We awoke to the sound of rain. Ugh! I usually brightly say “a nice freshwater rinse for the boat,” but not today as I considered the likely condition of streets in the city. We skipped a choral concert and a dinner reservation at Eli’s Table last night because we didn’t want to deal with it after it took nearly an hour to make what was usually a 10 minute trip.
Another choral concert beckoned us into the city and so off we went and glad of it. The concert featured a choir, a piano and a string quartet and was terrific. We were even more impressed with it when we learned that the choir is a non-audition group from the small town of Sumter, SC (not to be confused with Fort Sumter). This was their 9th invitation to the Spoleto Festival. The conductor invited all of the audience to drop by their rehearsals (7pm, every Wednesday, Trinity Methodist Church) if we ever found ourselves in Sumter. Sounds like a plan.
Our last day in Charleston deserved a good food send off so we headed to McCrady’s Tavern which is located on a small alleyway off East Bay Street. You’d miss it if you were relying on Google Maps….fortunately McCrady’s has great signage! A very leisurely late lunch found us to be the last customers in the place as the staff started to get the restaurant ready for dinner service. They didn’t even shoo us out…..perhaps our splurge on a caviar appetizer made a difference.
Walking back to the boat, we happened to pass Mac’s Place (you remember, don’t you?1), the Chicago sports headquarters in Charleston. The Cubs were playing, so we stopped in, grabbed a glass of wine….and couldn’t resist ordering the Irish nachos (groan). Let’s just say that brisket is better than ground beef. We ate it all.
