Charleston, Mt. Pleasant, and Sullivan's Island, SC

White Pepper was able to spend three weeks in Charleston, SC this fall. This year we stayed at the Charleston Harbor Marina and Resort on the Cooper River in Mount Pleasant, SC . Hurricane Mathew caused extensive damage in Charleston Harbor. Our favorite—the city marina-- was booked up and the Maritime Center was totally destroyed. We were lucky and pleased to find a slip at the Charleston Harbor Marina.

The marina provides a free shuttle into Charleston. Mostly we avoided the amazing restaurants of Charleston except for a raid on Pearlz for oysters. We did check out the famous Jestine's for lunch. We made several trips to the farmer's market every Saturday in downtown Charleston. We became familiar with Mt. Pleasant, which is a thriving community just over the bridge from Charleston. Mt. Pleasant is the home of a large military museum that includes the preserved aircraft carrier, Yorktown. In addition they sponsor numerous activities such as the Mac and Cheese Festival which we declined due to expense. Later we did attend the SC BBQ Throwdown contest. We were able to sample Carolina barbeque which is vinegar based and so alien to Texas taste.

Perhaps our best tourist excursion was to Sullivan's Island. Sullivan's Island is the northern shoulder of Charleston Harbor and site of Fort Moultrie. Fort Moultrie was a Revolutionary War fort made of palm logs and sand berms. It is long gone but was succeeded by a long series of forts that defended our coast until after WWII. Jan and I had an interesting morning exploring Sullivan's Island and the fort.

 Jan hard at work at the Farmer's Market

 Historical cannon display.  This is a Rodman 10"

 Charleston Harbor is a busy place. Two container ships frame Fort Sumter in the background.

The Civil War aspect of Fort Moutrie which never fired a shot. The blue flag is that of the Carolina Militia.

Jestine's