Charleston July Fourth Weekend Concludes
Our Charleston July Fourth weekend concludes with, well, the weekend itself – i.e., Saturday, which happened to be July Fourth, and Sunday (and Monday, our getaway day). But before I get to telling you about those last few days of fun and adventure, I have to double back just a smidge.
Because you see, I left out one of the most important places we visited on that Friday: Christophe Chocolatier.
We had been there before, namely during that first wonderful time we visited Charleston two Christmases ago. With some time to wander around downtown, I steered our steps this time toward Christophe’s magical shop. I love the fact that they color-code their chocolates. Everything that is dark chocolate, i.e., dairy free, comes in an orange wrapper. There are bars of plain dark chocolate (not a bad choice since the chocolate is out of this world), then dark chocolate with almonds, dark chocolate with dried fruits, with a mix of nuts and fruits, and rice candies dipped in chocolate. And they serve pretty good coffee too, which is perfect since Therese is a coffee lover and therefore didn’t have to feel left out while I indulged my love of chocolate.
OK, getting back to the weekend proper. Saturday we finally got around to visiting the Charleston Museum.
Charleston Wrought Iron Fence in Charleston Museum
And you know, in some ways Therese and I are jaded when it comes to museums. We’ve seen many of the best and biggest in all sorts of cities in the U.S. and elsewhere. So we wondered, will this Charleston Museum wow us, or will we be bored?
Syrup Pitcher at Charleston Museum
Well, we were definitely not bored. This to us rather small museum is packed with the history of the town, and by extension the history of the south, and of the country. It was hard for me to spend too much time poring over the details of the slavery era, but the rest of the historical timeline, illustrated with all sorts of historical items, was wonderful. After that there was a section of natural history, with a huge stuffed elk and many dioramas, and a room full of general ancient history with an Egyptian mummy. We spent a very enjoyable morning there.
And part of the reason for being there was definitely to get out of the heat. The whole week it had been very hot and terribly humid, but on the Fourth, it was just a little more of that. When we left the cool of the museum and walked north to our lunch destination, Butcher & Bee, it was rough going. We hunted for any strip of shade we could find. But happily, it didn’t take us that long to get there.
In spite of the heat, when we settled down into our chair at Butcher & Bee, I felt very hungry. So I got a small plate, and a sandwich, accompanied by another Sprecher’s Root Beer (the same one I had at Two Boroughs Larder a few days earlier).
We relaxed and took our time eating our lunch (this restaurant once again had good air conditioning, not a bad thing on this hot day), and by the time we got up to leave, we felt quite refreshed. Walking back down King Street towards our hotel, we enjoyed seeing how Upper King is developing. Some blocks are already filled with rows of quirky shops and restaurants (a little hipsterish I know, but better than having them full of Subways and Quiznos restaurants), while others have empty store fronts that smell of plaster dust and mildew.
That evening we planned to head to a minor league baseball game. Charleston is home to the RiverDogs, an A league (for you non-baseball lovers, that is the lowest rung where the teenagers and old men go) affiliate of my hometown New York Yankees. Anywhere, if the game sucked, at least there would be fireworks afterward. We took a taxi there, and sure enough, it was a mob scene. I waited in a concession line to get us hot dogs for our dinner (to their credit, they had lots of different toppings for the tube meat), then went to get my paper bracelet so I could order alcohol, and then got Therese a beer.
The weather was threatening, and sure enough, after a bright sunny beginning to the game, about halfway through, the sky darkened, the crowd made for the concessions area (with its roof), and wham, a torrent of rain spilled on us. They covered the field with a tarp, and waited for the weather to turn.
Soldiering On Through the July 4th Storm at RiverDogs Stadium
Well, the game never started up again, but eventually, they just went ahead and did the fireworks show, rain or no rain. Pretty good show. We lumbered over to the nearby Marriott hotel afterward to get a taxi back to our hotel.
Sunday the weather improved. Oh yeah, it was still hot, but bearable. We walked downtown to see two more historical homes sandwiched around lunch at a Broad Street diner.
The first one was saw was the Heyward-Washington House.
Heyward-Washington House
And I know what you’re thinking: yes, it was that Washington. Heyward was the owner of the house and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and George Washington stayed there (although he purportedly paid rent for appearance’s sake) during a Presidential visit to the Charleston.
Heyward-Washington House from the Backyard
The grandest thing about this house is its furniture, much of which was made in Charleston during the period the house was built (late 18th century).
Otherwise, it is a well-appointed house, but a rather cramped one to my eye. Let’s put it this way, you wouldn’t be able to fit a queen-sized bed into any of its bedrooms, much less a king!
Lunch was at a place that turned out to be my favorite restaurant of the week. I had no idea that would be the case – I simply picked it for its location, in the middle of the historical district, right on Broad Street. I am talking about the welcoming Brown Dog Deli.
Or to put it another way, there is something homey about a place filled with 1960s to 70s kitsch, for those of us of a certain age. I hear the Millenials are getting into that stuff too, although I can’t understand why since they can’t say that they invented it (well, I guess they can claim to have re-discovered it. Aargh.) Anyway, my issues aside, I loved this place. My lunch of hummus side with cucumber slices (instead of pita) and a duck club sandwich with Daiya cheddar cheese (I asked for vegan cheese and that’s what they gave me!) was plenty awesome. Or to speak in the vernacular of the decor’s period, it was just… just! (did you think I was going to say groovy?)
Duck Club Sandwich with Side of Hummus
One of the reasons I picked Brown Dog for our lunch destination was because I found out online that they have a special vegan menu.
Vegan Options Available at Brown Dog Deli
On the day we visited, there was even a vegan item on the regular menu, a very enticing “Sloppy Vegan.”
Sloppy Vegan Among the Day’s Specialties
And since I knew they “did vegan,” I figured they had vegan cheeses available to substitute for dairy cheeses on sandwiches (for example), and sure enough they did, which is how I got my Daiya cheese on my duck club. All around, our visit to Brown Dog Deli was first-rate.
Now I know when I started writing about our Charleston holiday weekend, I told you it was going to be a sprint. And yes, it has turned into more of a marathon. But if it’s any consolation, we are in the home stretch, so hang in there, my friends.
After lunch we went for our fourth historic home of the visit, the Nathaniel Russell House (which is actually just a couple blocks away from the Heyward-Washington House, so it is very doable to visit them both in one afternoon). This one is large, on a par in size with the Aiken-Rhett House, I would say. It is managed by the Historic Charleston Foundation, just like the Aiken-Rhett. And I detected a bit of a rivalry between Historic Charleston and the Charleston Museum, which manages Heyward-Washington and the Manigault Houses, a sense of “our houses are better.” Anyway, the Russell House is popular enough that at busy times they stagger the tours every fifteen minutes – thus, since the tours last 30-40 minutes, they overlap a bit.
As with most of the houses, they did not allow any photographs inside the Russell House, which was too bad because the rooms were spectacular, easily the most beautiful of any in any of the houses, and I would love to have some photos of the beautiful decor. Once again, this house is in that Adam Style (I would call it Federal Style, but in Charleston the guides emphasize that the architects there got their inspiration directly from the Adam brothers). And there are unusual/striking features, like a faux lapis lazuli-painted baseboard in the music room. The most incredible feature is probably the free-standing curving three-story wooden staircase, which is as beautiful as it is an incredible feat of design (the Manigault House has a similar staircase, but theirs is no longer free-standing – they braced it against the wall to make sure it wouldn’t give under the weight of thousands of tourists climbing it every year).
After such a full day, we decided to have a quiet evening. Besides, the Women’s World Cup Final match between the United States and Japan was being played that night, so we stayed in our hotel room and watched that. We had some salads delivered to the hotel from the East Bay Deli – I had chicken salad with melon – and enjoyed the game (the United States women won 5-2, yay!)
Takeout Chicken Salad from East Bay Deli
Monday was our get-away day. We slept in a bit, then spent the morning packing, and had another lunch salad at Verde before taking a taxi to the Charleston International Airport for an afternoon flight home to New York City.
As it exists now, the Charleston airport is the weakest link to visiting Charleston. It is under heavy construction, and hopefully when it is done, it will be a lot more pleasant. But right now, it is a long walk from the security checkpoint to the gates, and along the way there is hardly anything in the way of refreshment or restaurants. On one trip, our flight was delayed for several hours, and there was nothing for us to but buy a couple big bottles of water and hydrate ourselves while we waited. Luckily, this last time in hunting around, I was able to find a juicebox-sized carton of Silk Soy Chocolate Milk to drink (and a bottle of Starbucks for my wife).
Silk Chocolate Milk Individual Container from Charleston Airport
That chocolate milk, and a packaged turkey sandwich bought from an airport vendor, kept me going until we got home. After all the great food in Charleston, it was quite the anti-climax. But hey, it can’t all be Husk and Brown Dog Deli!
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