Old Town Charleston

On our first day in Charleston, we awoke to foggy, rainy and chilly weather.  Since the weather did not look very appealing for doing touristy things, we went shopping a Tanger Outlets.  Of course within the first hour of shopping the sky cleared and the sun came out.  Notice the nice clear blue sky.

The next day was also rainy and foggy in the morning.  However, based on Monday’s experience we headed down to old town Charleston.  We enjoyed a nice lunch on the water front at the Fleet Landing Restaurant.  The restaurant is in a former Navy port facility building. We had eaten there during last year’s snowbird migration.  They have excellent Shrimp and Grits – just as good this year as it was last year.

Lunch was followed by more (groan!) shopping at the farmer’s market (aka tourist trap).

The old town area is certainly picturesque with many historic churches.

We also found a Barney lookalike standing guard in a small art gallery.

The Pepper store.  Nothing but hot sauces and spicy seasonings.

Although the weather only partially cooperated raining briefly; we were able to tour the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon.  The building constructed in 1768, is one of the very few in Charleston which has not been destroyed and rebuilt (even surviving the Civil war bombardment of the city and the 1883 earthquake).  The Exchange which was on the first floor was used by the British to collect taxes on the rice and cotton which was shipped from Charleston port.  The coastal area in that era was one of the world’s largest rice producers. The basement was later used to imprison pirates and rebels. 

A lot of what we find enjoyable is locating interesting flea markets and factory outlets.  After a Ryans buffet for lunch today, we found a factory seconds and overstock store, Ollie’s Outlet (much like Big Lots, only bigger).  The only other Ollie’s we had shopped in was last year in Springfield, Ohio.  We were surprised to find one in Charleston.   After much browsing for bargains, we returned to the RV to recover from all that hard work.