I'm in love with Charleston, part three

On the third day of our trip, June 30th, we walked out of the carriage house headed to breakfast. Ick. It felt like we'd walked into the steam room at the gym. The last two days of our journey had been hot, pretty significantly hot, but it was nothing we weren't used to. This day, though, was different. When the temperature is already 90 degrees by 7:30 AM, you're in for it.

We walked to the weekly Charleston Farmers Market to see what we could see. It was the biggest and most varied farmers market I've ever been to. I absolutely loved it.

After wandering around for over an hour, we purchased beautiful pottery from Kate's favorite pottery guy (River Road Pottery) and gorgeous vintage necklaces from Scarlet Poppy. I adore my new necklace!

I also sweated more than I ever remember sweating...ever. We were literally dripping, along with everyone around us. When the Scarlet Poppy lady was helping me try on my necklace, she was sweating all over me and I was sweating right back on her. Disgusting. While it did get to be about 105 degrees this day, the humidity was what was so awful. It literally felt like we were swimming, with all our clothes on. Our sunglasses fogged up every time we went outside. Our clothes stuck to us. Our skin was clammy. Our curly hair grew bigger by the minute. Our makeup melted away. My camera lens quickly covered in condensation every time I took my lens cap off.

{Hello, condensation. Thanks for ruining my shot.}

After leaving the market, we made our way to the Aiken-Rhett House. Kate worked there while in grad school, and I was excited to see the house that I'd heard so many stories about.

{Gorgeousness!}

After visiting with one of Kate's old coworkers, she led me on a wonderful private tour of the (un-air conditioned) home. I absolutely loved touring these old homes. It made me a bit sad that pictures weren't allowed inside any of them, but I completely understand why.

We made our way back into the heat and slogged about a mile in the other direction to go eat lunch. Kate really wanted to eat at Jestine's Kitchen, and I'm so glad she made that call. The restaurant is very cute and "down-home", the service was wonderful, and the food was spectacular. I had meatloaf, macaroni & cheese, red rice (yall seriously have to eat you some of this...it's amazing), and banana pudding. So, so good. This was a way more substantial lunch than I'm used to eating, but after looking back on what came next, I'm glad I had some sustenance.

We continued walking/dripping down Meeting Street to make our way to the Nathaniel Russell House. 

This house is one that has been completely restored, and it looks as if Mr. Russell himself is fixing to come home for supper. Such a beautifully restored home, and I very much enjoyed our visit there.

At this point, we found ourselves with a wide-open afternoon. Kate's friend Jossy had very (VERY) generously allowed us to have access to her employee discount pass, so we went through the list looking for something that appealed to us. We decided on a ferry ride and tour at Fort Sumter.

What was not completely apparent to me at the time was that the ferry landing was nearly two miles away, and we decided to trek on foot. We also had less than an hour before the ferry departed, so there was no time to waste. The temperature at this point was 1,452 degrees, it was 1:00 PM, and it seemed that there was no shade on either side of the street. Awesome. We walked the whole way in near silence because it seemed that talking would take too much effort, and both of us needed to focus all of our attention on staying alive. It was a struggle. By the time we arrived at the port, we were both completely drenched, red-faced, and greatly in need of rehydration. We showed the nice ticket man our pass and headed to the bathroom to survey the damage. I had to laugh when I saw my reflection in the mirror...I was a shell of my former self. Know who wasn't laughing? The Pretty, Pretty Princess washing her hands beside me. She had clearly just emerged from an air-conditioned car and must have lacked sweat glands. And a sense of humor.

You know what seats were left by the time we got on the ferry? The ones in the sun. We reluctantly accepted our fate and sat down. The ride over was actually quite pleasant, despite the fierce sunshine.

{the ruins of Castle Pinckney in Charleston Harbor}

{the site of the first shots of the Civil War...that big black thing in the middle was built in 1898 and I think it's absolutely hideous...just my two cents :)} 

Fun fact: Fort Sumter is built on a natural sandbar, but the sandbar wasn't large enough for a structure this size (the fort used to be three stories tall). There also weren't enough rocks available in the South to supplement the sandbar. So, rocks from the Northeast (Maine, I think) were brought in, plopped on the sandbar, and Fort Sumter was built on top of them. Very technically, this point of Confederate pride is built on Yankee soil. I got the biggest kick out of that.

Kate and I made it back onto the ferry in enough time to nab two shady seats. We quite enjoyed the breeze...and the shade...on the ride back! We hiked the two miles back to our bed & breakfast because we both refused to go out to eat in the shape we were in. After shower #2 for the day, we drove out to Folly Beach to meet Jossy and new friend Becca at Taco Boy. We had tons of fun enjoying the laidback, beachy atmosphere and great food. I had Carnitas Nachos and highly recommend them. We capped off the night by going to the beach, wading out in the water, and enjoying the reflection of the nearly full moon on the ocean. An absolute perfect ending to an exhausting, but wonderful, day!