Charleston, day 2

Because of that whole Tropical Storm Andrea nonsense, we stayed in a bit later on Friday morning and waited for the last of the rain to pass. We started at the Charleston Visitor Center and discovered that Charleston offers free trolley transportation to the major tourist areas. So we headed to the Charleston Museum (which claims to be the oldest in the country) to outlast the rain.

From there, we hopped on the trolley to head down towards Rainbow Row and the Battery. Our first stop was lunch at the Blind Tiger Pub. We split fried green tomatoes for an appetizer. Mac tried the Gator Hater burger (made from fresh alligator which really does taste like chicken). I enjoyed the pimento grilled cheese with a side of fried okra.

Off to Rainbow Row and the Battery. We saw a house for sale on Meeting Street and looked up the listing. Only $8.8 million. Pocket change, really. A mere 8 bed, 8 bath, 11,000 square foot shack.

We moseyed back up Meeting Street, checked out a few churches, and window shopped a bit on King Street. Our next adventure was to the USS Yorktown over in Patriot’s Point (across Charleston Harbor). This features the Medal of Honor Museum. And we even found a plane from my father-in-law’s last ship, the USS America.

With little time to spare before it closed at 5, we drove over to Fort Moultrie. Funny enough, we saw a maroon minivan with orange detailing and a Hokie sticker family leaving the Yorktown. They also found their way to Fort Moultrie. We waved, and we’re pretty sure we seemed like the creeps we really are.

Dinner was a swashbuckling good time at Queen Anne’s Revenge, a pirate restaurant and museum. Each table or booth is decorated with various pirate artifacts, models, or artwork. It’s actually a nice restaurant, not a campy tourist trap. We shared a platter of nachos. I ate a pecan-crusted chicken with a cherry sauce and mashed sweet potatoes, and Mac opted for the pecan-crusted chicken salad.

We closed out our evening at the Tanger Outlets for some light shopping.