stories about slaves escaping, what kids their age would have been doing during the 1860s, and more!

The Fort Sumter Visitor Center is part of the National Park Services and offers workbooks for kids (or adults!) to engage in the history of Fort Sumter and earn a Junior Ranger badge. We opted not to do the ferry tour because of the cost and timing, but we enjoyed learning quite a bit from the Visitor Center alone! The rangers were incredibly helpful and launched our study of the American Civil War and learning about the history of slavery in the United States here.

[Later, after studying the nautical charts, we learned that we could anchor near the fort and dinghy to shore without the tour. We may have to do that someday! It was interesting to sail through the bay and think about the ships making similar passages during the Civil War when we left Charleston a few days later.]

From there, we were exhausted but wanted to play tourists again and eat dinner at the famous Hyman’s Seafood. We opted to get an Uber across town to the restaurant, where we found it so popular that there would be a one-hour wait. The staff fed all the patrons hush puppies while we waited outdoors on their benches by their fans and spritzing waters. We enjoyed wandering the Hyman’s General Store a few times during our wait.

Chris is shocked at the size of Ewan’s burger, but our 11-year-old ate every bite!

Once we were able to get in, we enjoyed some great food. Ewan had a GIANT burger, Chris enjoyed shrimp & grits, Gwynnie had a smaller burger, and I enjoyed some Southern Meatloaf and corn ribs.

We enjoyed our time in Charleston and look forward to another visit someday!