Georgetown, SC to Charleston, SC

Thursday, October 29, 2009

OOPS!!!!!

Anchored For Fun In The Sun

Homes Along The Water

Bridge Into Charleston, SC

A View Of Downtown Charleston From The Water

Just One Of the Many Stately Homes On The Waterfront

Island Hopper left Hazzard marine at 8:30 AM. Fog and then cloudy skies, 70's, Winds NW 5. Arrived in the Charleston City Marina, Charleston at 1:30 PM after traveling 69 miles today. Island Hopper was put towards the end of the Mega Dock. From the boat to the end of the dock was approximately 1/2 of a mile. Poor Tate. Kevin and Debbie took the van into town for a 7:15 PM reservation at High Cotton restaurant. They had a fabulous meal. After dinner they walked around downtown and tasted the free pralines. Charleston is a beautiful and vibrant town.

History

Charleston's culture and love for the good life has its roots in the man for which it is named, England's King Charles II. A Charleston historian has written that the king was, "one of the most hedonistic of English monarchs," and that the colonists came, "to recreate the luxurious, cosmopolitan, pleasured-filled world of Restoration England...inhabited by a landed gentry."

The British founded Charleston in 1670 on what is now Charles Towne Landing, on the western bank of the Ashley River. The colonists aboard the English ship Carolina originally planned to settle at Port Royal, but the chief of Kiawah Indians convinced them to move farther north Within ten years, they had relocated to what locals refer to as "the Peninsula," or the site of current downtown Charleston. Not two years later, there were nearly 100 houses built, perhaps foretelling the ongoing real estate boom.

The culture is a me'lange of influences. The English ideas soon blended with those of the French Huguenots fleeing religious persecution. Many came by way of Barbados and added a Caribbean flair to the city's lifestyle. The Spanish were here, and slaves certainly had a huge impact on the population from food to the arts and language. Gullah, a patois of all the languages, is still spoken on the sea islands.