Charleston, South Carolina for boat maintenance and sightseeing

On Friday, April 17 we arrived at Ross Marine for scheduled boat maintenance for Monday. It is located on Craig's Island, part of John's Island, just outside of Charleston, South Carolina. They allowed us to stay there for the weekend since our haul-out was for early Monday morning. We had a great view of a wedding venue all weekend from the boat. Meanwhile, our friends Roylana and Yves (boat YKnotX) had their  boat already hauled out for repairs and were in a hotel so they picked us up Saturday and Sunday for sightseeing. Saturday we saw the "Angel Oak" on John's Island, the largest live oak tree east of the Mississippi and is 400 years old.  Then we toured Middleton Place, a historic home and plantation on the Ashley River. Arthur Middleton was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The main house was burned in the Civil War, but there is a guest house they lived in, the stables, farm animals,  slave house, and the gardens and rice fields. We saw more alligators in the pond there than we have so far on this trip! We had a drink at the historic restaurant there and met Will, an Air Force contractor. 

On Sunday, Roylana and Yves, took us to a farmer's market and brunch at the Charleston Pour House on James Island. They had great local products, live music and good food! Later we went to Folly Beach and the pier there. It was a nice relaxing day with good friends! Then we went back to the boat to await the haul out for Monday and enjoyed a beautiful sunset!

On Monday, Ross Marine hauled out the boat to work on the shaft seals and check other things. We now needed to go to a hotel so Roylana graciously dropped us off downtown at the Fairfield Inn. (The second photo is of our boat on the left and Roylana and Yves YKnotX on the right.) This was the first of 3 days of touring the historic Charlestown downtown area. To get an overview we toured with Old South Carriage Company. Tucker was our Belgian draft horse and Nicole our tour guide. We enjoyed it and learned a lot about Charleston's rich history. We walked to nearby Henry's, Charleston's oldest restaurant and enjoyed the rooftop. We walked to many other sights including St. Michael's Church, a statue of George Washington , and Rainbow Row. Later we had dinner at The Watch Rooftop Kitchen. Tim and I always enjoy rooftop restaurants, which continued throughout the week!

On Tuesday, April 21, we toured Fort Sumter, located in Charleston Harbor, and accessible by a ferry called The Spirit of the Low Country,  from Liberty Square. Fort Sumter is the sight of the start of the Civil War when it was attached by Confederate Forces on April 12, 1861. Its ruins were never rebuilt, but parts were added to it and it was used in World War II. After that, we walked to some other sights  along the water, including the Pineapple Fountain and Griffin's English Pub. We walked through the City Market as well. We, of course, had to try another rooftop restaurant, this one called the Rooftop at the Vendue Hotel. We enjoyed talking to  a couple who were on the cruise ship, the Norwegian Jewel parked in Charleston Harbor,  Dale and Charlene,  from Pennsylvania. 

On Wednesday, we had some boat issues to contend with causing us to stay another day. After that we did some shopping and then met some friends from Minnesota who happened to be in Charleston the same week, Peter and Colleen, and their son Cole, at Pearlz  Oyster Bar for appetizers. Peter is the brother of our good friend, Keith, who we happened to be texting with us and he told us Peter was there. It is such a small world and Colleen used to work with my good friend from childhood, Tanya, from Muscatine. As Tim and I walked back a different way (our hotel was a couple miles from downtown) we came across a couple of beautiful parks, Cannon Park and Colonial Park. There are a few photos throughout this blog of honeysuckle  flower hedges  The aroma from those flowers was a wonderful serendipity of being here in April.  We also discovered an Italian restaurant (rooftop of course) called Allora and had a great dinner there. Thursday, we headed back to Ross Marine as they were launching the boat at 1:00 and then doing the oil change. We finally were able to leave on Friday morning. Our next stop would be Georgetown, South Carolina, the third oldest city in South Carolina! More on that and working our way to Southport, North Carolina and then driving to Carolyn's college graduation in Kentucky!