The last cemetery, then off to the airport.

 

Thursday, Oct 19

It has arrived.  Our least favorite day of Girls Weekend.  The last day.  The day we go to the airport and go our separate ways and back to our regular lives.  Which, mind you, aren't bad, just not the blissful hang out time we enjoy on our trips.  Journaling, researching, learning about new things and places, even learning new things about subjects we thought we knew well (example: tea!)

Fortunately, Kathi had booked herself on a one way flight home, because she never heard anything back from Orbitz who had somewhat led her to believe that they would contact her within 24 hours of her call to them with some sort of resolution.  Both our flights leave around 3 pm and since we did most of our packing last night, we have time to check out at 10 am and get that last cemetery in.

We took all our bags downstairs and I hung out with them while Kathi went to get the car.  She pulled up in front of the hotel and we loaded everything in.  We decided that I would walk on over to the coffee shop and Kathi would meet me there after she reparked the car in the parking garage so we could do our walk through the cemetery that we missed out on last night.  Seemed like an easy to execute plan, right? Well, the cute little coffee shop that we liked so much doesn't open until 11 and it is only a little after 10. Just as I realize this, Kathi texts me to let me know that she is kind of stuck at the garage and tells me to go ahead and place the order for her coffee.  I let her know that the place doesn't open until 11 and I start searching for another nearby coffee place that is open. After finding 2 places that serve ONLY coffee, not FANCY coffee, Kathi finally comes to find me to tell me her story of the gate to the parking garage not opening (it appears to be stuck closed), her having to ask everyone in line behind her (4 cars deep) to back up so she can get out of the entrance to the garage as well as informing them that the gate won't open and all the machinations she ultimately had to go through just to get the car reparked in the garage!! By the time we met up, I had STILL not successfully found a suitable coffee shop, but a helpful lady working in one the shops told us of a couple of choices.  We chose Bitty and Beau's because, not only do they have fancy coffee, but they hire people with Down Syndrome to work in their shops to honor their 2 children who were born with Down Syndrome.  Love this!  We found the shop (which happened to be on our way to the cemetery), ordered our coffee and made our way to St Phillip's cemetery and graveyard.  The gates to both were wide open this morning!! We wondered around in the cemetery first while hearing music from the church where they were having a baroque concert.  What a wonderful experience! The young man who worked for the church who had kicked us out of the graveyard yesterday found us and told us that he was glad that we were able to come back today.  He also pointed out to us the headstone of the man who wrote Porgy and Bess.

This is the cemetery where I took the photo of the lovely Spanish moss draped above the headstones. I find cemeteries like these that have trees and flowering bushes growing and providing shade much more peaceful and beautiful than ones that have been cleared of all trees and plants.  We crossed the street and did a quick walk through the graveyard, which was also lovely, when the church bells chimed noon.  It was time for us to leave for the airport.  Kathi had rented the car we used through Turo which means we are to wash the car before returning it.  Fortunately, getting out of the parking garage was nowhere near as challenging as getting into the garage had been and we were soon on our way.

Kathi had brought her handicap hang tag along for this trip because a) she has one (she uses it for when she takes her Daddy places) and b) because by using it, we didn't have to pay for parking! She was afraid of leaving it behind, so as soon as we got into the car, she tucked it between her legs to make sure it made its way home with her.  Unfortunately, I think she promptly forgot about it.  We made our stop at the car wash and she had to open the door afterwards to flip the side view mirror back into position that had been knocked back going through the car was. This maneuver caused the handicap tag to be swallowed into one of the crevices in the car. This only matters because upon arrival at the airport, Kathi dropped me off with the bags at the terminal where I waited while she went parked the car in the garage and at some point, while walking to the terminal to meet me, she realized that she didn't have the tag! Kathi is not having a good experience with cars and parking garages today!!  So she went back to the car to look for the tag but had no luck finding it.  We needed to check in and get to our gates at this point, so she texted the car owner to let him know what had happened and asked if he would please look in the car again once he retrieved it to see if he could find the tag.  This man was kind enough to ask Kathi what car wash we went to and said he would drive there and look for it as well as looking in the car. What a gem of a guy!! Next thing I know, Kathi is telling me that he found the tag in one of the crevices of the car! (I don't know if he drove to the carwash or if he found it before doing so).  Kathi and I have said this so many times, but I am going to say it yet again.  God is always so amazingly good to us on these trips, in big and small ways.  We always feel quite blessed.

We sat together for 30 minutes or so at one of the gates, then hugged our last farewells for this trip and prepared to board our separate planes.

Another amazing Girls Weekend in the books.  Thank you, Charleston, South Carolina.  North Dakota, here we come!!

Walk around Charleston and through cemeteries

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Ahhhhhhh. Finally, a “normal” Girls Weekend morning. We woke up at about 7, but I went back to bed for a bit just because I could! For those of you who are new to the Girls Weekend travelogue, a “normal” GW morning is pouring coffee, maybe grabbing a yogurt, and sitting down with a laptop to either journal or plan something or just look stuff up because we are complete nerds and love looking stuff up. And that’s exactly what we did. Somewhere around 10AM, Lori went to make us some cheesy scrambled eggs, which we usually have at least four or five times on these trips. It was a joyous, “slow” morning.

Eventually we showered and dressed and set out to explore. We had two items on our agenda today: to visit some cemeteries, which we both enjoy investigating, and to walk the pathway and street loop that Stephanie had suggested to us a few days before.

We left the condo around 1:00pm. Our first stop was the great little coffee shop we discovered the night before, then we walked down East Bay Street for a few blocks before turning east toward the water. Waterfront Park has a wharf that goes way out over the water. The weather was miraculous – the best day yet. Stunningly beautiful crystal-clear blue skies and shimmering water can make one just stop and acknowledge what God has done.

We walked all the way out on the wharf. A four-masted sailboat was gliding by, and we could clearly see Fort Sumter to the southeast. To the north, as Stephanie had promised, was an amazing view of the Arthur Ravenal Jr. Bridge, which spans the Cooper River. When it was completed in 2005, this bridge was the longest cable-stayed bridge of its time in North America and the tallest structure in South Carolina. We snapped a few photos of this bridge from the Aquarium a couple of days ago, but this was an even better view. Lori saw a dolphin, and I tried to get it on video arcing out of the water. I got to see it but missed getting a photo.

These Charlestonians sure do know how to landscape while making outdoor areas comfortable. There were delightful seating areas all over the place, including several covered areas with huge porch swings. We continued walking down Waterfront Park along the eastern edge of the peninsula to the famed Pineapple Fountain, which was installed in the spring of 1990, after Hurricane Hugo. According to the fountain website, pineapple motifs are common in Charleston and represent hospitality. Wading in the fountain is not only allowed, but welcomed, and while we were there a mom watched over her three kids romping in the water and ducking under the spouts that encircled the base of the pineapple.

We veered west from the fountain then turned and started walking south on East Bay Street again, aiming for Rainbow Row. Lori wanted to try to get some photos without all the cars in front and thought that might be possible during the afternoon. It wasn’t, but we enjoyed seeing the houses in full daylight. One of the houses was for sale, so we scanned the barcode and took the virtual tour. We had the option to purchase the home, which is currently on sale for $4,200,000. We're thinking about it.

We left Rainbow Row and set off on a church graveyard/cemetery tour of our own making. While researching which cemeteries would be open today, Lori happened upon an interesting fact. There is a difference between a graveyard and a cemetery. Graveyards are attached to the church, while cemeteries are on separate, free-standing properties. Some churches own both. One of the churches we want to visit today, St. Phillips Episcopal, has an attached graveyard where only church members are allowed to be buried, and a separate cemetery across the street available to the public. In the end, we were able to visit only two of the three graveyards/cemeteries on our planned route.

We first went to Saint Michael’s, a beautiful Anglican (aka Episcopal) church with an attached graveyard. The graves are really packed in close together in these churchyards. There are also gravestones on the brick garden walls. Lori and I had no idea where those people were actually buried, because the markers were above other graves with headstones of their own. These graveyards certainly have a unique kind of beauty, and so much history. Some of the large headstones had the equivalent of entire obituaries carved into them. Many were so weathered with time that they were illegible, but often there were tombstones on graves from the late 1700s through early 1900s that were still clear enough to read fully.

Next, we visited the Unitarian Church, and were delighted to find the church doors wide open. There were some workmen inside when we went in, but they didn’t seem to find it unusual for us to be there, so we wandered and took photos at will. The church had all the grandeur of traditional old churches: huge, beautiful stained-glass windows, stately columns that went from floor to arched ceiling and then spread their bones out in a spiderweb effect. However, in contrast to many other sanctuaries, this one was bright and sunny, with light (blue, maybe?) walls and white columns. Lori took some great photos of the architectural details.

This church’s website explained that although the footpaths in their graveyard were kept clear enough to walk through, they allowed the flora in and around the actual graves to go unchecked. On one wall of that graveyard there was an opening in the wall to another graveyard next door, which actually belonged to another church—we didn’t go to the front to get the name of this church. There was a stark difference between the two churchyards. There were no trees in this second one, and the grass was closely cut. Lori and I both preferred the semi-wildness of the Unitarian Church graveyard.

Knowing we were on a bit of a tight schedule to get to all three churches, just before 3:00 we decided to walk to St. Phillip’s. However, when we went back up to the front of the church, the doors were now closed . . . and so were ALL the gates to the graveyard! Another woman was also locked in with us. We walked back into the adjacent graveyard, but it also had no unlocked gates. All the boundaries were either 6-foot brick walls or wrought iron with spiky tops. We were astounded that no one had checked the grounds first before locking up. Earlier I had seen another small opening that led to the church offices. We headed that way, to be greeted by the same thing – high walls and no open gates. Lori looked more closely at the gate to the alley, which had a sign on it that said, “please close gate behind you.” It was a tall wooden gate. We went over to it and held our collective breaths. The gate opened! We were saved!!

We had passed St. Phillip’s several times throughout the week, and Lori was excited about the separate cemetery which looked to be full of live oaks dripping with gorgeous Spanish moss. By the way, this plant is neither Spanish, nor is it moss. It is actually an air plant that is not parasitic and does not harm the trees on which it grows. Also, you should never touch Spanish moss as it is usually infested with chiggers and could mean quite some discomfort for you. We reached St. Paul’s only to be disappointed. The church itself was open, but despite what was posted on their website, both the graveyard and cemetery were closed. Poor Lori was so disappointed!

One of my favorite souvenirs to bring back home for Eric is a sample of a local beer, but we had not seen a single liquor store the whole time we've been here. So, Lori headed back to the condo while I went on a mission. I found a liquor store online that was a half mile away. It was a lovely little corner store . . . that had no beer, because in South Carolina, liquor stores only sell wine and liquor. Grocery stores sell beer. Fortunately, there was a Harris Teeter right across the street.

On the way back from the grocery I passed one of the huge houses that were always facing sideways—in other words they took up minimal street frontage but went way deep into the property and had long front, or side, porches. The door to the street, which looked like a typical front door, actually led onto the porch, not into the house. Then you walked down the porch to reach the actual front door to the house. Supposedly, the houses in Charleston were sideways to take the best advantage of the local wind and shield interiors from the most intense sun. Indeed, after I read this, I realized that the houses were only sideways on the streets that run north and south. On the east to west streets, the houses faced the street, like “normal”. In the Meridian Kessler neighborhood in Indianapolis there are several of these sideways houses. I wondered whether the same thought process was behind the design of those houses too.

I passed the market on the way back and turned to cruised through it for a couple of blocks. I had been looking for a small size backpack and found exactly what I wanted! It’s made of cork, super soft, and naturally water resistant. It was also somewhat expensive, but it’s Girls Weekend, so the backpack is now mine.

Once back at the condo, Lori and I did a bit of packing, wondering where on earth the time had gone! Unbelievably, this was our last night. The ridiculous debacle with my plane ticket was still ongoing, and I did not hear back from Orbitz, so it was a good thing I had purchased that one-way ticket as a backup. I’ll have to continue that fight when I’m back at home.

We made the last of our Hello Fresh meals, then played 2 or 3 rounds of Blokus, a cool little game I had owned for YEARS but never played. If you like word games and puzzles, you will like this game. I had the travel version that didn’t take up much room in my suitcase. After the game we settled down to watch the rest of Season 1 of The Morning Show. WOW. What a series. We were sad we won’t be able to watch the rest of it together unless we wait a whole year. Plus, I don’t have Apple TV. Ah well. Unable to stretch time any longer, we finally went to bed.

Black Charleston History Walk and the South Carolina Aquarium

 

Tuesday, Oct 17, 2023

We awoke to yet another beautiful morning here in Charleston, South Carolina.  This is a good thing because we are going to start the day with a Black History walking tour, aptly named Frankly Charleston because the guide's name is Frank, this morning at 10 am. Rico, Mari, and Amara are joining us once again.  Kathi has been over the moon at this time that she has had to spend with all of them, particularly Amara since this is the first time that she has actually met her.

After having our morning cup of coffee, showering and dressing, we headed out and walked to the visitor's center where we were to meet our tour guide as well as Rico and family. It was a bit chilly still, so we tried to stay on the sunny side of the street when possible.  Once everyone taking the tour arrived, Frank began his talk about the history of Charleston from the perspective of a Black American. The untold story.  The story of how Charleston was built by black slaves transported across the ocean to a life of servitude. How the land that Charleston is built upon was originally all marshland filled with alligators and leeches and mosquitos.  The slaves were tasked with filling this watery land with fill dirt and crushed oyster shells many feet deep in order to create a land base that would become viable real estate. Many slaves can also be credited with building the many beautiful homes and buildings in Charleston.  They worked as sawyers, cabinet makers, carpenters, iron workers, plasterers, stone masons, and brick masons.  Through the years the focus has always been on the beauty of the plantations, the plantation homes, and the government buildings with no credit given to those who created all this beauty through their forced labor.  It's time that part of the story be revealed, be discussed, be made part of our history books.  This is the story that Frank tells as we walk around a few blocks of Charleston. One of the first examples that Frank showed us was a gate that was made by black artisan and blacksmith, Philip Simmons. Commonly called the Peacock Gate, it is filled with African symbolism and is should more appropriately be called the Gateway to Charleston, the name that Philip Simmons gave it.  He created many beautiful ironworks throughout the city of Charleston.

Frank also spoke of how ALL of Charleston is basically a cemetery full of the bones of the enslaved.  Nearly any time digging for foundations is done in the city, bones are found.

The main area that we walked around for this tour was The Wragg Mall.  An area named after Joseph Wragg, who was a politician and the predominant slave trader in South Carolina.   Many of the homes in this area include his own home and the homes of his children.  The streets in this area are all named after Wragg's children.  Elizabeth Street, Mary Street, Ann Street, Charlotte Street, Henrietta Street, Judith Street, and finally, John Street.  This area was close to the wharf where they slave ships came into port. Upon arrival, the black who survived the voyage were quarantined for ten days where it was determined who was healthy enough to be auctioned off.  Anyone not deemed healthy enough was left to die.  Frank showed us one of the concrete blocks used as an auction block upon which the person for sale would stand while the enslavers made bids.  Frank told us that this part of town is where most slaves were purchased rather than at the slave mart in downtown Charleston.   The buyers here were the wealthy whites, while those who purchased the slaves downtown, while needing slave labor, were not able to spend as much money upon their purchases.

While the information that Frank provided us with was interesting and showed us glimpses of the whole story of Charleston, I found his presentation to be somewhat random, off-the-cuff, nonlinear and at times difficult to follow. He was obviously very passionate about his topic, but, for me, I would have preferred a more structured presentation.  The tour was to last 90 minutes and we built this into our schedule for the day, having purchased tickets for a 1pm entrance to the Charleston Aquarium. At noon, Frank was still talking, we were hungry, and we had a 15 minute walk to the aquarium so we were forced to leave the tour before it was over in order to eat and make it to the aquarium on time.

Upon arrival at the aquarium, we headed straight for the bathrooms and the cafe. Once our hunger was satiated and our bladders emptied, we began our exploration of the aquarium. 

The aquarium is divided into different sections that focus on the different environments found in South Carolina: mountain forest, coastal plain, saltmarsh, coast and, ocean.  In addition there are touch tanks and a Sea Turtle recovery area, where injured sea turtles are treated with the idea of releasing them back into the wild once recovered. In between the exhibits are play areas and these areas seemed to be what Amara enjoyed the most. We happened to be at the right place and time to watch the horseshoe crabs get fed.  Since Kathi and I and seen a couple of these creatures when looking over the water outside the International African American Museum a couple of days before, we found this particularly interesting. Kathi even got to feed one!  We were also fortunate enough to watch the bald eagle they have there receive her meal. The bald eagle, Liberty, is there because she had to have part of a wing amputated as a result (it is believed) of an interaction with a live power line, thus making it impossible for her to survive on her own in the wild. 

Kathi and Amara spent some time playing the play area which was fun to watch and I know made Kathi very happy!

Rico and family needed to leave at 3 so that they could check out of their hotel room and make the nearly 3 hour journey back to their home in York, South Carolina.  Kathi and I decided to stay for the 3pm diver's show in the big tank. The diver had no interaction with any of the animals in the tank for the show. Instead the show mainly consisted of a dialogue between the diver and the educator who was outside of the tank.  We learned that the divers are all volunteers and their duties include preparing food for all the animals in the tank as well as scrubbing the algae away from the tank windows and the fake reefs inside the tank.

Once the show was over, we left the aquarium to return to the condo.  We had one more look, however, at creatures that live in this area when we looked over the side of the railing of the ramp heading out of the aquarium when we saw something moving in the sand.  Turned out to be Fiddler crabs!! Funny-looking creatures but fascinating to watch.

We made our way back to the condo with a stop at Carmella's Cafe and Dessert Bar for some iced drinks, which were delicious by the way! We watched a couple of episodes of "The Morning Show", then Kathi broke out the game she was inspired to purchase after our visit to the Birds of Prey, called Wingspan.  It is a game she had played before with some friends on a trip to Florida. It is fairly complicated and has a steep learning curve in order to play it and we were just getting into it when Eric asked Kathi about her flight arrival.  Well, thank goodness he asked because, long story made short, American Airlines CANCELLED Kathi's reservation and no notice was given to Orbitz (where she booked her round trip ticket for this trip) or to Kathi.  She, of course, immediately got on the phone to find out what the heck was going on and to remedy the situation and was on the phone for the next 2 1/2 hours with both American Airlines and Orbitz and basically got no answers.  She ended up booking another flight home to be sure she can GET home, while Orbitz escalates the matter and tries to resolve the matter on their end. This situation brought an end to our game.

Once Kathi finally got off the phone, it was 11:30 and we were off to bed!

Magnolia Gardens

Monday, October 16, 2023

This morning we were once again up early to write. We’re really trying to get a journal entry out every day, but (and this is totally our fault) these things take forever to write! Every year we learn something about how we want these trips to evolve. This year we clearly miss our “slow” mornings of coffee, journaling, listening to music, and just hanging out together before needing to shower and dress for the day’s activity. We have decided that from now on, perhaps two or three early starts are enough, and other than that, we can just leave at (or after!) noon to get where we need to be. Today we ended up having to hustle a bit, make lunches for everybody (us as well as the Vidot family), and fly out the door.

We had made arrangements to meet Rico, Mari, and Amara at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens at 10AM. Both parties were a bit late—Lori and I ran into a bit of traffic, and Rico and Mari were on toddler time . Lori and I got there first, sorted out the tickets and gathered whatever information we needed, and then . . . THERE THEY WERE!! I wrapped Rico and Mari in big fat bear hugs and kissed their faces in joyous reunion. I had not seen them for almost four years. I introduced Lori, and then focused on meeting Amara. Fortunately, I had reasonable expectations about meeting a three year-old who had never seen me before. I dialed my excitement and enthusiasm way back, squatted down (good Lord, considering the condition of my knees and ankles these days, that is no longer a position I can enjoy!) introduced myself, and told her I was glad to meet her. She stared for a bit, then scooted over by her mom, but did not turn away or burst into tears. It was, in a word, awesome, and very promising.

The only way I was going to visit a plantation was if I knew in advance that its history of slavery was going to be acknowledged and discussed, and that it wasn’t just some Gone with the Wind look-at-all-these-pretty-flowers-and-trees whitewash crap. According to their website, Magnolia Plantation and Gardens seemed to fulfill that condition. Rev. John Grimké Drayton planted the elaborate gardens in the 1840s for his wife, who was from Philadelphia and not entirely thrilled about moving to the middle of nowhere. He directed the enslaved people at Magnolia in planting these gardens. But before that, when they were first kidnaped from West Africa, those same enslaved people and their predecessors spent years dredging the swampy marshland surrounding the property and working to somehow fill it in to make land and then using the expertise gained from their homeland to plant, nourish, and grow rice, which is not indigenous to the United States, and which the colonial enslavers had no idea how to grow.

The enslaved people who were forced to work here were literally worked to death, if not from pathogens, parasites, mosquitoes, alligators, and snakes, then from the effects of 14 to 16 hours of forced field work under a broiling sun that could literally cause them to drop dead where they stood. The Drayton family has owned Magnolia since the 1670s. Rev. Drayton’s ancestors made a fortune from the rice my ancestors died for well before he ordered the gorgeous gardens to be planted to woo his wife. I wasn’t going to visit any plantation-turned-tourist destination that refused to acknowledge all of this.

We had 10:30 am tickets for the train, so the five of us headed over to the depot and boarded. The “train” is really an overgrown golf cart that seats about 20 people. The train tour was very informative, and it traveled the circumference of Magnolia’s massive acreage as well as rolled past the former quarters of the enslaved and also through the swamp and lake areas. However, it infuriated us that the driver WOULD NOT just stop for 15 seconds so we could take pictures. He would slow down, but not enough to focus and get good photos. He’d point out a great tree, or blue heron, or egret, or even alligators lurking in the pond or sunning on a muddy bank, but do we have good photos of those things to show? We do not. We think the trains are on a schedule and he had to keep moving, but they need to add 15 minutes between each departure time or something, and let the drivers stop sometimes.

After the train ride we went to the little outdoor café and enjoyed a snack of delicious mini pumpkin pies and yummy hot cider. The weather was sunny and beautiful, but only about 65 degrees, and there seems to be an almost constant breeze in the Charleston area. We were all a bit chilly after the train tour and the cider hit the spot.

We had tickets to the 12:00 noon “Slavery to Freedom” tour so after our snack we set out to find the meeting spot. Post Emancipation, roughly half of the newly freed African Americans stayed at Magnolia to work as paid gardeners, tour guides, and domestic servants. Descendants of the enslaved as well as other Black families lived on what was called the “Street” until the late 20th century! Four former slave cabins have been preserved and restored. Our tour guide, Joe, met us and our group of about 30 people, and we all walked out to the site of four cabins.

Joe was Black, extremely knowledgeable, and riveting, and spoke with a definite edge to his voice that had likely been sharpened by years of dealing with questions such as “But didn’t the slaves benefit from having been brought to America? That’s what I’ve heard” from his primarily white audiences. He gave detailed information about the cabins themselves and the people who had lived in them. Before he released us to go explore the cabin interiors, Joe told us he had spent 10 days living in these cabins. He had done the same in other slave dwellings all over the country. We found out later that he had written a book called The Slave Dwelling Project. He was a fascinating man. I could have talked to him for hours.

The four cabins had been built in 1850, and one had actually been lived in until 1990 by the head gardener who had raised his sons there. The cabins had been built as “duplexes” and each housed two families. They had been preserved and refurbished to reflect different periods of time: 1850 (when they were built), 1890, 1925, and 1969 (the one in which the head gardener lived). The largest of these cabins, the 1969 version, even after openings had been cut in the walls to turn the duplex into a single, two-room dwelling, was about the size of an average spare bedroom in the home of anyone reading this journal. This one cabin had been updated at some point with electricity and also with running water for a sink, but none had indoor bathrooms.

Everyone was pretty hungry by the time we finished exploring the cabins, so I went to the car to get our lunches and we ate at some picnic tables by the Wildlife Center. While we were eating, we were joined by 3 or 4 gorgeous peacocks strolling through and looking for snacks. Amara (who by now had decided that her Grammi was OK with her and had even chosen to take my hand rather than one of her parent’s while walking through the cabins!) was thrilled by the beautiful birds and kept asking us to call them over so she could see them, and then calling out to them herself. Despite her obvious charm, they completely ignored her attempts.

After lunch we went into the outdoor Wildlife Center, which was populated—like the Center for Birds of Prey—by rescued animals who would not be able to survive in the wild. Many of these animals, like the peacocks and a beautiful, sweet deer, were roaming about among us. Amara loved them all and ran from pen to pen, even gathering the courage to pet the deer after all the rest of us had done so.

After leaving the Wildlife Center we started exploring the gardens, walking the paths that led down to the water. This was an extremely sinuous route involving walking through narrow paths bordered by beautiful trees and plants, crossing several beautiful bridges spanning ponds and swampy spaces, and making many decisions about which way to turn to get to our desired destination, which was an observation tower we had passes on the train tour. Amara hit a wall well before we reached our destination, and Rico got a workout carrying the dead weight of a sleeping three-year-old all over the plantation grounds. Once we found the observation tower and had hung out there for a while gazing out over a vast expanse of what used to be rice fields, we decided to walk back along the road/bicycle trail to return to our starting point.

We bid the Vidot family a fond farewell, left Magnolia just before four, and arrived back at the condo about 4:50PM, looking forward to having a nice rest. While doing so, we ate the dragon fruit I had bought on a whim at the grocery. What a beautiful and interesting fruit! Neither of us had ever had it before, and I had to look up how to cut and serve it. I read that it had a “mild” flavor, and that was certainly true. So mild, in fact that it was almost all texture and not much flavor. We decided that it was pleasant enough, but not earth shattering.

Around 6:45 PM we went back out for a walk, determined to get to Rainbow Row (a famous row of pastel-colored historic homes located on East Bay Street—the same street we’re staying on—down closer to the bottom of the peninsula) to take photos before we lost all daylight. People in this city are totally dedicated to their window boxes! So many houses and buildings have them, and they are for the most part gorgeous with beautiful fall colors in the flowers and foliage. We kept going past Rainbow Row and walked along the Battery, passing huge colonial mansion after huge colonial mansion, many of which seemed to still be single family homes. Our conversation centered around reflections on seeing the crazy huge mansions in the same day as having visited the tiny little boxes where the enslaved people who had built and even in some cases designed them had been forced to live.

We walked quite a while, and it was well after dark when we returned home to watch an episode or two of our show and turn in.

Girls Weekend 2023, Charleston, South Carolina. International African American Museum and Escape Room

 

Sunday, October 15

After a good night's sleep, we both woke up around 7:30 this morning to get ready for today's adventure.  No leisurely morning so far for us on this trip!! Kathi and Eric are charter members of the new International African American Museum and received two free tickets to use during its first year. Kathi has been talking about this museum and her excitement about visiting it since last year when South Carolina became our destination.  So after our morning coffee, a round of cheesy scrambled eggs, we showered, dressed and headed out the door to walk to the museum.  As always, God blessed us with a beautiful day and our not quite a mile walk to the museum was very nice. I, shamefully, did not realize the role that Charleston played in the history of slavery in our country.  Kathi had told me that something like 40-50% of black Americans can trace their family history back to Charleston because this is where the almost half the enslaved Africans who were brought to this country landed upon their arrival.  Once in Charleston, they were auctioned off and began their lives of servitude to their new masters. When Kathi told me this I realized just how much I DON'T know about Black American History, because the history taught in most American schools is, literally, a very white-washed version.  One really great thing about Charleston, is that the city has decided to embrace its true and real history and talk about the role that African American people have played not only in this city but in America.  Much of what we are doing on our visit here this week revolves around Black American history and I am looking forward to every bit of it.

The museum is very well done, if a bit overwhelming in the amount of information available.  I started out reading every little placard of information I walked by only to realize if I continued to do that it would take me more than one visit to read everything. Along with information about the slave trade and how miserable the ocean voyage from Africa to America was, there is a focus on individual stories.  Stories of what life for a slave was like to what life as a Black American is like today. Stories of the fight for racial equality and those who lost their lives in that fight. Stories of how, as much as we like to think we have progressed in terms of racial equality, there is still racial prejudice and bias very much alive in this country. The stories are enlightening and heartbreaking. 

Kathi wanted me to be sure to share some of the things she learned at the museum today, so she wrote out this list:

·       In 1790, a group of free people of color in Charleston formed the Brown Fellowship Society. They had a school, built a building for social events, and even had a cemetery, all restricted to light skinned people of color. Being invited to join the group was an indicator of social status. The organization continued into the 1990s. Growing up in Indianapolis, I always wondered about the light-skinned Black people I knew. Entire families were so light, and somehow always found other light-skinned Black people to marry and with whom to socialize. Maybe there was a Brown Fellowship of Indianapolis I knew nothing about.

·       In 1807, Congress banned the Transatlantic slave trade, effective January 1, 1808. By then, South Carolina was the only state continuing to import Africans. African captives continues arriving through the illegal international trade.

·       In 1892, a mixed-race man named Homer Plessy deliberately violated Louisiana’s Separate Car Act of 1890 by boarding a whites-only train car in New Orleans. The law required "equal, but separate" railroad accommodations for white and non-white passengers. Plessy was charged under the Act. At his trial his lawyers argued that the the Act was unconstitutional and that the judge (John Howard Ferguson) should dismiss the charges. Ferguson denied the request, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld his ruling on appeal, and then Plessy appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Plessy’s lawyers argued that the Louisiana law fundamentally implied that Black people were inferior. In a decision now considered to be the Supreme Court’s worst decision ever, the lawyers’ arguments were rejected. The Court stated that although the Fourteenth Amendment determined the legal equality of whites and Blacks, it did not mean that the elimination of all "distinctions based upon color" was required. I knew all about Plessy v Ferguson before reading about this at the museum, however that was because I had been in a play about the case. I was probably 40 years old at the time, well past high school, which is when I should have learned about a case like this.

·       On February 8, 1968, state highway patrolmen in Orangeburg, NC, shot and killed Samuel Hammond, Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith at South Carolina State. Students at the school had been peacefully protesting a local, segregated bowling alley. In response, white patrolmen shot directly into the crowd, killing these three students, and wounding 28 more. The federal government pressed charges against the troopers for excessive force. They were acquitted. This is called The Orangeburg Massacre. I’ve never heard of it. Have you?

Along with the written word telling these stories there is art that depicts the Black American story as well as videos of Black Americans talking about their experiences, past and present. I sometimes forget how I benefit from being born white and take my white privilege for granted. This is a place where the differences between the white experience and the black experience is highlighted.  A place that makes one give thought to what it would be like to walk in the shoes of someone born with black skin. 

If ever you find yourself in Charleston, South Carolina, I would highly recommend a visit to this museum. But be prepared to walk and stand for a minimum of 4 hours to take in even a small portion of what is offered there.

We walked back to the condo and spent the afternoon doing Kathi/Lori things.  Kathi typing, Lori napping.  We got a good surprise today. Somewhere around 4:00 pm, Rico called Kathi and said that Amara continues to feel better and has again tested negative. And . . . they would be in Charleston later tonight!! Kathi is walking on air. She was really down about them not coming. Such great news.

We had made plans the night before to do an escape room with Stephanie and Steven and we booked a 7:15 reservation to escape "The Witches Attic" at Escape 60, which is just around the corner from where we are staying.  We left the room around 6ish, though, to do a photo walk around the neighborhood (the French Quarter of Charleston), which is quite charming, lined with historic and interesting buildings. 

We met up with Stephanie and Steven for our Escape Room adventure and began our attempt at 7:15.  This was a great escape room.  It was dark and gloomy, so dark & gloomy in fact, that we had to use our phone flashlights to see what we were doing.  There were many puzzles to be solved,  only a couple of keys to be found and lots of boxes and drawers that popped open when we correctly solved the puzzles. This was Stephanie and Steven's first escape room experience and they were awesome partners!!  They were completely into it and with the 4 of us putting our brains to good use we escaped with nearly 10 minutes left!!  For those of you who have followed Girls Weekend through the years you may know that Kathi and I have only successfully escaped ONE room prior to this, so this was VERY exciting for us!!  Thank you, Stephanie and Steven, for joining us and adding one more success to our record!

We parted ways after the escape room and returned to the condo where we watched another episode of "The Morning Show" (highly recommend) then went to bed. 

Oh!  Almost forgot! Kathi tossed the states and only one remained face up which determines our destination for next year.

We will be going to.....................North Dakota!!

Saturday, October 14, 2023. Charleston Tea Garden and The Night Market

Saturday, October 14, 2023

This morning we were up at 7:30 and journaling a bit before starting to get ready to leave, when I got a phone call from Rico, Ridley’s brother and my ex-stepson, whom I adore. Rico, his wife Mari, and their beautiful daughter Amara live about three hours from Charleston. I have never met Amara, although Rico, Mari and I all consider her to be my grandbaby. She is now three and calls me Grammi, and they were scheduled to come to Charleston for a couple of days so I could meet her. Rico called to let me know that Mari’s mother had COVID, Amara was with her all night Wednesday, and Amara has not been feeling great. They suspected she might also have COVID, and they had canceled their hotel reservation. I was devastated. I have been trying to see this little angel for so long and the stars just have not aligned. Before he hung up, I was already planning to buy a plane ticket and just go visit them before the year was out.

Today we were scheduled to visit the Charleston Tea Garden, the only tea plantation in North America. When Lori—the main researcher and planner of our GW agendas—suggested this place, I was rather “meh” about visiting it. However, rule #1 about Girls Weekend, and the reason we are always able to keep the harmony, is “she who cares most, wins.” Lori really wanted to see this place, so we went, and I was very glad we did. This was such an interesting site, and we were able to totally nerd out learning about all about tea.

In 1963, a London-trained tea taster, Bill Hall, purchased a 127-acre farm in the South Carolina low country, then experimented and was able to transplant and revive some 100+ year old tea plants that had been abandoned after the death of a previous tea-grower. Bill converted the tea garden to become a commercial property and started growing robust tea plants that made delicious tea. Bill sought a partnership and sold the property to the Bigelow family in 2003, so the harvested tea from this place is now used in Bigelow teas. It was interesting to read that in the summer of 2020, this tea farm changed its name from the Charleston Tea Plantation to the Charleston Tea Garden. God bless George Floyd and may he rest in peace. His death was certainly not in vain and was a catalyst that changed the country in so many ways, big and tiny.

We arrived just in time to board our 11:30 trolley tour. As we rode through the fields and fields and FIELDS of tea we learned many interesting things from our driver/tour guide as well as from the recorded voice of the founder, Bill Hall, who died last year. Tea plants can be as old as 600 years (!!) and once it’s planted it is never taken out of the ground. This is the case even if the plant dies, because the root systems are so extensive that the removal of one plant would adversely affect all the other healthy plants around it.

the greenhouse

The trolley made a stop at the greenhouse, and we were able to go inside, where 7000 seedlings were in various states of growth. The farm has several fields that have not yet been planted with tea.

Lori and I agreed that the most fascinating fact we learned about tea is that all tea is the same tea—green, black, oolong are all the same tea leaves from the same plants. Later, after the trolley tour was over, we were able to go into the factory and view the full factory floor while learning how everything worked. The type of tea is determined solely by how long the leaves’ cells are exposed to oxygen during the processing: 50 minutes for black tea, 15 minutes for oolong, and no exposure at all for green tea. And those are the only three types of tea – anything else (mint, earl grey, orange spice) are all made from flavoring added to the tea leaves.

a field of tea plants

After the factory tour, we spent some time in the gift shop where there was unlimited free tea, both cold and hot. Lori bought boxes of tea to take home, and I bought a tea and peach popsicle that sounded tasty, but which in reality was freezer burned, otherwise fairly tasteless, and overpriced. Nasty frozen treats aside, however, this was an interesting and very informative excursion that rated a double thumbs up.

The Angel Oak tree

We left the tea gardens at 1:25PM and set off in search of the Angel Oak Tree. We had first heard about this tree from the trolley driver, and the gift shop cashiers also suggested we stop to see it since we would pass by it on the way back to the condo. So of course, we went. The Angel Oak was about 15 miles away from the tea farm. It is in its own park, and to get there you have to turn down a dirt road so riddled with potholes that it literally looks like footage of the surface of the moon. I was scared our little Kia Rio would fall right into one of the mammoth craters that covered 65% of that road’s surface. It turned out that seeing this tree was worth the risk. Photos will never do it justice, you must stand underneath it, walk around it, move through the 17,000 square feet of ground that it shades, and follow its long twisting branches (many of which have to lie on the ground for support), that are each as thick as the trunk of a normal tree. This tree is estimated to be almost 400 years old, and supposedly has a life expectancy of 900 years! May she forever reign.

At some point during the day, I received another text from Rico saying that Amara had tested negative for COVID and was feeling much better. He said they would test again in the morning and if all was well, might come after all. Not to be melodramatic, but my heart soared with hope. Amara’s veins hold the blood of my baby girl.

We finally pulled ourselves away from the tree to continue the journey home. We stopped at the grocery, then headed back to the condo and sat down to do a bit of journaling, but I soon realized I would not make it through the day without a nap. So, at about 5:30PM I snoozed off and woke up at 7:00 to find Lori had clearly considered the nap idea to be a good one, and was now enjoying one herself. I got up and started making dinner, and when Lori woke up around eight, we quickly ate dinner and headed out, two no-longer-young ladies ready for a night on the town.

Every summer since 2018, I have mentored med students as part of an IU School of Medicine program focused on introducing med students to research. My very first mentee, Stephanie, is now in her third year of residency at Medical College of South Carolina here in Charleston. We met up with Stephanie and her boyfriend Steven at the Charleston Night Market. The market is open every day from 10-5, but has special hours on Friday and Saturday nights. There are only local artists and vendors at the night markets, and Stephanie could not have chosen a better thing for Lori and me to see. We meandered along, meeting and talking to several artists, and buying a few things.

The Historic Charleston City Market itself is a collection of several long, slender, brick sheds extending for several blocks. Charleston was given the land for use as a market under the condition that it would always be used as such into perpetuity. These days the market houses several small “shops” and vendor areas and is delightful. A security guard encouraged us to check out the murals above the openings on the exterior walls of one of the sheds.

After leaving the market, we walked several blocks up East Bay Street to Vendue, a restaurant that has a rooftop bar offering craft cocktails and nibbles. On the way to the bar, we passed an escape room, one of our favorite GW activities, and agreed to all meet up there the following night. We continued on to the bar and grabbed a hightop table in the corner so we could see over the city. The breeze was constant and a bit chilly, but the atmosphere and conversation were wonderful. Lori had never met Stephanie, and neither of us knew Steven, of course. They have an intricate, quite lovely, somewhat tumultuous love story that started in eighth grade as a competition and friendship between two nerdy brainiacs and has progressed to Steven moving to Charleston five months ago. We very much enjoyed this time with them in the night air of a beautiful city.

We closed the joint! Lori and I have not been out like this, this late, since maybe GW #10? 11? We can’t remember when, let’s just leave it at that. We bid a fond farewell to Steven and Stephanie and got home at 12:15AM. We then had the nerve to stay up even later journaling and didn’t get to bed until 2AM. We did remember to first toss the states though. Three fell face down, leaving the winner face up. Since this is probably the earliest we have ever known our next location, we have decided to leave you with a cliff hanger for a day or two. Where do YOU think GW #27 will be?