Chronicle of Days Past - Books and Death

I'm going to do my Charleston trip diary/pictures first in this post to shake things up.  Maybe it will put me in a better mood.

I slept well, though it was weird because we kept the curtains closed in the hotel room, making it impossible to tell the time via light.  You really can't do that in my room at the appartment (and I often sleep when it's light, it seems.)

After breakfast we dropped the anty Spyder off at the Charleston airport and our parents picked us up, having driven up the night before.  We dropped their stuff at our hotel and them off our relatives' hotel to go out for lunch.  By then it was time to get food ourselves (Arby's.)

We wanted to go into downtown Charleston, a little embarassed we hadn't yet.

Old House We parked at the Visitor's Center, which turned out to be really near where we'd eaten the night before.

Charleston View This is from our floor of the Visitors' Center Parking Garage.

Charleston, Saturday And same view looking to the right instead of left.  That's the children's museum below, I believe, and the steeple of St. Matthew's in the distance.

Visitors' Parking Garage It was very green!

Buses Not Trains These are all downtown tours.

Water

Visitors' Way I guessed this used to be the railroad depot.

Circles We decided to head down to Market Hall and its Confederacy Museum.

Maginault House Not far from the Visitors' Center (sort of diagonally, and across from the Charleston Museum, too), this historical house is open to paying guests.  It was built in 1803.

Maginault Balcony

Old Wall We're walking down Meeting Street during these pictures, by the way.

Citadel Baptist

Baptist Steeple

Single House

Firehouse Memorials It took a long time, but we finally reached Market Hall and the covered market behind it.  Alas, I didn't really like any of my pictures of it, so enjoy this Civil War photograph instead.  It looks pretty much the same, save the current garish color, which the black and white will only save you from.

View from Market Hall I did take this picture from the entrance.  Inside the Hall photography was disallowed by the stern Daughters of the Confederacy, who looked as if they hadn't smiled since Jefferson Davis was alive. The Confederacy Museum was interesting, but not worth its price, in my estimation.  There was no organization, just a fascinating unexplained jumple of artefacts over the museum--Confederate currency, another flag from Fort Sumter, swords, medals, uniforms, notes home, and newspaper editions printed on wallpaper. We then walked back to the Visitors' Center along King Street:

Kress I just liked the look of the building, but glancing through some other pictures I noticed we have a Kress building of our very own in downtown Orlando!

Department of Athletics

King Street That's a Mellow Mushroom on the far left, though it's a little hard to see from this angle.

Urban Outfitters

Marion Hotel

Calhoun We weren't sure whether this was a statue of John C. Calhoun or Francis Marion, since the square and hotel are Marion but the street is Calhoun.  We found out later that the statue is Calhoun, and the square used to be the Citadel marching grounds.  In fact, the old Citadel building is on the far side, now painted pink and an Embassy Suites.  I'm more upset about the painted pink than Embassy Suites part.

St. Matthew's This is the tallest church steeple, and tallest building in the city (both of which, again, I found out later.) We watched a video on Charleston at the Visitors' Center, but we were too late to take a tour.  I decided I wanted to see St. Michael's church and graveyard and John C. Calhoun's grave, plus figureing a graveyard would make for some pretty pictures.  So we picked up the car.  Key waited in some fifteen-minute parking while I rushed around the Four Corners of Law.

St. Michael's The oldest church building in Charleston.  Building started in 1752.

Ironwork Charleston is famous for its wrought iron.

Hibernian Society

Two Corners (of Law) It's called the Four Corners of Law because you have the church, the city hall, the post office (and federal courthouse), and county courthouse on their respective corners.

City Hall Stairs

City Hall Again, not that I found this out until later.  Apparently it's ancient too.

Another Two Corners T'other's the post office.

Graveyard Gate

Four Graves

Charles C. Pinckney's Grave Yeah, yeah, here's your Wikipedia link.

Narrow Way

A. Iusti ...this is actually one of my favorite pictures.

GR Open

Stone Crosses

The Archangel Michael

Graveyard Corner Alas, I could not find Calhoun (but more on that later.)

Blurry Southern House

United States Custom House We went back to prepare for the rehearsal dinner.

Brick Alley If I wasn't careful, I could mistake this for a picture I took in Lancaster.  This was right outside where we ate.

jazznfox

Current Mood: worried
Current Music: "Zorro's Theme"--The Mask of Zorro soundtrack