SATURDAY MORNING IN CHARLESTON

View From Our Balcony

We arrived in Charleston, S.C. around 9:00PM Friday evening, so it was nearly 10 by the time we collected our luggage and took a taxi to the Kings Courtyard Inn. I was originally planning to stay at Elliot House, which got rave reviews from Outdoor Woman, and would be perfect for John and I. But, as with many old inns and B&B's, their rooms all had just one bed. Was I ever tickled to find this one, which had several spacious rooms with two doubles, where continental breakfast and an evening wine & cheese affair were included, all for less than the other inns we had looked into!

Breakfast In the Courtyard, With Seated Service

Best of all, it was located smack dab in the middle of King Street -- block after block of great shopping and eating!

A Shop With All Things Honey Related

First stop on Saturday was a wonderful farmers' market in Marion Square park, complete with pony rides and musical entertainment. This is where we discovered that all the weather reports, which had promised highs in the 80's throughout our visit, were big fat lies. It jumped up into the mid-90s that day, with what must have been 100% humidity. By the time we completed the market, we were both dripping wet.

Something I'm not used to seeing at our markets -- peanuts. Almost every stall had peanuts! We were to discover why at lunch the next day.

Needing a place with a nice restroom, where we could remove a bit of the "dew" from our bodies, and a frosty glass of iced tea, we stopped into King Street Cookies, just across from the park. Yum!

You'll never guess what else was right across from the park at 143 Calhoun St., in the basement of this red brick building.

One of the best stores ev-vah, that's what! Welcome to Artist & Craftsman Supply, an employee-owned company.

By the time we left there we were gettin' pretty hungry, and since we'd already walked all the way up King St. to Calhoun, we figured we might as well head west to Hominy Grill, the one place we really wanted to go that was kinda off the beaten path.

We weren't quite brave enough to try the sandwich they are famous for -- known as "The Big Nasty" -- but the shrimp and grits were to die for!

After lunch we thought we'd catch one of the free trolleys that runs around the downtown area. You won't believe who was at the bus stop waiting with us. A bunch of Texas Aggies! Apparently A&M had just played S.C., and they had come up for the game. Unfortunately, we waited and waited, but the trolley never came, so we started the trudge back to our hotel. This time we decided to take Meeting Street south, which runs parallel to King. My daughter has a thing for old houses, and when we came across the Joseph Manigault House -- Charleston's Huguenot House, and one of the few historic houses that is open for guided tours -- we just couldn't pass it up, now could we?

By the time we finally made it back to our hotel we could not wait to strip out of our dripping wet clothes and collapse on our beds for a well-deserved nap!

To Be Continued...