Well, it is Saturday morning. Sleeping beauty is still getting his beauty sleep, after all it is only 10:00, and as Eddie reminds me daily, that is only 9:00 at home. I am in the dark, composing my what will be probably my last travel update for this trip.
The hotel we are staying in is big on southern hospitality and believes that cookies and sweets can cure anything. By 4:30 everyday there has been a cookie fairy in our room with an assortment cookies (always), cakes and brownies, served on a plate with a doile and sprig of parsley (have not seen that in years). I am sure this is meant to be a tea time snack. When we return to our room in the evening, there are biscotti cookies on yet another doiled plate. Right out side our door there is a buffet servers with coffee, tea, juice and in the mornings pastries and fruit. Your coffee or tea is in a cup with a saucer, no mugs here, this is the south, we do things properly...cloth napkins that I assume have been used long before we got environmental aware to the use of paper napkins and plastic straws. While I dress to dart in and out of our room retrieving coffee, most other guest don the plush one size fits all white terry robe to shuffle back and forth to the spread. FYI-one size does not fit all. I have to wonder if the camera monitors in the ceiling of the hallways are catching the show. It is an early morning eye opener. Eddie has his gym short uniform, but why do that when I bring him his morning coffee and paper. ...and here you thought there would be an Eddie story..in a too small robe...maybe next time. Here again, this is a quintessential Southern town, you read a printed paper, we can select from one of four. Bless the hotel industry, it is keeping the print papers in business. Kinda of like the holiday catalogs, election crap and Amazon is keeping the Postal Service afloat.
Being from the Deep South, Ed and I like to visit a sampling of the Plantations when we come to southern town...that and Civil War battlefields and forts. Typically, just as in Europe, the finest homes or plantations are along the rivers adjacent to port cities. New Orleans, all along the Louisiana coastline, Natchez, Memphis, If there is water to navigate, there is usually rich soil to plant crops of some sort, the big homes follow. Charleston is no exception—-it is surrounded on three sides by water, the Ashley, Cooper rivers and the Atlantic Ocean. Talk about PTSD, they have hurricanes and flooding storms more often than we do. I got butt tingles just thinking about it. All I could think about when looking at the homes in Charleston is the fact that they on the banks of the rivers was how vulnerable they were to those waters. They must be from hardier stock then I am. While the Civil War destroy many of these fine homes, some remain intact from Before the Revolutionary War-Drayton Hall. As in England, holding on to this much land for centuries with an increasingly multiplying number of relatives is difficult. Most properties along the River Road are in Historical trust or Foundations and generate income to preserve the home and gardens. We walked the grounds of 1,000 year old oak trees, century old camellia bushes, azaleas, magnolias and sculpture gardens...like Houston Fall does not mean bright colored leaves-the trees were still leaf covered and green. The camellias were about a month from blooming, except for some sunny spots in the garden area...I assume that springtime is beautiful. The homes had furnishings, silver, China and paintings that survived the war as they were elsewhere or buried in trunks or were returned by Yankee soldiers families generations after the Civil War. Each place has been restore to an era that no longer exists...and some would like to erase from history books. I am glad these foundations and such are passionate about their protection of these things and sharing it.
Once Sleeping Beauty arises, we will gather our belongings and make our way to the boat launch were we will hope to take the ferry to Fort Sumter. Hope—well, you see that tar baby known as Tropical Storm and Pickle travel is alive and well. We left home with Tropical Storm Nestor and are return with Tropical Storm Olga. If the skies are threatening, or seas choppy we will probably rethink our plans. It could even be a bumpy flight home...and I so enjoy that...not. We will be home before the end of the 4th Astros game....and will be able to watch it on TV...finally. While the Hotel carries FOX, it is blackout during the World Series. Looking forward to another winning evening tonight! Go ‘Stros. Until the travel bug bites us again....or our Christmas tree needs more ornaments—-five new ones this trip. Just for the record, I think that Houston food is more “happening” than the Foodie stop of Charleston. Every Chef here want to be considered special, all want to elevate their style, cooking show or whatever....they are overthinking the “local ingredients”...a butter bean or a pod of okra just that...I had no idea you could charge those prices for those ingredients...talk about elevated/inflated.
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