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Thursday, February 13th

It was a slow start to the day. Gammy slept in, I wrote and caught up on blogs and then the rain came. We sat around trying to decide what to do, when Gammy, God bless her, fell right asleep on the sofa. So I covered her up, kissed her goodbye, and Jim and I ventured off to the Charleston Museum.

The Charleston Museum was quite interesting, depicting and detailing the history of Charleston. The museum was starting by some of the founding fathers of Charleston, but as the years progressed, the museum decided it should be all about Charleston. The last exhibit has artifacts the original curators had purchased, like…. and Egyptian mummy and a statue of Amenhotep III. I have to tell you we were not the youngest visitors to the museum that day, nor were we quite the oldest. It was a great activity to do on a rainy Thursday.

The museum tour can also include 2 other tours of historic houses, The Heyward-Washington House and The Joseph Manigault Houses. We did not purchase tickets for these tours, but did take pictures from the outside of the Aiken-Rhett House right across the street from the museum. This led to finding churches and flowers (the camelias were just lovely, although beaten down a bit). ….. And a horrible thirst, which led to stopping by (not woods on a snowy evening), Charleston Beer Works.

The Beer Works is cool. They have a beer passport of their beers. They also have a beer, ALS Sour, that donates $1 to the local ALS foundation.

We perused the menu and decided Gammy would like a Cuban, and we wanted wings. Stepping out of our comfort zone, I ordered 25 Cajun butter bbq. The cuban was a pulled pork Cuban, and had they billed it as a pulled pork sandwich (there was very little ham on it) it would have scored high points. I love bbq (to me bbq is and always will be pulled pork) that is not saucy. The flavor can speak for itself and doesn’t need to be covered up by Sweet Baby Rays or other sauce. Growing up in Nashville, I don’t know how my parents found Mr. Jones out 24 towards Clarksville. His bbq and smashed chicken was the best around. The sauce he gave with the bbq was a little baby jar of vinegar, cayenne, and maybe some ketchup, but not enough to take away from the sauce being vinegary. That, coleslaw, and a couple of Lays Potato chips on a sandwich, made for good eating! But I digress (Man, I miss Mr. Jones’ bbq), so back to the wings. They advertise them as Buffalo style. I guess that means naked, or not breaded. The Cajun flavor really didn’t come through and they were sticky saucy. Do you remember the bounty commercial 100 million years ago about the little boy eating bbq chicken and going through so many paper towels? No, I do and these wings required much cleaning of the fingers. Sometimes one shouldn’t stray from the light. AND we had 25 of them….. Lesson learned.

We decided to take late nap (retirement life is grand) and then got up and read some books. Gammy and Jim needed a little nosh and Jim heated up some of the sandwich Gammy had left over and some of the wings. Actually the wings heated up in the over, were really good. Much better, dare I admit it, than typical Buffalo wings? The sauce wasn’t saucy and there was a hint of the Cajun seasoning. Hmmm, not bad Beer Works.

Off to bed to start a new day.

Friday, February 14th

Wakey, Wakey, the sun is shining, its going to be a beautiful day! Gammy had ordered a replacement Ipad in Nashville and it arrived at the Stay Duvet offices on Spring Street. Jim and I decided to take a quick walk up to their offices. Shhhh Gammy is still sleeping! Her friends in Nashville wore her out.

Okay, someone please explain to me, why do the Charleston homes have a doorway to their 1st floor balconies? The balconies are open air! Go figure. And what color is Haint Blue? There are many different shades in Charleston.

The people at Stay Duvet (which I actually booked through the Marriott app so I am getting points) were so nice. They handed over the iPad, we asked if they knew where a Post Office box was, and I asked about a notary, we had some paperwork we needed notarized to be able to send off. Oh, the girl exclaimed, “So and so (I disremember his name), can you come notarize for them. Sure enough, a notary and 2 witnesses! Now we need a #10 envelope, not only do they give us one of those, but it is already stamped! What nice people.

Back to the house to take photos of the documentation before sealing it in the envelope, and off to find the Post Office. Gammy was up, but we left her to her morning routine, telling her we would be back in about 45 minutes.

Thursday we meandered a bunch, but the walk to the Post Office, which is beyond the Charleston Museum and close to the water, seemed a shorter walk. Almost to the Post Office, we stumble upon a Postal worker. He offers to take our letter, but we need to register mail it. Jim does give him the other piece of mail he has in his pocket. Really nice people in the South. Turns out, this Postal worker moved to Charleston from Vermont. He was not missing the snow either 🤣

Back to the little house on 4 Felix Street to gather the Gammy. Remember when I told you the lady at the visitor center said there was a big to do in town on Friday and Saturday? Turns out it is SeWe, or Southeaster Wildlife Exposition. It was free to enter and it was a beautiful day to walk around. I think there were some exhibits you had to pay for, and we weren’t stopped to ask for money. So we just wandered around. Gammy found a Girl Scout trailer with Girl Scouts selling cookies for $4 a box (or 5 for $20). You can guess which “deal” we picked. Gammy then reminisced about an event where the entry was $12. She would tell people the tickets were 1 for $12 and 2 for $25. Her fellow volunteers would get mad at her, she exclaimed, “It’s a fundraiser, we are making more money!” Ever the sales woman, that Gammy!

It was warm in the sunshine, and we needed some sustenance so walking back we stopped at El Jefe Texican Cantina. As you can see from the name, it is not your typical Mexican restaurant. We ordered a cheese dip with the works, and then tacos. I ordered my tacos as lettuce wraps, and ordered 3 because Gammy only wanted 1 taco. We may or may not have ordered a pitcher of Margaritas. It was going to be cheaper in the long run. Our waitress was orignally from Hawaii. (She was wearing a fake orchid flower in her hair, which the Gammy inquired about.-and yes I did just end my sentence with a preposition. I meant to do that.) Digging a little deeper, we discovered she had married a military boy, moved to Michigan, got left in Michigan (the base Jim went to play war games when we were first married), Then she, her daughter, and mother (who moved from Hawaii), moved to Charleston. There you have it. Gammy is world famous out of getting people’s life story.

Our table at the restaurant was in the window. We sat and waved to all those who walked by on the sidewalk. Some waved back, some shied away, some just plain ignored. What a great day. Gammy and I stopped at Jeni’s for ice cream, as Jim schlepped our food boxes back home, and yes, we bought him some as well. So Jeni’s started in Ohio. Gammy discovered them when she lived in Germantown, and now they have a shoppe on King Street. You can order their ice cream if you want!

Back to the house, back to nap, back to eating leftovers, back to packing, back playing Rummikub. Thus ends our stay in Charleston!

#HowFortunateWeAre #MakeOurOwnSunshine #RetiredAndLovingIt