I'm in love with Charleston, part four

The last full day of our trip, July 1st, was a scorcher like the day before. It was so humid by the time we went to breakfast that we opted to eat inside the bed & breakfast instead of on the porch. No sense in sweating all over your church dress before it's absolutely necessary!

One of the things we both really wanted to do while we were in Charleston was attend a church service. We decided on St. Michael's Episcopal Church. Even though neither of us is Episcopal, we very much enjoyed going to church there.

This church is so beautiful. The pews inside are the fabulous old box pews that you only see in very old churches. Pew #43 (the Governor's Pew) has played host to the hineys of both George Washington and Robert E. Lee. Those are some pretty impressive hineys! I so enjoyed all of the gorgeous details and history in the church. 

There was a blurb in the bulletin advertising a tour of the building after the service. Kate and I can't get enough of building tours, so you better believe we were there :) We ended up being the only tour-takers, and got to spend over an hour with our precious WWII veteran, 50-year choir member, Citadel professor tour guide. We talked about the church, of course, but also about love, learning, war, Jesus, torpedoes, and music. He was truly a delight and I'm so glad we got to spend some time with him.

We left the church in time to make our lunch reservation at Husk. There's a lot of buzz about this restaurant these days, and we couldn't wait to see what all the hype was about. We were almost dismayed to learn that Husk serves brunch instead of lunch. Neither of us was in the mood for breakfast food at 1:15 in the afternoon, so we were relieved to find out that the menu looked more like lunch than breakfast. Husk is a farm-to-table concept restaurant, and they are very proud of that. I can't say enough positive things about the service. Our waiter was phenomenal and the managers were very visible, out cleaning tables and delivering meals. Very cool. I had a pulled pork/fried egg Monte Cristo with a potato/sausage hash. Very simple and SO good. Oh my gosh. So good. I absolutely recommend Husk next time you're in Charleston. You won't be sorry!

Our next stop was the Calhoun Mansion, which was nearly indescribable. 

Fun fact: the interior of this house was the interior of Allie's parents' house in The Notebook. The house itself is phenomenal. My favorite was the woodwork inside, which is absolutely exquisite. There was so much attention to detail when the house was being built, and given how much of the house is still original, was built very well.

Since we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, I'll have to do my best to describe it. Really, though, you just need to see it to believe it! The man who currently owns it bought it several years ago. He is an international litigation lawyer, who apparently makes $698 kajillion a year. Or something like that. One of his hobbies is collecting priceless antiques. When I say priceless antiques, I mean a solid gold, two-headed eagle lamp once owned by the Romanov family...a whole room of furniture owned by Napoleon Bonaparte...custom-made lamps crafted by Mr. Tiffany himself. And the craziest part? All of this stuff is just sitting out, all over the house. Kate described it as "Hoarders: Filthy Stinkin' Rich", and that's so accurate. The house is absolutely covered in this stuff! I have never in my whole life been so afraid of breaking something. I just imagined my purse knocking over a vase and the guide saying, "Fantastic! That vase costs $40 million. Will that be cash, check, credit, or first-born child?"

I managed to pull my jaw up off the ground enough to leave the Calhoun Mansion while we spent our last afternoon wandering around. Our very last meal out in Charleston was at Poogan's Porch, and it was perfection. I had a chicken breast stuffed with gouda and collard greens and topped with a pepper jelly sauce, with green beans and mashed potatoes. Bliss.

We capped off our last night by touring the best parts of the city one more time. I loved every, single second of our Charleston getaway and would go back in a heartbeat. Loved it. If' you've never been to Charleston, you need to start planning your trip right now!

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I'm only going to do one more Charleston post...I promise! I have a few random pictures that didn't fit in any other post but are just begging to be shared. In the meantime, I'm fulfilling my civic responsibility by doing jury duty this week. Today was actually much more interesting than I anticipated, but I'm still hoping my jury duty adventure will be over sooner rather than later :)