Monday, June 22

Today, we actually set the alarm for 7 AM (what a great idea!) rather than sleeping in, losing time and miles. We got up, checked out of the hotel and drove to our friend’s house. They had prepared breakfast for us—and presented it beautifully which is the extra touch that made us feel so welcome: coffee, orange juice, pancakes, sausages, eggs. Delicious (free! And prepared for us with LOVE).

Then we drove into Charleston where Cindy and Robert acted as our tour guides. First, we toured the aircraft carrier the USS Yorktown. It is incredible that such large vessels, housing sometimes 2-3,000 sailors, work as efficiently as they do. We saw planes on the flight deck (S2 Tracker, E2 Tracer, S3 Viking, A4 Skyhawk) and went up and down from one decks (levels) and boy, did we get a workout (especially in the heat and humidity—I was sopping wet). Bob was in his glory and very happy to see all that he saw—thank you Cindy and Robert for making sure he didn’t miss this attraction.

Later, we walked along the streets past charming shops (which I did not visit—aren’t you proud of me?). We took a surrey ride—John was the horse and our tour guide was Zippy (not the pinhead) a very charming young college student. The tour guides draw their route numbers by lottery and we got tour Number One, which the tour guide was very happy about because it passed by more museum houses than other tour routes and passes by the water. The houses were magnificent and, as usual, I gawked at the beautiful gardens and courtyards, in addition to the awesome porches, columned mansions, and parks. Our tour guide also took us past rainbow row—the first American row houses painted in -------- a rainbow of colors. It was such a wonderful tour; I learned a lot about early and present Charleston and saw a large portion of the historic district.

After the tour, we walked a short walk to a famous pub called Tommy Condon’s where we enjoyed Black and Tans, Tenet (an Irish lager), and Harp—with chips and salsa—pub has live music almost every night.

Since our hosts know me so well—we went through the Market—I admired the sweetgrass baskets, but, although worth every penny, I thought it might be too extravagant an expenditure (at least at this point of the trip). I did get to see a lot of the local crafts and art and was quite impressed. I bought a tablecloth from Provence (France) and when Robert saw that I was reluctant to haggle, he asked the vendor, “Can you do better with the price?” The tablecloth, lovely with green and yellow colors and lemons as part of the design, was $35 but the vendor responded, “I will take ½.” So I paid only 19—which included the tax. I don’t usually haggle, but there was an imperfection in the pattern (that nobody will ever notice).


We walked down the long pier and sat watching the tall ships, Diamondback terrapins, dolphins, skimmers, oystercatchers—it was marvelously perfect—and all of us, not just the zoologist, were impressed!!!! We took some pictures of the famous pineapple fountain (I’ll post later) and enjoyed watching some children playing in the fountain. We took a lot of pictures of other couples (and they kindly returned the favor).

Unfortunately, it was getting late and we walked back to the car to return to our friends’ beautiful home. There we met a few of her neighbors and had a wonderful dinner of grilled jumbo shrimp, London broil, salad, and fries (chocolate cake, fresh fruit, cool whip, cookies for dessert) —a beautiful table was set and we sat at that table for hours after dinner—talking and enjoying beer, red wine and some unusual, and very special drinks—one was a blueberry grappa (and I believe we finished this bottle—boy was it good). We also had a sweet tea vodka (which was amazing, believe it or not) –I’ll look up the name and let you know later what it was called (I, of course, wrote it down). We also got two loads of laundry done—which was really great—while we were all up talking.

Janet Rose, a wonderful, lovely 26-year-old that I’ve known since she and her family moved into the house next to my mother and father-in-law in Bellmore, LI, and I were the last two up, still talking until 1:30 AM. Bob and I stayed in her room.