Charleston, South Carolina

Lynne, Mary, Kim and Aleene took our own walking tour in Charleston.
We did spend a lot of time on King Street checking out the stores.  

We saw this sword gate designed and created by famous iron mason Phillip Simmons.  He fashioned over 500 pieces of ornamental ironwork in the city of Charleston only some of which were gates.   

This artisan is making a sweetgrass basket using techniques passed down through generations over 100's of years.
This is one of the oldest art forms of African origins in the U.S.  The baskets were originally used by the slaves to winnow rice on local plantations.  

Sweetgrass baskets are made from natural palmetto, long pine needles, bulrush and sweetgrass which are found locally.
These items are becoming harder to find as more private development of the coastal islands and marshlands remove these items from the local habitat.  

Lunch was at Low Country Bistro.  Krista encouraged all of us to try the local specialties so my table
had shrimp and grits with fried green tomatoes.  That worked out so well (it was delicious) that Aleene,
Patty and I shared a pineapple and nutmeg bread pudding for dessert.  

Avenue of the oaks at Boone Hall Plantation.
These are evergreen oaks that are 300 years old.
We visited here on Monday.
We toured slave row, the plantation house and the gardens.