Charleston, SC March 6th - 13th, 2012

Nothing is quite as satisfying as creating something for someone that you care about and then having that person seemingly totally enjoy what you have done. In other words my friend Cindy liked her bag. I am so glad. It took some doing to get it to work and I wasn't quite sure that she would be OK with the bright colors as she is more of a pastel gal.

We left home here around 10AM on March 3 and dropped Buddy, the traveling ShiTzu, off at Dr. Millers. Can't fly SW with animals yet. Then we headed toward Chicago. That is a about a 4 hour drive on a good day. We hit the tollway the other side of Rockford and got a real surprise. The tolls had gone up nearly 88% since our last trip in November. As a Buyer for cooperate America, that would have raise my hackles and brought on a whole load of issues to discuss but we are a captive audience.

We got in to our friend's place in the late afternoon and enjoyed a visit and a meal with the wonderful smoked pork chops that I purchased from our Fareway on the way out of town.

The next morning we made our way to Chicago's Midway Airport. This took us through some not so pretty areas of Chicago. We were warned about the railroad tracks but they had been repaired, thank heavens.

We finally found a place to park and got in to line for our boarding passes. About then Den realized that he had on the wrong jacket, much to heavy for Charleston and left me at security and ran back about a mile to get exchange the jacket for the lighter on in the backseat of the car. I was really getting worried about him before he got back.

Having flown SW in the past when it was a "cattle call" to board we were kind of surprised at some of the changes. We had gotten really great ticket prices and this was one of those kind of short window trips.

Charleston was great, small airport and the weather was cool but sunny. We found our hotel and Den had worked a deal at an off airport car rental that was right across the street from the hotel so we were all set.

We stayed at the Hawthorn Suits and the room was great. Had a sitting room, bed room and mini kitchen and a bath. The mini kitchen had a sink, full size fridg and a microwave. The beds were great and the place was clean and fairly quiet. One of the best parts was a hot breakfast was part of the deal. The hotel is 6 years old so not bad at all. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, grits, dry cereal, toast, bagels, waffles, coffee, tea, milk (skim and 2%), juice (apple and orange) and then they alternated bacon, link sausage and kilbasa, oh and yogurt was available as well. Then on weekday afternoons the manager had a social hour where they had wine, beer, soft drinks and chips and dip for those that wanted to come and visit.

That get's us started. I will close this page and go to a daily hit list. There is tons to see and do in Charleston. No wonder it is one of my favorite places to go. Charleston, South Caroline is one of the oldest cities in the United States. South Carolina was the first state to secede from the union. It has been occupied by the South, North, England and a couple of pirates like Bonnet and Blackbeard. Charleston proper is very wet being between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers as well as several creeks. There are many islands that make up the area, Palm Island, Sullivan's Island, John's Island, James Island, Kiawah Island and many more.

Charleston was a slave port and there were a couple of these islands that were containment areas for incoming slaves to be sure that they weren't carrying illness. The slaves that were brought in were skilled in many cases and brought in for their skills. Iron work is one of the skills as well as cultivation and propogation of rice. Many of the plantations in the Charleston area were rice plantations. Carolina or Charleston Gold rice and aromatic rice are still hugely popular in the cooking of the local meals. Charleston Red Rice is offered as a side with almost any meal. There is also a special spoon on Charleston tables settings called a rice spoon. Silver plated and beautiful it is about twice the size of a normal serving spoon.

Tomatoes are also a big deal in Charleston and if you haven't tried fried green tomatoes in a BLT, you have got to give it a go.

There is also the only tea plantation in the United States in Charleston but we will get to that later.