charleston

It’s true that you can judge a city by its visitor center.

Charleston has one of the most interesting and inviting centers I’ve seen. No dusty bookshelves or VCR recordings of the town’s best features. This center is beautiful, it’s informative, and it gives you a real taste of the city and its story.

The cobblestones that line much of Charleston’s back streets are not for the high heel-wearing or the clumsy, but they do set the stage for the long history that the city shares. A history that is sobering at times.

Visiting the Old Slave Mart Museum was a wicked reminder of the way lives were valued and devalued during the 1800s.

After walking through the Charleston Market, that stretches four city blocks long, we saw the legacy of those lives shining onward. Many of the market vendors were selling woven sweetgrass baskets. One gentlemen could trace back twelve generations to slaves living in the Charleston area weaving the very same grass into the very same shapes. Mom bought a basket. I’m still kicking myself that I didn’t.

And then there’s the seafood. Drool.

Hyman’s Seafood sent Bryce into a new state of mind. Top 3 meals of his life he says. The shrimp, the grits, the hushpuppies. Heaven. We had a feeling we were going to be in good company after taking the advice of 26,206 other people who gave Hyman’s 4.8 stars, and we were right.