Southern Wind

Charleston, South Carolina is a ridiculously beautiful city. From our campsite at the James Island County Park, we took a taxi into town and got dropped in the historic downtown. We strolled all the way down Meeting Street, detouring into every church along the way. The first church we entered was St. Philip's. Established in 1680, St. Philip’s Church, the mother church of Anglicanism in the Carolinas, is the oldest Anglican congregation south of Virginia. After walking around the cemetery and finding the grave of Edward Rutledge, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, we entered the church. A lovely older woman stood up and welcome us in.

"I've never seen a mother and daughter that favor each other so much," she said.

She told us the history of the church, showed us the custom made family pews, pointed out the rare trumpet pipes on the pipe organ and showed us where the black slaves used to sit up in the balconies.

We read all the plaques on the gates of each historic residence, marveled at the side porches ( I mean, doesn't it make so much more sense to have your porch on the side, instead of facing the road?), ate pralines, and peered into all the charming back alleyways. We walked around The Battery, up East Bay St, browsed Market Street, turned West on Calhoun St and then all the way back down King Street. It was cold, but we kept walking and stayed on the sunny side of the street.

When we were too tired to walk anymore, and needed to warm up our fingers, it just so happened to be time to grab a Happy Hour stool at Pearlz Oyster Bar. I started with an oyster shooter, ordered some crab pizza, peel and eat shrimp, corn fritters and fish tacos, two martinis off the $5 martini menu and then, what I had been waiting for all day, a dozen raw oysters. Our friendly shucker, Nate, was from Rhode Island, but happily settled in Charleston. Nate kept us entertained and informed while Mom watched patiently, but in slight disgust, while I slurped down the oysters and grunted my satisfaction after each one. At one point, Nate offered, "They are good, aren't they? They are the only things we eat that are still alive when we eat them."

For some reason, that had never connected with me, but after it did, I had to listen to Mom keep saying that she wouldn't try an oyster because she didn't want it swimming around in her stomach, doing back flips. But… after three martinis, I was able to convince her to try one from my second dozen. And, of course, she loved it. She had another. I hope that I have created a monster. The more oyster bars we can go to, the merrier….

As we were enjoying the oysters and our Southern Wind martinis (Hendricks Gin, St. Germain, Sauvignon Blanc, topped off with Champagne and a twist), an apparent regular took the seat next to me. All the staff, including Nate and his smirking sidekick shucker, Chief, welcomed him in and prepared his usual: salmon b.l.t, hold the bread, with spinach instead of fries. We started chatting, us about our trip, he about his pizza joints and restaurants. Originally from Queens, Michael has tried to stay true to his roots, even after setting up home base in Charleston, naming his Mexican restaurant, Jaunita Greenberg's Nacho Royale.

He invited us to extend our fun and merriment at one of his favorite places, Taco Boy's, on upper King St. A few margaritas, guacamole, and Argentinian corn-on-the-cob later, we wrapped up a really amazing day in Charleston with our new friend. And, as a bonus, he dropped us back to our campsite at the County Park, driving us in his Escalade through the very cool Christmas lighting displays set up all around the park. And, since we were seeing double of all the lights, it was even more spectacular!

Sound track -
The Beatles (Yesterday)
James Taylor (Carolina on My Mind)
Al Green

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