Charleston Day 5: Monday

Monday morning we chanced the impending rain and won when we took a carriage tour through downtown. There are three carriage companies and three routes, but the City regulates them. So the consumer picks the carriage company but only after the carriage has launched does the City randomly choose which route the carriage will take. For someone who wanted to see all three routes, I'm not sure how one could ensure that, especially given that the tours are pretty pricey.

We enjoyed our tour well enough, but weren't super thrilled that the tour guide made jokes about Christian beliefs and talked about adult subjects in a way we thought a little too graphic for children riding along and listening. The tour guide wasn't even "above and beyond," just typical of modern conversation in mixed company. But hey, that's why we don't let our kids listen to regular radio or watch regular television!

Watching a baby miniature donkey while waiting

Watching the shoeing of a horse while waiting

Asleep on the tour

Afterward, we walked through the Charleston city market, which is the gathering place for the carriage tours. This market was the first but not only place we saw for sale boxes of real crickets flavored like potato chips (e.g., sour cream and onion flavor).

  

Instead of eating crickets, we ate lunch at the famous Hyman's Seafood. Servings are big! Instead of ordering three children's dishes, we could have ordered one to split and still had some leftover.

After quiet time, we visited Charles Towne Landing, which is the original settlement in South Carolina. The settlers lived there from 1670 to 1680 before relocating the village about three miles away to what is now Charleston. I love historic stuff like this!

Attached to Charles Towne Landing is the Animal Forest, 22 acres of outdoor enclosures showing the kind of animals that lived in South Carolina at the time of its settlement.

First we came upon this GIGANTIC SPIDER living loose alongside the path. I don't think you can really see it in the photo, but its body was at least one inch long and its legs at least three inches--which is a lot bigger than those measurements sound. Later Mary wandered off the path and I asked her to come back. John remarked, "She's standing right next to another one of those spiders. Actually, two of them." I said, horrified, "She is not!" My old eyes couldn't see as well as John's but closer inspection revealed that Mary was mere inches from having walked right into one of those webs. I told her I was so glad that she hadn't walked into it and she asked why. I said, "I don't think the spider would have hurt you but I would have had to use my hands to bat it off of you and then I might have fainted dead away."

River otters

There were two puma in the exhibit, and this one had what appeared to be crippling arthritis. I imagine it was rescued from the wild where surely it could not survive.

Black bear

Despite being on a five-foot path in between the puma enclosure and the black bear enclosure, the children were far more interested in a little green lizard they tried to catch and this unusually shaped snail.

Bison

Turkey

Indentured servants' quarters

We got to visit the Adventure ship, a reproduction of "a cargo vessel that would carry supplies, provisions, commodities and livestock between New Amsterdam (present New York) and Barbados in the West Indies."

The creek upon which the Adventure traveled

How to pump water out of the ship

The ship was quite exciting for the children, who had many questions for the historian on board, but immediately following we discovered approximately one zillion crabs on the muddy shore, which proved exhilarating. The crabs were nervous about us and were moving en masse slowly, slowly, ever slowly sideways to escape. But then I'd jump and all zillion of them would scurry very fast for a few inches, creating a neat visual image. The children asked to hold hands with me and we all jumped together to make the crabs go from slow-slow-slow to fast-scurry-scurry! We were laughing and having fun.

 

The various ponds at the settlement all had these helpful signs, "CAUTION ALLIGATORS."

For our last dinner in the city, we ate at Monza Pizza. The food was good but let the artful interior, tinkling glasses, white linen, nearly silent atmosphere, and waitresses wearing what were practically leotards be clues that the restaurant is not an excellent choice for those bringing children.

And speaking of children, the winner of the Remark of the Day received by me was from a woman who glanced at my children (behaving well at that moment) and said, "There are so many of them!" before walking away briskly without waiting for my reaction. The comment has been on my mind since as reflecting something so sad. We can get into arguments about what constitutes "so many" children, but, really? Three? One child can't possibly be "so many." Two is quite typical in this country, so can't be "so many." So how does one more than two result in "so many"? And "of them"? Like she was  talking about vermin crawling all over or something else repugnant. Her comment was a sad reflection, I believe.