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Our Walking Tour of Charleston

August 20, 2008
George at the entrance to Catfish Row in Charleston, June 22, 2008.

George at the entrance to Catfish Row in Charleston, June 22, 2008.

Betsy and I were looking forward to celebrating our anniversary on June 22 (a day early) by taking a sunset cruise in Charleston Harbor on a sailing schooner. It had rained the previous day, cutting short our visit to Boone Hall Plantation, but we hoped that Sunday would be better.

As I’ve mentioned we went to church at St. Michael’s Church in the morning, and then walked around The Battery before taking a carriage tour of the historic district.

After the carriage tour we still had quite a bit of time before our cruise, so we decided to get a bite to eat. We had done some internet research and went to the Fleet Landing Restaurant on Charleston Harbor. We were able to eat on the deck and enjoy the breezes coming in from the harbor.

After eating we walked around the historic district some more before we headed to the Aquarium Wharf and the schooner. As we walked we noticed the sky getting darker and darker, but we remained optimistic. We got to the wharf and found the schooner, but there was no one there. A quick phone call confirmed that the cruise was cancelled because of weather. It started raining as we walked back to the car.

Although we didn’t get to take our cruise, we still had a wonderful time in Charleston. To see more of our walking tour click HERE.

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Our Charleston Carriage Tour

August 14, 2008
Rainbow Row, Charleston, South Carolina. June 22, 2008.

Rainbow Row, Charleston, South Carolina. June 22, 2008.

As I’ve mentioned before, Betsy and I were in Charleston, South Carolina, on Sunday, June 22, 2008.  We attended church at St. Michael’s and then walked around The Battery.

We enjoyed our walking tour of The Battery, but it was a very hot day and walking soon lost its charm.  Several horse- and mule-drawn carriages passed us as we walked, so we decided that would be a better way to see Charleston.

We found Palmetto Carriage and bought our tickets.  We were directed to the nearby barn of the company and told that our tour would soon start.  It was there that we discovered that Palmetto Carriage uses mule-drawn carriages.

Our tour guide was excellent and very knowledgeable.  The city of Charleston has a system to limit the number of carriages in any given part of the historic district.  All carriages have to stop at a control point after they are loaded and it is then that they are assigned one of four routes.  So the guides have to be familiar with all four.

We thoroughly enjoyed our tour.  The carriage moved at a slow enough pace that we could see what the guide was talking about.  We would highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting Charleston, especially first-time visitors.

To see more of our carriage tour, click HERE.

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Charleston’s Battery

August 11, 2008
George at The Battery, June 22, 2008.

George at The Battery, June 22, 2008.

After attending church service at St. Michael’s in Charleston, Betsy and I drove down to White Point Gardens, also known as The Battery.  White Point Gardens sits at the southernmost point of the Charleston peninsula, where the Cooper and Ashley rivers meet and flow into Charleston Harbor.  Originally opened in 1837 as a public park, the Battery was fortified during the Civil War to protect the city against Union troops.

The Battery is one of the best spots in the city for strolling.  There are live oaks draped with Spanish moss, pleasant ocean breezes, and lovely views of Charleston Harbor.  The Battery is also home to some of the city’s most lavish residences.

We were able to find a parking spot and walked along the seawall and then through the garden.  We then walked along South Battery and Meeting Streets before heading back to the car.

To see more of our walking tour of The Battery, click HERE.

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Memories of China

August 10, 2008

We watched the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics Friday night.  I think we can all agree that they were very impressive.

I was interested in seeing them because I’ve been to Beijing several times.  I taught in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, on four separate occasions, and visited Beijing at least once on each trip.

The first time I went to China was in 1987, when the above picture of Tiananmen Square was taken.  China had been ‘open’ for several years by then, but foreigners were still relatively rare.  I managed to attract quite a bit of attention wherever I went.

There were still relatively few automobiles in China at that time — the black bicycle was the usual mode of transportation for most people.  Most older people wore dark Mao suits, and although young people wore white shirts there really wasn’t a great deal of color in the clothes ordinary people wore.

My most recent trip to China was in 1994 – 1995 and by that time things had really changed, at least in the cities.  There were many more automobiles on the roads, but they were still outnumbered by the bicycles.  But now the bicycles were every color under the rainbow.  The clothing of the ordinary citizens, especially the children, was also very colorful.

The announcers Friday night commented several times on the politeness of the Chinese.  I found the average Chinese to be very friendly and considerate on each of my trips, and I have many wonderful memories of China and the Chinese people.

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Patriots Point

August 9, 2008

On our anniversary trip in June Betsy and I spent a couple of days in Charleston, South Carolina.  We quickly learned that we could have spent a couple of weeks in Charleston and still not have seen everything we wanted to see.  But at least we have a good excuse to go back.

One of the places we got to see, but not visit, was Patriots Point, a naval and maritime museum in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, on Charleston Harbor.  Patriots Point is a hands on museum dealing with military units from World War II through the Vietnam War.  It’s possible to tour four warships (an aircraft carrier, destroyer, coast guard cutter, and submarine) as well as a full scale model of a navy advance tactical support base.

Patriots Point got its start in 1975 with the arrival of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown.  I visited Patriots Point in 1988, but there have been many exhibits added since then.

We only had the opportunity to see enough of Patriots Point to want to go back.  To see our pictures click HERE.

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A Family Reunion

August 5, 2008

In July Betsy and I went to her hometown, Big Stone Gap, Virginia, for a Bruce/Cummings family reunion.  Betsy is related to the Bruces and Cummings through her mother.

Betsy knew some of her cousins as a little girl, but she had not seen most of them for years.  Of course, there were many other family members that she didn’t know at all.  So the reunion gave her a good excuse to go back to Big Stone Gap and the opportunity to get re-acquainted with people she hadn’t seen in years.

Betsy is very interested in family history, as is her cousin Ellen who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Betsy and Ellen spent quite a bit of time exchanging information on the Bruce family.

Not only did Betsy get to meet people, we were able to enjoy the beautiful southwest Virginia countryside.  We think we live in a beautiful area here on the Plateau, but those mountains around Big Stone Gap are also very beautiful.  All in all it was a wonderful weekend.

To see more of our weekend, click HERE.

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St. Michael’s Church

August 3, 2008


On Sunday, June 22, 2008, Betsy and I worshipped at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, in Charleston, South Carolina. St. Michael’s is the oldest church building in the City of Charleston, standing on the site of the first Anglican Church built south of Virginia. In the 1680’s a small wooden church, the first in the new town of Charles Town, was built on the present site of St. Michael’s. By 1727 that church, St. Philip’s, was too small for the congregation and a new church was built on a new site.

By 1751 the new St. Philip’s was too small for the increasing population, and a new church was authorized by the General Assembly of the Province, to be built on the old site and to be known as St. Michael’s. The cornerstone was laid in 1752 and in 1761 the church was opened for services. Except of the addition of the sacristy in 1883, the structure of the building has changed very little.

The interior of the church is also like it was when built. The pulpit and pews are original, as is the organ case, although a new organ was installed in the case in 1994.

George Washington worshipped at St. Michael’s on May 8, 1791 and Robert E. Lee worshipped there in the fall of 1861, They both sat in Pew No. 43, originally known as “The Governor’s Pew”. Unfortunately we didn’t know which pew they had used until we read material from the church after we got back home.

The service when we were there was well-attended by people of all ages. The rector gave a wonderful sermon and we enjoyed the service a great deal. I’d like to go back just to have an opportunity to sit in Pew No. 43!

To see more of St. Michael’s click HERE.

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Boone Hall Plantation

July 25, 2008


The two major destinations on our anniversary trip were Charleston and Savannah. We did visit some waterfalls in north Georgia on our way south, but we arrived in the Charleston area on June 21.

Our first stop was Boone Hall Plantation in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. Boone Hall is one of America’s oldest working plantations. It was once known for cotton and pecans, but now produces peaches, strawberries, tomatoes and pumpkins, as well as other fruits and vegetables.

Boone Hall Plantation (including the first floor of the main house) has been open to the public since 1956. In the 1980s Boone Hall was featured in the mini-series North and South. Later it was used in the filming of Queen, the sequel to Alex Haley’s Roots.

Boone Hall Plantation got it’s start in 1681 when Theophilus Patey was granted 470 acres of land on Wampacheeoone Creek. John Boone, who arrived in South Carolina in 1672, married Patey’s daughter and the couple received the 470 acres as a wedding present. It was after the marriage that the plantation began to be known as Boone Hall. By 1811, when the Boone family sold the plantation it had increased to 1,452 acres.

Over the next 150 years Boone Hall was sold several times. Over those years the plantation increased in size to 4,039 acres and became one of the leading producers of pecans in the country. In 1955 the McRae family, who still own the plantation, purchased Boone Hall and opened it to the public.

One of the features of Boone Hall is an avenue of oaks — a three-quarter mile driveway leading to the main house lined with massive Spanish-moss draped Live Oaks. The Avenue of Oaks goes back to 1743. The present manor house was built in 1935 on the site of the original house.

To see more of our visit to Boone Hall, click HERE.

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America the Beautiful

July 23, 2008

What is the real America?  Is it the big cities we see on television or in the movies, or is it the simpler America of Norman Rockwell?  One reason Betsy and I enjoy living on the Cumberland Plateau is that life here is a little slower and a little simpler than it would be in a larger city.

This weekend we travelled to a portion of the country that is almost as beautiful as our plateau — southwestern Virginia.  We were able to stay off interstate and other major highways most of the time and got to see the America that exists away from the interstate highways.

Betsy’s hometown is Big Stone Gap, Virginia.  BSG is a small city nestled in the mountains.  It used to be a center for coal mining, but most of the mines in the area have now closed.

But the mountains are still there and they are grand to behold.  Between the mountains are many wide valleys which contain rolling hills and many farms and small towns.  Every hill and every curve seemed to present a picture postcard view.

It’s hard to put into words the way we felt about the countryside through which we travelled.  Perhaps the best way to put it is to say the Norman Rockwell’s America still exists.

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Fort Sumter

July 13, 2008

Three weeks ago Betsy and I were in Charleston, South Carolina. I had been there several times, but Betsy had never been there.

We didn’t have time to take the boat out to Fort Sumter, one of Charleston’s most famous historical sites.

But we did catch a glimpse of Fort Sumter from the Battery (more properly known as White Point Gardens), which sits on the southernmost edge of the Charleston peninsula, where the Cooper and Ashley Rivers meet to flow into the Atlantic Ocean.

Fort Sumter was built on a man-made island in Charleston Harbor. Fort Sumter, a masonary fort, was part of the third system of defenses constructed along the coast and was unfinished when South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 21, 1860. U. S. Army Major Robert Anderson moved his command to Fort Sumter five days later because he felt it was the most defensible position in Charleston harbor that could be held by the Union.

On April 12, 1861, Confederate batteries around Charleston harbor opened fire on Fort Sumter for what became a 33 hour bombardment. After that time Major Anderson surrendered the fort because red-hot shells and started fires in all the wooden structures of the fort and were threatening to explode the powder magazines.

No Union soldiers were killed in the bombardment, but one Union soldier was killed and another mortally wounded on April 27, during the firing of a salute to the American flag allowed by Confederate authorities.

Fort Sumter remained in Confederate hands until February 22, 1865, when Union troops of General Sherman occupied the fort after the evacuation of Charleston by the Confederates.

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