3/16/08

Today was a lovely day. David got the car first today. He went to a restaurant & had a nice leisurely lunch. When he got back, I went to Barnes & Nobles and picked up some books, a couple about Charleston and a couple of art books. Then I went to the Russell House and toured that. That was not very satisfactory. It was a guided tour and rushed. I much more enjoyed touring the Aiken-Rhett House yesterday. That house was built in 1817 and was purchased by William Aiken in 1826. His son became a governor of South Carolina, and his daughter married Major Rhett, who was a Confederate officer. Descendants of the family lived there until 1972. In 1975 it was donated to the Charleston Museum for a house museum. Today it's not in good shape. Hurricane Hugo caused quite a bit of damage. But it's still impressive. And it was a nice tour because it was self-guided, with an mp3 player, so you could stop and really inspect things if you wanted to. In back of the house is the courtyard, with a stable on one side and kitchen & laundry on the other side, with slave quarters over them. The slave quarters were sad. They look nice and sunny, from the windows of the front of the building, but that is just a hallway, with 4 rooms off the hallway. Each had a door and a small window, and 2 of them had fireplaces. Stark. Going down the stairs, it hit me that 150 years ago, slaves were sliding their hand down the very same handrail that I was using. It was disturbing. This is a picture of the courtyard with the stables to the left, and the kitchen and laundry to the right. The gates in back were where the carriage would have come through to the house.

This is the family entrance into the house.

It was interesting that when I went through the Russell House today, the elderly guide never mentioned slaves, just servants. I wonder if they did have slaves there. I went and sat in the garden after the tour and just enjoyed the warm sunshine and flowers. It felt so good, I was ready to cry. This is a photo of the garden with the Russell House on the left.

These are some of the houses in Charleston. I really like the pastel colors they use.



After I was done there, I went shopping. They have a street called Market Street, which divides into North Market and South Market, and between those two they have brick buildings where it's like an upscale flea market. I bought an African mask that was supposed to be made by the Ashanti tribe in Africa, whether it was or not, it's neat, and I bought a resin Green Man wall decoration. Then I went to a scent shop and bought some incense and and nice incense burner. Then I went sightseeing. I was too late to get a carriage ride through the residential area. Bummer. So I just went and parked the car and walked a few blocks and took photos and then drove around the neighborhood. One back street was cobblestones. You can really see the Spanish influence in this area. The large houses all have piazzas (a porch in midwestern speech) on the south side. They are so impressive!

After that I headed back to the RV. I had to take some pictures of Pip and Squeak. Poor Squeaker, she made the mistake of falling asleep on the same side of me as Pip. Pip woke up and must have thought Squeaker was trying to get to her rawhide chew, because she attacked Squeak. I grabbed her and pushed her down, and had to cuddle Squeak, who was so scared she cried and whimpered for quite a bit. That's the most noise she's made since we got her. Poor baby, she's asleep on the other side of me now, glued to my butt. Here's my sleepy babies.


It's sad to know that tonight is our last night. Tomorrow we head north.