Vacation at Edisto - recaps (#4)

Arggh! I thought Talk Like a Pirate Day was an excellent opportunity to do a recap of our daytrip to Charleston.

Our vacation in Edisto was delightfully unscheduled with the exception of our Charleston visit. D gave the entire day over to me and my Type A personality and as usual, I did a lot of research in the weeks leading up to our trip.

We parked the Kia in a garage that was recommended to us, as it is closest to the waterfront where we would be at the end of the day. Being regular walkers we decided to hoof it around the city, staying mainly in the French Quarter. I had planned a rich, decadent French brunch so the exercise was necessary to burn it off!


We arrived at John Street just a few minutes too early for the restaurant but the Visitor's Center was just across the street so we went in to browse the brochures and we bought our tickets for the museum (more on that later).



39 Rue de Jean (39 John St) was a place that instantly caught my eye when I was browsing for a restaurant. There is a French bistro in downtown G'ville which D has taken me to, but on the whole, there is not enough French cuisine in my life. I thought about ordering in French but didn't (Monsieur Whitney would be so disappointed). 39 Rue de Jean is known for two specialities: their mussels and their pot de creme au chocolat. Really there was no contest at all, so I knew I was getting dessert even before we sat down.

We started off with a plateau de fromage. I instructed the garçon that we did not want any blues in our selection and no strawberries either. Our cheese plate had so much toast, it was more of a bread plate! Two of the cheeses were French. One was very salty and the other was very buttery. The Gouda was good - it's hard to mess up a Gouda - but our favorite was called Midnight Moon. It must be popular because the chef gave us two, one was a replacement for the blue cheese that normally comes on the plate. These grapes were so good, perfectly ripe and sweet.




The pommes frites were hand done and freshly prepared. I thought they were divine, but that may have been because they were the first potatoes I had eaten in several weeks. D had fried flounder on a baguette and I had turkey on a croissant. My daily carb budget was blown.

I had never had a pot au chocolat before and I asked if it was a hot chocolate or a chocolate pudding and was told pudding, but we thought it was more like ganache. It is heaven.


Quite satisfied, we walked to Meeting Street and entered the Gibbes Museum.

The guide at the Visitor's Center had conveniently allowed us to purchase museum tickets there, but what she didn't know was that the Gibbes was setting up a new exhibit on the second floor. Only the first floor was open for the day and the museum was offering a lower ticket price for the inconvenience. Of course, the Gibbes could not refund money we had paid the VC. Bummer. There was only a small collection available to tour, mostly work focused on South Carolinian artists and subjects. D enjoyed two side-by-side paintings which showed the mortar vollies between Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie, one from each perspective. My favorite was a marble bust of George Washington portrayed as a greek Caesar. It was hard to see the similarity until D got out a dollar bill to compare. I'm sure anyone watching the security cameras was curious as to what we were doing!


I was expecting to spend the greater portion of the day in the air-conditioned museum (what is it they say about best-laid plans?). As that turned out not to be our reality, we were now trekking out in the heat of the afternoon. We ducked into many of the shops of Market Street but we were really only looking for two places in particular. The first was called Noah's Nook, which specialized in Christmas decor. With her star, I think this year's selection fits into my celestial theme quite well and being glass, she'll sparkle well against the tree's twinkle lights.


The second shop on my list was Black Market Minerals and it has the only pressed-penny machine in Charleston. Unfortunately their designs were awful, so we passed on that. But it was not a lost opportunity because the shop backed up to a beautiful, shady little courtyard with a koi-filled fountain where we could rest for a while and take pictures.


So I had plied my husband with a gourmet lunch, showed him some of Charleston's finest culture and now for my piece de resistance.... a sunset sail in the harbor on a tall ship.


The Pride, an 84-foot tall replica schooner, took us on a two-hour tour (a two-hour tour). I had never been on a sailboat before and was so excited. I was a little concerned about my motion sickness acting up, which was the reason we ate so early. I was hopeful that the sails would be gentle, like our para-sailing experience was a few years ago.



D and I sat beneath the mainmast, right next to the wheel, which meant that we had primo access to the Captain. I loved our Captain. With his beard, fisherman's sandals and quiet disposition, he was exactly what I could have hoped for. He believed in letting you experience the water for yourself so he didn't say much. Our instruction boiled down to: watch your heads. Sometimes being 5'2" has an advantage!

We also sailed with two mates: one male and one female, both barefooted. I'm not sure why she was outfitted which such a wicked knife on her belt, but I felt safe with her aboard!



The white sails were so pretty against the sky. When the boat was turned a certain way they provided us with shade. In actuality we didn't use the sails that much because we were having such fair weather - it was too calm. The outgoing tide was about three knots and the wind was only two knots, so using the sails only let us cruise at one knot.... which is very slow! I loved the sound of the ropes against the mast and the occasional ruffle of the sails. As gentle as it was, the rocking of the boat did unsettle my tummy but when he motored us around I was fine. I would not make a good pirate!

We almost made it out to Fort Sumter.


Once The Holy City was silhouetted against the setting sun we could see many steeples. It was quite beautiful as we turned back towards the docks. Can I romance a man, or what?