One of the closest well-known cities to Myrtle Beach is Charleston. I didn't know a lot about Charleston, but in the month leading up to my trip I felt like it would be a fun place to visit. Charleston is also a coastal city, just a bit south of Myrtle Beach. Charleston is known for being a great foodie place as well. One of the content creators I've been watching had lived in Charleston for a little bit, and hyped it up. Charleston has a lot of history, and one of the most popular things you can do there is ride on a horse-drawn carriage around the city. Charleston is also known for being the site of the first gunshots of the Civil War, at the location of Fort Sumter which is still there. If I were to go back I would want to explore more of the historical stuff of Charleston. Charleston is also known for it's pineapple shaped water fountain, and series of pastel buildings known as Rainbow Row. (Rainbow Row is a series of buildings painted in pastel colors. A lot of buildings and houses are painted pastel colors along the coast especially in fishing towns so they stuck out to sailors. Rainbow Row, however is more striking and easy to pick out.) While looking up things to do in Charleston, I also came across plantations, which forces a sobering look into the past.
The marketing scheme? lady from the day before had tried to convince us why we should stay in Myrtle Beach instead of going to Charleston. She told us about the drive time being too long for a day, and how you would need a whole day to explore Charleston. How we wouldn't be able to see a fun show at Broadway at the Beach, and go to Charleston in the same day, etc. Also how parking would be over $20. She mildly convinced me for a second, but I decided I really did want to explore Charleston. We would spend most of the day there, and didn't care about missing a silly show.
The drive to Charleston is about 2 hours. Which is a four hour drive time total. That would seem like a lot more if we weren't just in town for a few days. Two hours there and back did seem a bit long while driving there itself. I don't usually drive more than an hour and a half at a time, but I'm not against it, and actually enjoy driving most of the time. To get into Charleston you have to drive over a bridge called the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge from the town of Mount Pleasant (shout out to the people who live in Mount Pleasant WI, and MI) over the Cooper River.
We left our Air BNB around 11am after eating sandwiches and got to Charleston around 1pm. Thankfully we found that most of the attractions in Charleston are pretty close to each other. (Usually 10 minute walking distance max), which made exploring the city much easier. especially since it was a colder/rainy day. It was drizzling but really windy since we were right on the ocean. I had to wear a sweater, and the light jacket I had brought for the trip. This was the coldest day of our trip and was in the 50s. First up we went to the pineapple fountain. We ended up finding street parking by a parking meter, and it was cheap, and also a great place to be parked to see what we wanted. The pineapple fountain is at a park right by the ocean. Due to the weather however, the ocean was a gray dreary color and not the bright blue you typically see. We took pictures of and with the pineapple fountain before exploring the streets of Charleston. While walking around one of the little shops, I had to pee pretty bad, after having drunk coffee that morning. I asked one of the employees of the store where I could find a bathroom, and she pointed to a hotel across the street. Normally I wouldn't go into some random hotel just to use the bathroom, but the employees seemed to think it was fine. It might have been more fine if the hotel she was referring to wasn't a super expensive art themed hotel on Rainbow Row. The art themed hotel is known as the Vendue, and had one of the coolest bathrooms I had ever been in. When we walked in I pretended I wasn't a tourist, and appreciated the art before finding the bathroom. You have to act like you belong there, and not there just to use their fancy bathroom. :P. The lobby of the hotel had art sculptures, and super fancy furniture, including velvet throne-like chairs. Each stall in the bathroom had a full size door. We sat in the throne like chairs afterwards before deciding where to go next. (I hadn't realized this hotel was apart of Rainbow Row until looking at it again later in the day.)
We decided on exploring the city market. The Charleston City Market was created originally to be a public food market in 1804 selling meat, fish, and vegetables. It then became a place for meetings and social gatherings in the 1840's. Since the 1970's it now has unique shop vendors, and traditional basket weavers, and is one of Charleston's number one attractions. The City Market stretches for about 4 blocks, and is a lot like a mini flea market with creations from small local businesses. I ended up buying a Charleston Chew, because I had to. :) After exploring the market we went back to our rental car, and paid for more parking before deciding on where to get dinner for the night. We decided on sea food since we were on the coast anyway, and started heading to where we thought was a seafood restaurant. It turns out Rebecca's phone had lead us astray, and said we had arrived at the restaurant when we were indeed not by a restaurant. My phone took us to the aforementioned restaurant, but they were no longer taking walk-ins at that point. In the end we decided on going to the Charleston Crab House for dinner, which thankfully was only a 5 minute walk from the other restaurant. When we got there it was a 15 minute wait, so we went out and waited in a shop across the street, until we were texted that our table was ready. At the restaurant I ordered crab soup, and Rebecca had a flounder sandwich. I also ordered a tropical cocktail, which ended up having a lot of alcohol in it. Luckily I got a glass of water with it. It was a little scary at first when I started feeling a little out of it, but luckily with a couple gulps of water and finishing the soup I felt perfectly fine again. When I asked the waiter about it, he said the particular rum they used had had a higher alcohol content.
After the restaurant we went to the car to see if there were any more places we should explore before we left. Unfortunately all the museums and the Fort had been closed for the day. It was around 5ish? Maybe slightly earlier. Since Charleston is known for it's jazz scene I thought it might be cool to go to a jazz club. The most popular jazz club is known as "The Commodore". Google Maps took us to a surprisingly run down part of town which had the Commodore on the corner. When we approached it, there was a sign on the door that said you would need to prove that you were 25+. Since Rebecca is under 25 we wouldn't have gotten to go in anyways. I don't know how much I would have enjoyed being there anyways if we had both been of age. 25 also seems like a strange age to be a minimum requirement. Due to the age restriction we decided to head back, and I got Rebecca to watch "The Notebook" with me which has scenes that were filmed in Charleston. However for some reason HBO Max took out the classic ending, and just abruptly ends and shows the credits without explanation. I know it's a pretty sad ending some would rather not see, but at least put a different ending in if you're going to change anything, especially for those who don't actually know how it was supposed to end like Rebecca. Alarmed I shouted about how that wasn't the ending. Ha ha.
Sounds like a fun day in Charleston!
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