Rain seemed to threaten for the entire journey to our next destination to the ill-named Cape Fear, NC area. As it turned out, everything was pretty calm except for the massive currents at the ill-named Lockwood FOLLY inlet….which seemed determined to sweep us out to the Atlantic. We prevailed and continued northward. It was kinda nice to wear long pants and a long sleeve tee-shirt!
Beautiful scenery. Beautiful homes. Some seemed to be taking their cues from Rainbow Row in Charleston. Some seemed to have their brightness gauges set a bit high….Orange? Lime green? Neon yellow? Really?
This particular group of houses reminded me of “rainbow row” in Charleston. These happen to be along the ICW near Georgetown.Not quite what the Charleston Preservation Board had in mind for colors.Big!Bigger!Big, but….Not the biggest….but quite a statement. Two cupolas!Beautiful setting.This house was one of my favorites — except they have to get that dock built!I just know that whoever lives here has a lot of fun.Chrome yellow house “stands out” even in the woods!
More geography changes. Deep banks of orange clay. Shoals of white sand. And the ICW route so near the ocean you could see the waves.
The color of geography change here.Way in the distance….surf! That’s how close the ICW comes to the Atlantic Ocean in places.More deep green trees and spring green grasses.
We were happy to get a spot on the head wall at Joyner Marina as the wind really pumped up as we entered the marina. The good news is that the wind foretells of rain….another lovely fresh water rinse for DotCalm (and no need for us to clean the boat today!!)
Don’t get your panties in a twist….I’m talking about our cruise route from to Myrtle Beach:-)
The water was mostly 25+ deep and about a quarter of a mile wide. The last half of the trip was in what could only be called a “ditch” — a straight line cut between rivers. Other than slowing down for residential areas, fishing boats, pontoon boats, and especially for sail boats (we remember the rock and roll of passing power boats all too well!!), we were able to make the 57 mile trip in about 6 hours.
Start of the straight-away — a ditch really — that connects natural waterways to create the ICW.
About two seconds after Cliff remarked that he hadn’t seen an osprey nest, we started seeing them on every day mark. On one, there were two baby ospreys being tended to by their parents (I have a photo….but the internet connection here hasn’t allowed me to download it.) I was grateful that Cliff did not remark about the F-L-I-E-S. And happily, they did NOT turn up at all. A terrific day with the bonus of a pop-up thunderstorm that gave Dot Calm a lovely fresh water rinse.
The first hour or two included some stretches with “s” curves that were fun to take at the tremendous speed of 14+mph.
The water was so calm that drifting pollen floated into paisley shapes along the tree lined banks.
The change in geography was amazing. And as we approached Myrtle Beach, the invasion of kudzu vines was apparent.
I think the kudzu wrapped trees look like characters out of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.This formation along the edge of the ICW reminded Cliff of lava flows we’ve seen in Hawaii.
We think some Miami architects have moved north….you’ll see why (why we believe this…not necessarily why they actually moved!!)
Fancy houses with fabulous ICW views, but they haven’t gotten around to building piers to access the water. Maybe they are saving up for a boat!You know it floods when somebody invests this much money in terraced rip rap!Not so cozy!Beautiful home on a even more beautiful piece of property.Do you think they have a riding lawnmower??
Oue mooring in Myrtle Beach isn’t anything like I’d imagined. It is rather modest and quaint. I expected something more like Panama City in Florida. The restaurant at the marina is, alas, closed. It’s Monday after all. Another restaurant was recommended and turned out to be terrific.
Our sunset view from our mooring in Georgetown. Beautiful! We had a rip- roaring thunderstorm later that night. Sure glad to be safely docked.
A 70 mile haul from Charleston to Georgetown, SC meant a long day on the water. Happily, the weather was good with a nice bunch of clouds providing an overcast shelter from the sun.
Some of Charleston’s fanciest addresses from the water.The area fronting the Charleston Harbor is called “The Battery.” It’s exclusive — but it floods horribly.Heading north from Charleston is all uncharted territory for us. Seeing huge container ships like these was a bit intimidating as we crossed the shipping channel and made our way into the safety of ICW waters.
Along the way, we saw dolphin (we’ve seen at least one dolphin every day of our trip), a singleton roseate spoonbill (close enough to see the spoonbill, but not quick enough to get a picture), lots of blue herons, a green heron, crowds of egrets, lesser terns making their vertical dives into the water, osprey, pelicans, and, amazingly/alarmingly, two alligators swimming across the ICW channel. And, alas, those pesky green flies. I have no photos of any of them except the alligator and you’ll have to use your imagination!
Use your imaginations….that swish of water you see about half-way up the frame is an alligator making his/her way across the ICW channel.
The scenery was gorgeous — sort of a combination of the low country marshes and lusher forests. There is a starkness and silence that is commanding.
Leaving Charleston, the terrain is completely low-country — mud flats and low growing marshes.Further along, the green colors change and more trees are visible.The marsh grass is much denser and a completely different color.The shape of the marshes changes too and the greens become more varied.
The houses along this part of the ICW are few and far between once you get a few miles north of Charleston. There are some gigantic ones, but these seem less astounding and attention getting than the ones we saw in Florida. The architecture changed dramatically too.
Definitely a giant home, but more modest than ones in Florida.This one is a bit quirky I think.We continued to see hurricane damage but not as severe as in Florida-Georgia area. But there were more than occasional stranded boats like this one. There were two sailboats beached right across from the Megadock in Charleston!
We are eating dinner aboard tonight. Not because we are tired of going out…..but the best restaurant in town isn’t open on Sunday and the next best one closes as 5pm:-)
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.
Ready to order!McCrady’s Tavern has a very cool bar. Would be worth it just to drop in for a cocktail.The shrimp/crab salad I had included wee cucumber pieces cut out in hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs shapes. Yikes….I wonder who got that terrible job in the kitchen!!Couldn’t resist the dessert — strawberry shortcake. We had the good sense to split it and the poor sense to eat every bite.
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.
Cubs win! Fly the W.Irish nachos. We shouldn’t have….but we did:-)
Never go grocery shopping after too much wine. We ended up forgetting to buy laundry detergent (which we needed), but bringing home cheese straws, two different kinds of peanuts, pita chips and the oo-iest, goo-iest pecan coffee cake I’ve ever seen.
Think we “wasted” a perfectly lovely day on Thursday after the Andersons departed doing laundry and cleaning the boat. We had a super time with them, especially enjoying Brahms German Requiem, but needed a little down time.
All that luggage for a three day stay? Oh yes, Mary brings LOTS of snacks in coolers that need to go back to Asheville! P.S. Mary, we have your frozen cooler inserts:-(
On Friday we managed (barely!) to get in a walking tour by the Charleston Preservation Society (the last stop was rained out) that focused on Catfish Row….the setting for Porgy and Bess. The tour guide literally walked us through the history of the creation of DuBose Heyward’s novel, the subsequent play and Gershwin opera.
Tour leader for the Catfish Row/Porgy & Bess tour. An interesting and different way to look at the city of Charleston.This building was the setting for “Catfish Row” in Porgy & Bess, tho’ the real name was Cabbage Row. The arched entry leads to a courtyard around which tenement like housing formed three sides. The Italian wrought iron decorating the arch is the original as described in DeBose Heyward’s 1926 book “Porgy.”The Porgy & Bess settings are all in the historic district which has been preserved thanks to the efforts of Charleston preservationists from the 1920’s to today. The cobblestone streets in the area are picturesque, but very difficult to walk on!Also in the historic district is probably the most photographed scene in Charleston, the rainbow houses on East Bay Street. Owners throughout the district must submit all plans for any exterior changes including paint color to a Preservation Committee. If your neighbor already has a pink house, too bad for you if you had your heart set on a pink paint job. You may be stuck with lilac.The scourge of slavery, of course, weaves in an out of the Porgy & Bess story and in Charleston’s history. Slave auctions were originally held right at the port, but the city fathers later required slave sellers to move to buildings because the sight of the sales was unseemly to city visitors…..perhaps the first instance of tourism’s influence. This building, a few blocks away from the port area, was one of many slave auction warehouses. Today it is a museum.
There wasn’t a hint of rain in the weather forecast for Friday. Weather Bug showed sunny skies for the whole day. One of Cliff’s weather apps said there was a 30% chance of thunderstorms, but they would be very intermittent. I skipped bringing my newly purchased raincoat — which was very unfortunate. It started raining at the end of our walking tour — around noon — and was still coming down in buckets an hour and a half later. We finally got a ride back to the marina and were happy to to make the quarter mile trek to the boat in “just” a light rain. We were soaked through by the time we got to the boat.
And, boy did it rain. Our tour wrapped up one stop short and we dashed to 82 Queen for lunch hoping the rain would stop by the time we finished. Two glasses of wine later….no let up!Renovation is booming in Charleston and I thiink the main reason is that you cannot tear down any building that is more than 75 years old. This house is not only being renovated but also being lifted to eliminate the nearly constant flooding. It floods in heavy rains, high tides, coastal storm surge and maybe from broken water mains too.Note all the bracing on this house from the chimneys to the porches.
Thursday night we went to a local theater group’s comedy (The Bible: The Complete Word of God— Abridged). The humor was hit and miss, but one of the three characters had an absolutely first rate voice (they needed to have more songs!!) and another had great comedic timing. But, a lot of the jokes were lame and the audience participation part (playing animals on Noah’s ark) was lamer. And….do water pistols aimed at the audience really add to the flood experience?
The set for “The Bible” comedy show.
Flood experience was REAL on Friday. We learned that Charleston does, indeed, flood rather easily. It was a lot of rain, but the chaos it created in flooded streets and traffic seemed out of proportion. The driver of the marina’s courtesy van assured me that it gets a lot worse.
Another organ concert and tho’ I’ve rhapsodized about others, I have to adjust my grading curve. Today’s organist, a woman named Jillian Gardner who is studying for an Artist Diploma (something like a PhD for musicians) at Baylor University, was off the chart. She had an uncanny resemblance to Lucy Comerford, so maybe that influenced me too:-) At one point, she was playing the bass line with her feet and playing different tunes on two of the manuals — and changing stops along the way. Incredible. She wore a pair of ruby shoes which caught my fancy as well.
Ready for the concert!She sorta looked like Lucy Comerford to me!Wizard of Oz ruby slippers. She could really move them on the pedals.
There was just enough time for breakfast/lunch after that concert (Eli’s Table) and a walk through the festival’s art venue before our next one.
Ann and Mary browsed through the art….Cliff and Jack sat and maybe pondered the bench’s philosophical message.Door “art” at the entrance to the art venue.Art tent on the park green.
Our afternoon concert was the Sounds of Charleston which took us on a musical journey of the city’s history. This report is probably more than you want to know about Charleston or the music….but I thought the whole experience was worth memorializing. I don’t have any pictures except for the venue.
Circular Church. A wonderful venue for music.
Now! More (than you ever wanted to know) about the concert!! In the 1600’s Charleston was the crown jewel of the English colonies and after the American Revolution it was the richest city in North America — something like 7 of the richest 10 people in America lived here. Its rich citizens formed the St. Cecelia Society which held an annual concert with the finest musicians in the world. So our concert started with a a terrific bass (Ryan Allen) singing Mozart and Handel. Of course, these riches were built largely on the backs of slaves. More about that later.
Civil War years were highlighted with songs that might have been sung around a campfire by homesick soldiers — north or south. Bill Schlitt played the guitar and Bart Saylor played the mandolin, lute and mountain dulcimer as they sang these spirited, yet sad songs.
The interlocator for the concert (who was also the guitarist) was an enthusiastic and sincere man who didn’t skip over the horror and shame of slavery, noting that probably half of all the slaves in America came through the harbor at Charleston. He also talked about the mass murder in the Bible study group at Emanuel Church three years ago almost to the day — just three blocks from where we were sitting. He admitted to being dumbfounded and awed by the ability of the relatives of the victims to forgive the killer. Spirituals were the appropriate music and a professor from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Carl Bright, his wife (Guinevere) and daughter (Genesis) were the performers. He played the piano and they sang — and boy, did they. Their voices blasted the first song, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, through the room. Electrifying — no microphones required. And what would singing spirituals be like without group participation? So most of the audience joined in on Wade in the Water — Genesis was louder than all 160 of us!
To round things out, the pianist for the Charleston symphony (Ghadi Shayban) along with Maida Libkin (she is the wife of Bill Schlitt) played Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. The Charleston connection here is that Gershwin spent many weeks in Charleston working with DuBose Heyward, a Charleston insurance agent, who wrote the book Porgy on which Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess was based.
It all wrapped up with a sing-along Amazing Grace.
Speaking of wrapping up…..
One of the treats Mary and Jack brought was a bottle of wine from her brother’s French vineyard. This vintage is from the first crop that Mary and Jack helped stomp. Not really, but they did pick grapes that year!
Dinner tonight at S.N.O.B. If you’re following along you know what it stands for…..if not Slightly North of Broad.
So much to do. And I’ve been neglecting the blog…..sorry!
Cleo and Jim’s departure time on Sunday (June 3) left us enough time for a champagne brunch aboard Dot Calm. Lovely temperature. No bugs. And Costco’s quiche turned out great. (Cleo and I did make the fruit salad….and Jim popped the champagne cork, earning him a thumbs up from the workers on the boat across from us.) Cliff and I spent the rest of the day….resting.
Mary and Jack Anderson arrived on Monday (June 4) bearing boxers and coolers and bags full of goodies. All the things we like. Cheese from Trader Joe’s. Nuts that Mary roasted. Crackers and pretzels. Brownies! Not to mention some gin, some limes, some wine and a new supply of Jameson. We made good work of much of these that evening and had dinner aboard. Again, the bridge deck was a perfect temperature with gentle (and cool!) breezes as we watched the sunset turn the sky pink and yellow and orange. How could dinner not be great!
What were we thinking?! We made a grocery store run for “snacks” — knowing full well that Mary never arrives empty handed. I would have skipped the marked-down brownies if I’d known she was going to bring homemade ones!Snacks! Waiting out the afternoon temperatures in air conditioned comfort.Dinner on the bridge deck.
We started today with an organ concert and then went for an hour-long carriage tour through the “south of Broad” residential area. This area is considered to be the creme de la creme location in the city. We saw LOTS of renovation, learned a lot about the original owners and were flabbergasted at the prices these places get in today’s real estate market…..about $1000 per square foot. Yikes.
Meet Milhouse, the star of the stable according to our guide. Do you remember that Nixon’s middle name was Milhouse?
I think Cliff was having more fun than this picture suggests:-)
Fittingly, we have arranged to have dinner tomorrow at S.N.O.B….which stands for Slightly North of Broad.
Tonight we will have an early dinner at Blossom and then go to the Guillard to hear Brahms German Requiem.
Hurrah for cloud cover. And for the Charleston Marina’s shuttle van. A decidedly less sweaty start to our day filled with gardens and music.
Cliff happily awaits shuttle. We will NOT get our 10,000 steps in today.
Garden tour spots (except for one) allowed photography today as long as you did not photograph the house. And we peeked in on several gardens not on the tour but impressive nonetheless as we walked from place to place.
On view on every street are flower boxes. If they do not have an official competition for the best combination of flowers, vines and greenery, I am absolutely sure there is an informal competition block by block. These arrangements are beautiful bouquets. The flower box below with the house number 26 is where we stayed with Roger and Will for our last Spoleto adventure two years ago. I am also enchanted with the gas lamps that we’ve seen at a number of places. I bet they are spectacular at night.
Saw the Charlotte Symphony Choir at the Round Church at noon. A talented group of mostly young (college age) people with amazing voices. We sat in the second row and could appreciate the ability of the choir conductor to get the voices to meld as they soared to crescendos and then hushed to near silence.
Charlotte Symphony Chorus members at the conclusion of their “Love” concert.Ceiling of the Circular Congregational Church gives you a little idea of the building’s shape.
And, of course, time for a glass of wine and a snack:-) Grilled cheese with bacon jam. Yum. There was a tomato in there somewhere and potato chips and fries, so we managed to get a couple of vegetable credits, right?
Tonight we are seeing the Flying Lovers of Vitebesk, a musical about Marc Chagall and his wife, Bella. It’s gotten rave reviews here. One of the docents I spoke with said it was the best thing she’s seen at Spoleto this year. Stand by for the Comerford/Knowles take!
This is the set for Flying Lovers. Just two main characters with terrific voices and two musicians. All of us gave the show a thumbs up.Dinner at High Cotton — we must have liked it….our plates are nearly licked clean!
The Comerfords have joined us for some days aboard Dot Calm and for the Spoleto Festival. We all got our “steps” in as we walked to and from the various venues….logging nearly 17,000 Thursday and just slightly fewer the day before and today. (The quarter mile walk to the showers on the dock helps too.) Perhaps all that walking will offset all the food we’ve been treating ourselves to.
A highlight was a late dinner Thursday night at Fig, whose chef was recently named a James Beard award winner. When Cliff asked Siri for the restaurant’s phone number, she responded by telling him it was a 4 1/2 Star restaurant and quite pricey, “is this the number you were looking for?” Never felt like the phone was checking our bank balance before:-). Dinner was terrific by the way!
Dinner at Fig!Dinner at Hank’s Seafood.Iced coffee on King Street.Cleo and me at Poogan’s Porch in our Grrr Animals outfits:-)
Thursday we enjoyed a very eclectic mix of music: blues by Shrimp City Slim in the morning, a chamber music concert in the afternoon and a Latin jazz band in the evening. Even the chamber music concert offered diversity…an oboe concerto, a new music piece describing a tornado, Schubert’s Lebenssturme for four hands and a violin performance of themes from Carmen. And all of these were introduced by a knowledgeable and, improbably, very funny emcee who is the director of chamber music for the festival, an accomplished violinist and a professor at Stanford University. He studied with the same teacher as the violin soloist. The whole event was impressive.
Good Mornin’ Blues. “They” say the blues will get you any time of day or night. We weren’t “blue” in the slightest, but enjoyed the music.Shrimp City Slim at the morning blues concert. Event was held in a church hall that also hosted a “Recovery Art” exhibit — paintings by mentally ill people. All the sales proceeds go directly to the artists.Stage at the Guillard Center where we saw Chucho Valdez Quartet.Ceiling oculus at the Guillard Center.
More music on Friday — an organ concert in the morning and a choral concert in the late afternoon. We squeezed in lunch at Magnolia’s in-between. Now the issue for me is squeezing into my shorts! (I have a rule about packing for extended vacations….no elastic waist bands!!)
Today’s organist is a recent University of Southern Carolina graduate heading to Norte Dame for post-grad work.Organ recitals are held in churches throughout Charleston which must have the highest density of world-class organs in the nation.
Did I mention the heat!? An occasional rainstorm is welcome relief.
We stopped by a park along the river-front and cooled off by proxy watching kids cavort in the water jets at this fountain.A post-lunch stop at a park in a swinging bench in the SHADE!Cleo at the park with a Magritte sky behind her.
Cozily berthed at the Charleston City Marina’s Megadock, we are in major relaxation mode. Little on the schedule and lots of time to mosey about. Some window shopping (Cliff’s favorite!), some real shopping (I needed a rain jacket with a hood!) and some grocery shopping.
We were back on board in time for the Cubs game….but our Apple TV failed us. We ended up listening to a radio broadcast, but we could have gone to Mac’s Place — a Chicago-themed bar that shows all of the Cubs games (and the Blackhawks, and the White Sox and the Bears and the Bulls). Cliff and I caught a couple of innings there two years ago when the Cubs were on the path to the World Series.
These are definitely die-hard fans! A Cubby bar on one of Charleston’s busiest streets.Love this sign! We actually saw a W flag as we cruised in Georgia waters on the ICW.Flags a-flying in a fierce wind….remnant of Tropical Storm Alberto. This impressive display was on the main road near the harbor.Coiled ropes are one of those “this boat was tied up with care” signs. But, I never saw a varnished and named platform for the coil before. Very classy? Or too much?Definitely too much:-) This mega-yacht is ~220 feet long. I am sure our boat neighbors with only 111 feet are jealous. Again, note the Marshall Islands flag.Our “neighbor.” I wondered if the crew felt funny when they were busy wiping down the decks even when it was still raining!Tidal lake near the harbor. Beautiful houses (barely visible across the water) and lots of birds.Cliff got this shot of a blue heron at the tidal lake after it glided by us in flight and settled onto the marshy edge. Looking for breakfast maybe?The daily organ concerts are one of the treats of the Piccolo Festival (the “little brother” of Spoleto). And they’re free! We always give a generous donation and I hope the other attendees do as well. The organs are in churches all around Charleston and the organists are world-class performers/educators from all over the U.S.Organ concert at Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, a Catholic Church that’s survived fires, earthquakes and hurricanes. Organ concert here featured music old and new — from 1600s to the 1990s.
