A Fifth on the Fourth

We’ve had some nice experiences while in Charleston. On the day we arrived we checked into our little lovely boutique bed and breakfast on Kings St. and dodged the rain drops as we strolled down to Battery at the ogle the stately antebellum homes there and enjoy the steady breeze off the waters of the Cooper and Ashley Rivers. We learned a new anagram: SNOB. Slightly North Of Broad. The real stately areas of Charleston begin south of Broad Street. We then walked along East Bay Street past the Rainbow Row, a stretch of homes painted in soft pastel colors and one of the more popular tourist destinations.

 

Rainbow Row Charleston SC

We tried, but failed to eat at Husk, the “hot” restaurant in town; recently featured in some television show about eating in Charleston, oh, and a James Beard Award winner; but got there too late for lunch as their kitchen closed at 2:30. We settled for a comparatively meager lunch at the Bull Street Gourmet & Market, where Janet had a salad and I had a smoky pork tenderloin sandwich. We were both very satisfied.

BULLS STREET GOURMET AND MARKET

At 5 pm we were pleased to learn they serve complimentary wine and cheese at our hotel, the Kings Courtyard Inn and lingered there over adequate whites and reds until it was time for our baseball game.

The Charleston RiverDogs, Class A in the New York Yankees organization, were playing the Rome Braves in the South Atlantic League. Tickets were just $7.00 each with a $1.00 service charge, and parking was $5.00. When we walked in they gave us a couple of senior citizen vouchers for hot dogs! Can’t beat that! Who says it sucks getting old. 
Now, Janet and I like baseball. The actor Bill Murray is a part owner in the RiverDogs, but what drew us to the game this night was the opportunity to see two guys who play in the bigs work a rehab stint with the team; Alex Rodriquez and Eduardo Nunez. The place was sold out. There were fireworks afterwards. It was good night. Before the game A-Rod and Nunez played catch near home plate to allow people to see them close up. A-Rod left the game after going 0-2 and Nunez did not come back after a 45 minute rain delay. The game went into extra innings, but the crowds never dwindled.

The RiverDogs lost.

Charleston has its fine share of bars. We saw a lot of them the next day on the 4^th of July. After taking a mule drawn carriage ride through the Battery we had a drink at the rooftop bar of the Vendue Inn. It was breezy and with shade offered by umbrellas it was a pleasant place to linger for a time. Janet had something with Sweet Tea vodka and I had a bourbon based drink, which caused me to lapse into a southern drawl for a while. Though there was not much of a view afforded by the rooftops, we basically saw other rooftops, it was well worth the visit. Vendue Inn is at 19 Vendue Range. You take a little corridor and then an elevator to the roof.

The second stop for Team VFH’s Charleston’s pub crawl was the Southend Brewery and Smokehouse for a couple of their home brews and conversation with others. Locals usually ask whether you’re visiting or local. Visitors just assume you’re from somewhere else. The beers were all right, the conversations were better. The smells from the smokehouse part of Southend were outstanding, but we did not linger for food.

After a feeble attempt to make the final boat to Ft. Sumter and missing it, we had to settle for a walk through the museum. We stood on the wharf for a while looking across the Cooper River at Patriot’s Point and Sullivan’s Island. The Ravenel Bridge soared majestically off to our left and Ft. Sumter was way off in the distance.

Because we had time to kill before we reached the happiest hour of 4 pm; we had made plans to go to Pearlz; we stopped at the Charlestowne Cigar shop. We had criss-crossed in front of the shop several times throughout the day. I bought a very reasonably priced cigar and Janet got a glass of wine. We sat at a sidewalk table and did some people watching as we waited for happy hour to begin.   CHARLESTOWNE CIGAR

By the time we left Pearlz on East Bay Street it was throbbing with patrons. We could have lingered much longer; their happy hour raw bar and small plate and drink specials are that good, but we had two more stops on our Charleston pub crawl. Friends had told us about Closed For Business on King Street. With fleeting time in our visit to Charleston we decided to stop there for a beer from their very large selection of craft brews and a burger, although the burger was overpriced and not very good. Then we were off for our booze cruise on the Carolina Queen. It was a 4^th of July fireworks special. We told everyone we met on our pub crawl that we were going on this and everyone said they had tried to get tickets but it had been sold out. Leave it to Janet to plan ahead. She signed up for emails for specials and deals and this was one of them!

The Carolina Queen is a fake paddlewheel and the ride was packed with young and old. But, there was a live band downstairs and they were selling Lagunitas beer for $3.00.  It sailed into the gathering night around the battery and we watched fireworks from all around the area being fired off, but then we settled into an area across from the aircraft carrier at Patriots Point and there, with the Ravenel bridge glowing approvingly we watched a brilliant fireworks display.