March 28 Wednesday Day 31 Charleston Sleep Inn

Well like I said, if we find something to do in Beaufort we would stay. We did find a nice tour of the old houses and second oldest church in the country.
More to come - jerr
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Well like I said, if we find something to do in Beaufort we would stay. We did find a nice tour of the old houses and second oldest church in the country. The azalea’s were in full bloom here and we found out that the mis-reported lilac is a wisteria of SC not Chinese or Japanese wisteria. The many homes of the civil war time that are still standing is said to be because of the north not burning these homes but used as hospitals, especially the large homes. Others large homes were used by the officers; they always get the good stuff. I think that’s because if you put the officers in confined spaces like the enlisted live in they could not exist. It is different the way they interchange between Union and federal soldiers. I will have to research this later. Some of the homes had had a family with 14 children and a hundred slaves. An interesting tid bit was the whistling path. This is the path between the kitchen which was 15 feet from the house. The servants were to whistle as they brought the food to the family so they knew that they were not eating the food. My thought was they could have eaten it before they brought it?? It was said that they would also carry hot corn meal biscuits in there pockets and toss them to the dogs along the way. That’s where the hush puppy came from. I must say the streets in these parts of town are small; two cars can pass, as long as one is parked. There are no sidewalks usually just a small dirt path. The trees are right alongside the road; one had a sign on it, 12 feet to here. Heavy undergrowth of trees, vines and azalea’s, but quaint.

We were going along the coastal area and the tide was out. The guide said that the mud we could see was plough (pronounced - flew). The mud being high in nutrients compared to the sand of the area was hauled up to the gardens by the slave. A thought struck me, our forefathers had to break the virgin soil when they got here in the early 1850’s. we did our own work.

It was again a town that has had many movie shots taken there. There was a Forrest Gump shot of him looking over the Mississippi river when in fact it was the intercostals of Beaufort. Barbara Streisand rented a house for a month and that money put the family’s four children through college must have been a bundle.

Catch a bite to eat and off to Charleston. We had heard bout a little Italian place with good eating’s “Panini’s”. after a glass of cabernet we eat a thin crust brick oven style pizza in an elongated form. There shirts said anyone can make a round pizza try ours. It was a garlic base with tomatoes and pepperoni and I had a side of sausage. Apparently they thought it we had waited to long for our food and they asked if we wanted some soup or salad? I took a cold tomato soup, not bad but I like warmed better.

We decided to stay on the south side of Charleston, turns out to be minutes away from historic downtown. Also next to the Rick Hendrick’s Chevrolet. Owner Hendrick Motorsports Fields Race Teams in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series with Drivers Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Casey Mears, Jimmie Johnson.

We did the wash, that blew an hour and a half. Thank goodness they had commercial sizes. We had heard about a place to eat in historic downtown. Poogan’s Porch Restaurant. I called for reservations and could get in at 8. We left right away as we don’t know downtown it was 7:05. At 7:55 I called them and asked for directions. It turned out the street we were on was Queens St after I crossed the next intersection, although there was no street sign and it looked like an alley. I followed his directions and saw the parking garage he directed me to go to. I saw this parking spot, on my left. That is a different direction to parallel park from. Well with a car waiting behind me I pulled off a 10, once in backward and half frontward there I was. We got out on this semi dark street I looked across the street at this old house that had extra lights on and there it was Poogan’s Porch. It turned out the name came from the dog that is buried in the front yard with his buddy cat. The owner had died and the dog would not leave and also died there. As we waited Shirleen had time to read about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward eating here. I asked the waiter if we could be seated on the porch as this was the only night we were in town, Well she would never know the difference. she sat us on the second floor porch what a romantic moment we had. We had a cabernet and merlot/Cabernet blend from Bordeaux. The biscuits were fresh baked and the spread was honey butter. Shirleen ordered Plantation Fried Chicken a piece of breast stuffed with white cheddar cheese, pesto & country ham with buttermilk whipped potatoes and string beans. I had Shrimp & Grits, tri-colored peppers, Vidalia onions, Cajun sausage, tasso & blue crab gravy. One wonders about grits, well they were a ground corn meal slowly cooked over the day, and were firm, not the wet I am used to. I would eat there anytime! - jerr