Charleston!

Charleston is one of my favorite towns to spend time in.  I love the food, the shopping, and mostly the architecture and design of the homes.  There was a time when my family spent quite a bit of time in Charleston, so any opportunity to return is welcomed.  Some visits have brought lots of shoportunities, some have brought lots of culinary opportunities, but this one was a quick visit with the kids that gave them a taste of Charleston.

The kids' favorite part of the visit was definitely Fort Sumter.  This brief description is taken directly from the website  http://www.nps.gov/fosu/index.htm:

Where the American Civil War Began

Decades of growing strife between North and South erupted in civil war on April 12, 1861, when Confederate artillery opened fire on this Federal fort in Charleston Harbor. Fort Sumter surrendered 34 hours later. Union forces would try for nearly four years to take it back.

Right from the beginning, they were excited to board this:

A nice bonus to visiting Fort Sumter is the ferry tour of Charleston Harbor that you get in the process, giving views such as these:

 

 Once at Fort Sumter, you can listen to the history from one of the guides, or go about touring the fort yourself.  If you visit, don't skip the museum located at the fort, it is filled with history and artifacts.  The biggest hit for our kids were the many cannons.

On to my favorite culinary experience of the trip.  Now, there are soooo many wonderful restaurants in Charleston.  You can find amazing food at super expensive restaurants and you can find amazing food at places Guy Fieri would visit.  My favorite of this trip was the Hominy Grill.  So so so yummy.  I had the shrimp and grits, the hubby had the - get this - the big nasty :), and we tried their fried green tomatoes (oh my) and their she-crab soup (a Charleston classic).  Wow, just wow!

 As you can see these are the shared dishes, and apparently we were so excited when our entrees came out that I didn't get a picture of them!

One staple of Charleston is the City Market.  It's been part of Charleston's history for 200 or so years.  It's a strange mix of being overly touristy, but at the same time being such a part of Charleston history and therefore visit-worthy.  I do not visit the City Market each time I go to Charleston, but I read that it had recently underwent major renovations and wanted to see what had been done.  I have to say that I liked the renovations and thought it stayed within the Charleston style. Here are a couple of pics:

Charleston City Market

This shows the renovations to the ceiling of the market and the overhead entrance sign to the Historic Foundation that now has a location at the City Market

Thanks for touring the low-country with me!