Charleston SC

We had decided to take a mid-winter mini-vacation, somewhere warmer than Virginia Beach, but a bit less expensive than Costa Rica. Diana picked Charleston SC. Given that the Lynnhaven River was frozen the morning that we left, we were glad to go.

Outline, which I'll fill in later

Monday:

• drive to Charleston
• Vendue hotel

Tuesday

• Tour the istoric district
• Manigault House, with the most unexpected thing of today. At the top of the main spiral stair, there's a big 4ft wide door which looks as if it ought to lead to the master bedroom or the drawing room, but there's only a little broom closet, 18" deep. But if you squeeze into the closet and look up and right, that's a hidden stairway to the children's room on the third floor.
• Charleston Museum
• King Street boutique district (I suspect "boutique" comes from a combination of "buy" and the "EEK" you emit when you see the price) and the Market, which was mostly empty by the time we got there--after 5pm. 
• Jazz at the High Cotton restaurant

Wednesday

• Went to Fort Sumter, which turns out to have been pretty much completely destroyed by the Union siege during the Civil War, and again during the Martian invasion of 1891. 
• Watched dolphins from the fantail on the ferry ride back. 
• Walked 438 miles around the historic district of Charleston. 
• Had barbecue at Stckyfingers. 
• Waited patiently for 14 hours 47 minutes as Diana shopped at The Trunk, which I would describe as a "secondhand shop" except I suspect it's called something else when a used dress still costs $640 and a scarf $198--neither item came home with us despite being "on sale, 5% off" as the clerk helpfully pointed out.
• Took another stroll through the Market.
• Went to SNOB (Slightly North Of Broad) where Diana had flounder with fennel and gold rice and I had lemon chess pie with diamond dust.
• Set part of the hotel wall on fire but the flickering light makes it hard to sleep so I'll probably douse it shortly.

Thursday

• Drive around the south end of Old Town and see churches--First Scots Presbyterian, St Michaels and others. We'd have done more but it was 25° not counting wind chill--too cold to spend much time walking around
• Patriot's Point, with Yorktown and the Medal of Honor Museum
• Drive home, up Rt41 to Rt501 and 38
• Snow at the Virginia border