Charleston, SC

The second stage of our journey took us to Charleston, SC, another of the US's oldest cities (founded 1670). Aside from being a busy and prosperous British colonial port and city (fifth largest in North America until 1800), it also witnessed the first shots of the US Civil War at Ft Sumter, in the harbor.

Charleston goes down as probably our favorite city in the US. It's full of beautiful old mansions, lots of Spanish moss hanging from the trees, countless charming streets and buildings, good Southern cooking, and what I love the most, lots of beautiful historic churches.

Here are a few shots we took during this trip. As luck would have it, we were there during the only rainy, cloudy day that week.

This is a shot from the campus of the College of Charleston, a public state university in SC, and one of the oldest universities in the country. I honestly couldn't tell you much about the university as an institution (and you probably don't care), but the campus is beautiful. This shot was taken in the center of the old campus, and I believe it captures the feel of the city.
Here's a shot of the entrance to the campus. The Greek above the arch means "Know Thyself," a truly classic piece of Greek (and Christian) wisdom. You can see the administration building in the background.Here we are along the harbor shore, taking a bike ride. Jackie (the walking, bike-riding incubator) loved these flowers and the funky fountain. If you look really closely, you can see in the background the masts of the ships pictured below.
Here are a few ships we saw in the harbor. I have no idea why they were there...we've never seen so many on previous visits.
Here's a shot of which I'm particularly fond, showing a nice feature of Charleston, old gas street lamps. They go great with the cobblestone streets, old brick buildings, and palmetto trees. This was taken just outside our hotel.
If we were absolutely loaded, we'd spend the rest of our days in this town, I do believe.

Thanks for reading!