Charleston, SC - The Next Port

Posted: November 18, 7:30 am | (permalink) | (0 comments)

So mostly, this is what cruising is – live aboard the boat (for a short time, a long time, or forever, as it suits you); travel for a while, find an interesting port, stay and explore for a while, then get underway again, find the next port, repeat. Maybe someday it will get old for me, but I suspect that day is a long long time in the future. If ever.

Charleston was that next “interesting port.” This would be our third visit, each time staying a bit longer than the time before. And although it’s a city with many charms, what I associate most strongly with Charleston is evident when I review my photos; most of them show two things – architecture and food. Not surprising, it seems we spent most of our time either walking around or eating. I’ll pretty much let the pictures tell the story.

  

A few random street scenes.

Wrought-iron details.

Woman weaving traditional sweetgrass baskets at the market. I was so tempted to buy one; they're made of local reeds marsh grasses and hence are naturally waterproof.


We took a cooking class to learn a bit about Low Country style – that marshy part of South Carolina and Georgia we’d be traveling through along this part of the ICW – with its complex mix of Native American, Caribbean, Spanish, African, and French tastes. Here, chef Emily Kimbrough of Charleston Cooks! adds ingredients to a rice pirlau while assistant Wes Crepps (sp?) watches.

The finished meal included blackened catfish and a biscuit-topped apple cobbler as well. I read somewhere that Charleston is one of the ten top foodie cities to visit; I agree.

Of course, since we live on a small sailboat, we can’t collect souvenirs of our travels as we could when we lived in a house, but we could walk the streets and admire the old buildings and the intricate wrought iron. We tried to get a sense of the differing cultures and history here. Note to self: if you’re really craving an (*ahem*) lively conversation, ask the women who staff the Museum of the Confederacy for the South’s side of the civil war story.