Charleston: a weekender's paradise

Charleston, like Savannah, is a charming southern coastal city. The historic downtown is picture perfect, with charming homes faced, not toward the roads, but rather towards their very own private side gardens. The porches, which face onto the gardens, are often blocked from view by a door and the end facing the street. Indeed, the most of the landscaping is hidden behind fences and gates. Beyond the cobbled streets lies the bay and the battery park. The seaward side of the battery is lined with cannon and palm trees. Behind these are well spaced live oaks, centered around gazebo like band stand. When we visited early one morning in April, the live oaks were saturated with robins. They fed on the berries of the palms and swarmed among the trees.

Away from the coast is the market building, long and low, it's purpose fairly obvious, even when it is closed. The most popular item for purchase here is the sweetgrass basket, or the cheaper palm leaf flowers. Beyond that, the flea market carries a wide variety of items from local made candies to cheap sunglasses. There are many shops in the area, which lean towards the artsy and eclectic.

Of the shore lies historic fort Sumter. This fort is where the first shots of the civil war were fired by the confederacy who overtook the fort from the North. Today, a ferry leaves from patriots point and escorted by seagulls takes you to the fort. .The ride provides good views of the Ravenel bridge and the Charleston bay Once within the fort's walls, you have the choice of personally exploring the fort, are following a guide as he points out interesting features, and answers questions. .One of the interesting features are the mortar shells wedged here and there in the walls of the fort. Why are they on the inside of the fort? They were fired from over the opposite wall, and dropped within the fort just in

time to blast into the base of the exterior wall from the inside Within the walls of the fort is a war memorial, flying flags of the state and the nation. Also within the walls is a later built artillery housing, painted a severe black. The interior has a small museum, and an original flag.

Patriots Point harbors, in addition to the tours of fort Sumter which leave from there, a world war II air craft carrier, submarine, and battleship, as well as housing a coast guard vessel, and a reconstructed Vietnam camp. The aircraft carrier, while still much smaller than the ones used today, was large. the ship makes good use of all its space though, with unique designs for everything from stairwells to sleeping areas. One of the most puzzling features of the ship were the many broken clam shells scattered across the deck. That was until 'splat' out of the sky dropped a fresh live clam, its shell breaking open to reveal the fleshy insides. The seagull responsible circled patiently, waiting for the tourist to clear the was so it could enjoy its meal. The submarine made even better use of the space, with Jake barely fitting through the small doorways that led from one area to the next.