After just over a week in North Charleston, SC we are on our way to Fort Lauderdale for our flight to London. This house sit has been particularly challenging with 3 x dogs + 1 x cat that are all rescue animals. While we are pretty pet friendly people we have struggled with this crew and their different levels of anxiety. They ‘own’ the house and have been the hardest work so far, but hey you gotta take the good with the bad … ?! This little guy wouldn’t come for a walk with us, and most days had to be carried to his bed at night. He was scared of life and us.
I know one thing is for certain, they have seen more of ‘their neighbourhood’ in the last week than they ever have. I was mindful that their wee paws weren’t used to a walk, but took them twice a day for short walks and persevered with them being scared of the cars, the [school] buses, the kids and just about everything. Fortunately, we have been staying in a reasonably quiet area!!
The USS Yorktown is part of the naval museum at Patriots Point. We spent the afternoon here and ran out of time! And we only saw the 1/3 of the ship, that is open to the public! Actually that is not quite true, we chatted to one of the volunteers on board who had visited NZ and was planning on coming back. His wife [and him] were so interested with what we were doing and thought were really ‘brave’ to up and leave to explore. They just could not get their heads around this type of trip. The grilled us about the places we had been [many of which they have never been!] and decided that they might like to visit Drumheller, Alberta after we said what a fabulous time we had while staying there.
So not only are we up-selling New Zealand, we are up-selling USA / Canada and not to forget WordPress, Trip Advisor and Mind My House! They are all getting a lot of exposure and I now have followers on this blog that I have never even met, who seem to like what I am doing!
The actual aircraft carrier was such a cool ship, and we ventured right down in the engine room, kitchens, the mess halls, laundries, post office, medical and of course the ‘lodgings’. It had 3,500 crew on this ship … bit like a cruise liner but not as posh!! The volunteer who we had met, very kindly took us behind the ‘public areas’ and we got to explore in the bow and in other areas the public wasn’t allowed. In the front section of the ship they do camps for kids, scouts and that sort of thing. What a exciting experience for the kids. We crawled inside the space shuttle simulation which was a bit of fun … not much room in them!
We went into downtown Charleston several times and just walked and walked. It is such a beautiful place. I loved all the beautiful buildings, and just couldn’t wait to go around another corner to see which garden I could peak in. It is quite a romantic place [not that Colin noticed!!] and I just loved everything here.
I just think to say that you live at 130 1/2 Queen Street is so cute, there was 1/2 and 3/4 as well. It turns our those ‘fractions’ houses may well have been, the kitchens or the quarters for the hired help. Anyway the real estate in this part of town was impressive and with eye-watering price tags!!
Colonial Lake is again a ‘posh’ part of town and the house were absolutely delightful. When we arrived they were putting out 1,000 of those tea light bags for the big Christmas reveal, as well as lighting a big tree in the middle. If we didn’t have three anxious dogs, we may have ventured in with them for the lighting!!
The old jail was on our walking tour as well and I can see why the ghost tours are so popular there. It is creepy in daylight. It has been purchased and sold a few times, but at the moment it is at the ‘local council / heritage’ hearings – it could very well fall down before they all agree on anything.
Colin was keen for some clever photography here but I am sure if you try hard, you can imagine what he was thinking!!! We have seen a lot of these public water features around the place and they double as place for kids [and big kids] to play in the warmer temperatures. Seattle has a fantastic one and Vancouver’s was pretty impressive as well.
Waterfront Park is just such a beautiful park and this pineapple fountain is so much more magnificent than this picture accurately shows. The water flowing through it is hypnotising. Pineapples were a ‘luxury’ item in days gone by … lots of houses have pineapple sculptures on their gates but it was apparently ‘real pineapples’ displayed in your front windows to say ‘hey my husband is home’ [meant that the posh people knew you had exotic fruit and that your ‘lover’ better stay away!!!???!!!]
The rocks in these streets are made from ‘ships ballast’. They would fill those ships up with it from wherever they were travelling from and then off-load it in ports so they could fill with cargo. These streets are ‘ankle biters’ …. can’t image what a horse and carriage ride would be like, or stropping up and down these streets in ‘ya’ finery!!
Notice that the high tide is ‘higher’ than street level … Charleston is fearing global warming!! It is only 144 inches above sea level at its highest point !! This sea wall walk is just so lovely and walking along here gladdens your heart, especially when you have such perfect weather. ❣
I have a few more things to share, so will do a quick update before we fly to London!
“every day can be an adventure…”
Maytheroadriseuptomeetyou ... 