Day 3: Charleston

Our second full day in Charleston was a Monday and the town was a bit more relaxed since the residents were back at work. We drove over to get breakfast as priority number one, since we missed out the day before.

We went to a place called the Flying Biscuit Cafe. We had some large southern breakfasts at a fairly reasonable price with good service. Since it was Monday it wasn’t crowded, either. The food was great too.

After eating, my first planned stop was at Patriot Point for the Naval & Maritime Museum. We drove over and arrived right before 9AM to see the parking lot practically empty.

Hmmmm…. the website showed the museum hours as 9AM – 5PM. Perhaps on a Monday it’s just not very busy. Well, not quite. The only part of the museum that is open at 9AM is the gift shop. The actual museum ships aren’t open until 10AM.

We had just paid to enter the parking lot, but our time was precious. We didn’t want to stand around for an hour when we had more to see in Charleston. So we crossed the bridge to make it to the new first stop of the day: The South Carolina Aquarium.

The South Carolina Aquarium

I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a visit to an aquarium as much as I enjoyed the couple hours we spent at the South Carolina Aquarium. Coming on a Monday morning and not on a weekend probably helped because the staff weren’t inundated with hoards of people.

I’m actually surprised we don’t have more photos, but we were really able to spend a lot of time talking to the caretakers of the bald eagle, we went backstage to see the operations including the top of the deepest ocean tank in the world, and fed stingrays.

We are animal enthusiasts (as you might have noticed) and enjoy learning as much as we can when we visit zoos and aquariums. While the SC aquarium isn’t the biggest aquarium we’ve ever been to, the visit was much more personal and interactive.

I’ve attached a video from the backstage tour showing the top of huge ocean tank.

The staff was really nice and wanted to share their knowledge with the guests. The only staff we didn’t like were the pushy people trying to get you to buy overpriced visitor photos. We obviously declined. But we did buy some souvenir water bottles for $10 and placed souvenir stickers on them for $5 more. Buying souvenirs does help aquariums and zoos to continue their mission.

After the aquarium we wanted to visit the historic center of Charleston and have lunch. We still did need to go back to Patriot’s Point since I had already purchased tickets online, but we had a few hours to spare.

Historic Charleston

If you were to ask me what the most architecturally beautiful city in America is, I’d have to put Charleston in the top five, if not number one. The historic architecture looks uniquely a mixture of Colonial and Caribbean and the city center is situated on a narrow peninsula which makes it very walkable and free of congestion.

The houses and churches typically date back as far as the early 1700s and are in great condition throughout the city. I enjoy seeing the soaring church steeples, the graveyards, and walking down the narrow passageways that have been in use for centuries.

I wanted to visit at least one of the historic houses, but after wandering through Washington Square and seeking out a place to eat we were beginning to realize there wouldn’t be much time.

We put our names in at a restaurant called Millers All Day and they gave us a wait time of about 45 minutes. Usually that means that well get seated within 20 minutes. I took a quick walk around while Shelley and Evan waited outside the restaurant.

Instead it literally took all 45 minutes to get seated. The restaurant was full even on a Monday afternoon so that was not really surprising. The food was good but the atmosphere was a bit uninspiring. Not really fitting for a historic city. The prices were fairly reasonable for downtown Charleston though.

After eating lunch we went back to the parking garage to retrieve our rental car and drove back over the Ravenel Bridge to Patriot’s Point. Now it was time to see the ships before the museum closed for the day.

Patriot’s Point Naval and Maritime Museum

We’ve been to a few naval museums over the years and this one was good as well. It really features the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier which was in service from World War II through Vietnam. The Yorktown was built in an amazing 18 months during World War II, which is astounding considering the size of the ship. The Yorktown also recovered the Apollo 8 astronauts.

The second ship on display is the destroyer USS Laffey. The Laffey was damaged by kamikaze bombers in WWII but managed to remain in service with a storied history of success.

We enjoyed walking through the ships, particularly my 11-year-old son Evan. We were still in the lower deck of the Yorktown when the museum closed, but were able to find our way out before they kicked us out.

After leaving the museum we made a stop at Wendy’s (lots of stops at Wendy’s on this trip) and went back to the hotel for a couple hours.

Haunted Carriage Ride

I’m not really sure why we have so few photos from the Haunted Carriage Ride through Charleston, but unfortunately I only have one. We did learn a few interesting things, however.

First, graveyards are attached to churches, whereas cemeteries are separate burial grounds. And there were people buried alive frequently enough that they came up with a bell and string to attach to the deceased person so they could ring it and be rescued before dying in ground. It is not true that the term “graveyard shift” originated from these bells.

It was quick tour via horse-drawn carriage, but since it’s Halloween season and we wanted some evening entertainment, it was a fun thing to do.