Doin' the Charleston X 2

(Charleston, SC: 26-27 Feb 2010) You were going to have to imagine how beautiful Charleston is, because when we got downtown after the 30 minute drive from our RV campground, we realized we forgot the camera. But it is such a beautiful old city it was worth having an excuse to go back a second day, with the camera, to capture it not only in our mind's eye, but in digits too so you can see what we saw. A bit about the city. One of the oldest cities in the U.S. first settled around 1670. Big slave city early on; 3 of every 4 slaves that came to North America before 1800 came through Charleston. The fourth largest city in the colonies at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Two signers of the Constitution are from Charleston and buried here (we actually saw their graves): Charles Pinckney and John Rutledge. And of course this is where the Civil War began with the firing on the Union Fort Sumter which sits about 1 mile from the tip of the peninsula on which Charleston sits.
The thing that most amazed us about this city is the architecture and the large number of incredibly preserved old old homes here. Houses from the Revolutionary War period, pre-Civil War, Civil War and later. Old churches too. There are even a few original cobblestone streets.
A highlight for us was a late lunch at Jestine's Kitchen. I found this gem on chowhound.com, a website where people are the food critics. Joy enjoyed her original southern fried chicken and I devoured the meatloaf sandwich. We topped it off with Coca-Cola cake and Pecan pie and coffee. Mmmm good. It was so good the first day, we went back to their bakery on day 2 and got some goodies for the road!
If you have never been...for the history, the buildings and the food...Charleston is worth a visit!