Walking and Eating our way through Charleston, SC

Charleston, SC

James Island Co. Park

 

Charleston is the oldest city in South Carolina, founded in 1670.  It is beautiful, full of history, gorgeous architecture and lots of delicious restaurants and stores.  I'm glad we were able to visit it again.  It was raining heavily when we first drove in.  We were happy to see more palm trees!

 

 

The Ravenel Bridge takes you right into downtown Charleston.

We stayed on James Island at the County Park.  It is so close but with 643 acres, feels miles away.  It has FHU sites with very long pads, laundry, miles of trails for biking and walking, large play area for kids, lakes and tidal fishing and crabbing and the most amazing off leash dog park with its own lake.
A little pricey at $38, but for everything it has to offer and its close proximity to downtown, it's a deal!

We were also lucky to be here the same time as the Holiday Festival of Lights.  They put up different themed sections all around the park.  It's just beautiful.  Even the lake has light displays.  I took some pictures, but it's hard to capture with my iPhone.

 

 

  

My favorite!

 

 

  

Crossing over the bridge to visit historic Charleston.

Beautiful homes all along the waterfront of Charleston Harbor.

 

 

The Pineapple Fountain sits along the Waterfront Park on the Cooper River.  From the pier you can see the Ravenel Bridge, the USS Yorktown and Fort Sumter (which you can see in the distance above).

USS Yorktown in the background

Fort Sumter in the distance.

The city is very walkable.  We decided instead of having dinner out, we'd walk and have a drink and share an appetizer at whatever caught our eye. 

 

   

 

 

The first place to catch Steve's eye was the Southend Brewery & Smokehouse.  Steve had a flight of their brews and I opted for a Blue Dolphin.  We decided to share a Hot Blue Crab & Artichoke Dip.  It was pretty good.

 

We strolled over the cobbled roads and old brick walkways, past the Rainbow Row on East Bay St.  They are Georgian style homes painted Caribbean colors.

 

 

This is the Philadelphia Alley built behind the tenement homes in the early 1800s.
 

It started to rain, so we popped into Bocci's.  We had a nice window table to ourselves.  The Arancini was calling to me.  It was as delicious as it looks!  A nice Pinot Grigio for me and a Tuscan for Steve.

  

Fried rice balls with sausage, mozzarella & roasted red peppers.

 

 

Our last stop was at Pearlz Oyster Bar.  Guess what we had?

 

More walking took us past the Charleston City Market.  It's HUGE.  Can you see all the way down to the end of the building?  Lot's of tables for veggies and crafts.

 

    

We had a craving for dessert, so in we went and out we came with a caramel chocolate praline covered goodie that I promptly devoured.  Steve got a caramel praline covered apple.

There are many beautiful churches too  The Huguenot is a Gothic Revival.  I wish we could've gone inside.  Each seemed to have a cemetery of its own.

 

  

Back at the campground on James Island I did some biking and a lot of walks with Hurley.  With all the water around, there are many signs like this one:

 

As much as Hurley wanted to go in the water and play, I made sure to keep him out so he wouldn't become Gator Bait!  And so the rest of the trip I called him "GB".  The only place I'd let him go in was at the wonderful Leash Free dog park they had.  It had it's own lake, beach and lots of grass.  He sure loves going to these types of parks where he can run around like a crazy dog and play with other doggie friends and splash in the water.  They even had a wash station on the way out with shampoo so you could rinse the sand off them.  What a place!

Hurley aka "GB" and a friend playing with tennis balls.

 

Still following the fall color down the coast.

 

 

The walking/biking paths are great.  The Palmetto palms are everywhere as are the oaks that the Spanish Moss grows mostly on.  Some even had ferns and what looked like orchids.

 

 

 

There is a fishing/crabbing pier off one of the bike paths.  There are some benches and swings that overlook the saltwater inlets.

 

You can see some nice homes across the waterways.

If you're lucky you may catch some blue crab.

I'm sure glad I don't have to mow this lawn!

 

Thank you Charleston for a wonderful time!!