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.
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 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?
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