Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry

At the end of February I traveled to the South Carolina coast to visit family. This pretty much catches up the recent travel backlog.

I knew when I booked the flights that my inbound travel to Charleston was going to be challenging, but the flights turned out to be the easy part. After brief de-icing delays in Chicago, we landed in the rainy part of one of those winter storms with names. Torrential rain combined with after-dark driving, exhaustion and really bad GPS instructions for a very long night driving up the coast. Pro tip: SC Route 41 may call itself "Route 17 Alternate," but that only makes sense if you define "alternate" as "the road you take when you want to make a bad drive in a downpour twice as long and twice as scary and include 200% more hydroplaning." 

I learned many important driving lessons on that trip, but enough about that. I slept until noon the next day and then with my Aunt and Uncle as guides, we set about exploring some coastal treasures.

Boardwalk. Huntington Beach State Park

Saltwater Marshes. Huntington Beach State Park

Two of my Aunt and Uncle's favorite pastimes are visiting Huntington Beach State Park and Brookgreen Gardens, both the legacy of Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington, whom one might call a New York City power couple, among other things. Brookgreen Gardens is the setting for many of Anna Hyatt Huntington's sculptures, and Archer's hobby was donating land and starting up museums.

Myrtle Tree and Spanish Moss. Brookgreen Gardens

Raindrops on ornamental cabbage. Brookgreen Gardens

Daffodils. Brookgreen Gardens

My parents arrived a few days after me, driving down the eastern seaboard from upstate New York. We waited to visit Brookgreen Gardens until after their arrival, so we could go as a group for maximum enjoyment. Brookgreen Gardens is an absolutely lovely place in the rain in February; I can't even imagine how nice it must be in more welcoming weather- the 9,000+ acre park on the edge of the Waccamaw River has beautiful formal landscaping as well as more "natural" areas of trees and marshes.

Live Oak Allee. Brookgreen Gardens

Live Oak Bark texture. Brookgreen Gardens

Heron, Cormorant, Egret. Brookgreen Gardens  

After the day in the Gardens, we all piled snugly into one car and took a day trip to Georgetown, a small harbor city dating back to the early 1700s. I didn't take any notable photos in Georgetown, but I did learn quite a bit about colonial and Antebellum South Carolina that was entirely new to me. For example, the major cash crops in that part of the country were indigo and rice, both entirely dependent upon the forced labor of enslaved people. The indigo was used by the British Empire to dye their military uniforms blue, but oddly enough they lost interest in South Carolina indigo after the Revolution, and rice became the primary crop. At one point South Carolina Gold rice was so popular it was even exported to China (said our guide at the Georgetown Museum).

Cheeky seagull and Ravenel Bridge. Charleston Harbor

For my last full day in South Carolina, we again piled into one car and this time spent the day in Charleston. We visited the Charleston Museum, toured the 1803 Manigault House across the street, and hopped on the free trolley to the harbor walk, where we saw lots of seagulls and even a few dolphins frolicking nearby. As we walked from the waterfront park to the Battery and back, I kept noticing crewcut young men jogging in what looked like navy-blue uniforms with bright orange belts. By the third one I managed to catch the insignia on the T-shirt- they were cadets from The Citadel. 

Waterfront Park. Charleston

Egret. Charleston Harbor

In summary... I have never spent much mental effort in learning about the past or present of South Carolina, so everything we saw and experienced had a revelatory component to it, which added to my enjoyment of the trip in spite of the mostly gloomy weather. Having had just a little taste of Charleston, I would definitely like to go back and spend more time there- everyone we came in contact with was very friendly and welcoming and the historic part of the city is lovely. Looking forward to it!