road trip recap: charleston, sc (part iii)

We wanted to spend our last day in Charleston exploring the historic downtown.  We woke up with the sun and had iced coffee and pastries at a bistro table on the cobblestoned street.  It was early on a weekday so the place was deserted--we had the city to ourselves!  We walked down East Bay and Rainbow Row and along the Battery, gazing awestruck at all of the amazing historic mansions.  There was a nice breeze off the water so we sat for a bit before continuing on.  Every street we turned onto was lined with beautiful homes.  We wandered through the market, where we bought an OOGLE ("Here in the low country, legend has it that after dark the streets fill with ghosts and goblins roaming about scaring anyone that doesn't have an Oogle to protect them. Oogles may be strange looking little critters, but don't let their size fool you.  They can and will take care of any size ghost or goblin.").  As we were exiting the market we walked past one of those sweetgrass stands that seem to be on every street corner, but this one had a pretty collection of flowers, and K bought me a single sweetgrass rose (so sweet)!  We chatted up the artist a bit and he told us that after seeing Charleston, Savannah (the "little sister") would fail to impress.

We took the noontime carriage tour with the Palmetto Carriage Company.  Our guide was really great, and we learned a lot about Charleston's architectural history (apparently Charleston has one of the largest protected historic districts in the world, second only to Rome!).  When the tour was over we started looking for a place to have dinner, and wound up at the Rooftop Bar at the Verdue Inn, where we had cocktails looking out over a panoramic view of the city and ocean (my white grape vodka martini was divine).  We kind of failed at dinner, driving wayyyyy out of town to the highest-rated pizza place in the area only to find it randomly closed for the evening, but did end up finding another place near our campground for wood-fired goodness.  We were already talking about what we would do when we return...

Next up: Savannah!