We wake up refreshed, glad that we are in a marina and after phoning one of the culinary schools and booking a table, I head off to the shower block for a lovely, long, hot shower and hair wash. Definitely not a boat shower.
We meet Liz and Gordon at the marina bus pick up and the driver takes us directly to the entrance of the college. The college turns out to be a mixed one for the arts, not just cooking, and we walk along corridors displaying different types of art and classrooms full of students at work (well mainly talking to each other). I suppose the restaurant we are heading for is just a classroom of sorts.
We are a few minutes late but luckily so are they and we sit and wait for our table to be sorted giving Mike time to dash out to find an ATM. The menu, when we see it, will not I fear, set the culinary world alight but our choices are well cooked and pleasant.
We split up when we leave. Liz has her heart on a Louis Vuitton handbag she saw yesterday and Mike and I just want to walk around and absorb some atmosphere. We stroll through the market first. It’s a good mixture of tourist souvenirs and good stuff and it goes on for about five blocks, the first part being a covered market with stalls and the second being closed in and more shop like. The local craft here is a very distinctive and intricate form of basket weaving, but not like baskets I have seen elsewhere. These things are heavy and very expensive. Made of sweetgrass the tradition of making these beautiful baskets came with the slaves brought over to the southern plantations from Africa. Today they are made only in Charleston.
Photo: The market lies behind this building, expending many blocks
I spot a beautiful bed spread set that would be just perfect for my bedroom back in the UK, expensive but not for the quality. Made in Portugal (!) they cannot ship it to me though and it is far too heavy for my luggage allowance. Mike sighs happily at more money saved!
At the end of the market we continue up to King Street. A left turn takes you to the antique district and a right turn takes you to the fashion district. We turn right, obviously, although with Mike at my elbow my purchasing instincts are seriously curtailed.
The architecture is of a mixed bunch. There is definitely a lot of Art Deco influence but there’s colonial as well. Most of the shops are brick built and the streets are leafy, filled with trees and bushes. Amazingly the streets downtown are pretty free of traffic. Basically strolling around is a very pleasant experience. I manage to get another couple of staple tee-shirts from J Crew but that it the extent of my shopping. Left alone with credit cards I could do them some serious damage!!
Photo: Leafy but quiet King Street
Photos: The clothes shop, Urban Outfitters, now housed in a restored music hall - beautiful
We catch the free shuttle bus back to the marina and while I wait for the arrival of the birds, I hear the familiar noise of a blow hole being cleared and looking around see the dolphin that hangs around here most of the time. Of courser, he is uncooperative when it comes around to getting his photo taken and I just get his tail by the time I have my camera focussed on him.
Photo: Camera shy dolphin takes a dive
Almost bang on 6.15 they arrive en mass, huge black things flapping around and using the boats as toilets and perches.
Photo: Aren’t we nice to provide a pleasant horizontal perch?
Photo: Tonight the mega yacht dock gets most of them
Photos: As the sun descends, the birds move on
We have a light dinner in watching TV, reading all the weather information on the internet about Tropical Storm/Hurricane Sandy that should be with us at the weekend, albeit, hopefully, out to sea. We have some hurricane lines on the boat and I think we will be getting them out in a few days just in case.
Position: 32 deg 46 min N, 79 deg 57 min W
Distance so far: 3276 miles
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