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| Beautiful buildings in Charleston, South Carolina |
Charleston, South Carolina, carries such an incredible amount of history that we could spend weeks here and not even scratch the surface. The city is full of buildings that are either “the first,” “the oldest,” or “the only” something or other, and so it makes sense that it’s also the city that marks the single best morning of our vacation and my favorite morning in recent memory.
But first, let me tell you a little about my friend Linzie. Linzie and I were childhood friends; our families vacationed together, we went to the same church, and we shared a birthday (which is a big deal when you’re a kid). As teenagers, Linzie was always trying to help me look pretty. She loved helping me do my make-up and finding a solution to my fine, limp hair. She couldn’t help it, it was what she was created to do. We went our separate ways and lost touch for nearly 20 years, reconnecting a little on Facebook.
Linzie now lives in Charleston and owns the super trendy Lordis Loft Spa and Salon on King Street, where she helps people look pretty for a living. Chad and I passed by the shop last night and saw that it opens at 9:00 am, so after breakfast at our hotel, we walked a few blocks to Linzie’s shop. The door opened to a stairwell leading up to a loft and as we reached the top of the stairs, Linzie came walking out from the back. The same beautiful Linzie I had known all my life, and I just smiled at her.
She recognized me immediately and we didn’t talk. We just laughed and hugged each other. She hugged Chad and then we caught up on life and family. She gave us a tour of her store. Countless Aveda products lined the brick walls, and Linzie’s masterful eye for interior decorating was evident in every detail. I knew she was glad we were there because we’d be in the middle of a conversation and Linzie would just stop and hug me.
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| I could just carry her in my pocket |
I asked her if I could buy some dry shampoo and she picked out a bottle, sat me down in a salon chair, and suddenly we were fourteen again while Linzie tried to fix my fine, limp hair. She wouldn’t let me pay for the shampoo, it was her gift to me. My sweet friend who hasn’t changed a bit except now she has the slightest trace of a southern accent.
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| Still trying to help me |
We wanted to let Linzie get back to work, so we said our goodbyes and Chad and I walked out of that store refreshed in a way that’s hard to describe because I’ve never really experienced a reconnection like that. It made everything about my day better.
We shopped at Savannah Bee Company, received some bee education, and even adopted a honey bee. We named our honey bee Tootsie; the kids will be happy about that. I sure hope Tootsie is able to pollinate a lot of flowers and live a long, fulfilled bee-life on that dollar we had to cough up.
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| Huguenot Church |
On our walk, we passed the Huguenot Church, the oldest Gothic Revival church in South Carolina (built in 1844). This church is the only independent Huguenot church in the U.S., and that was interesting enough for us to stop in for a visit. Back out on the sidewalk, we looked at a map of 41 historic sites, and I was intrigued by one more than any others. The Old Slave Mart Museum. We walked down the cobblestone street and bought tickets to a museum, which is housed in the only building left standing where slave auctions were held in the 1800s. The museum focused on domestic slave trade because as the north began to ban importing slaves, slave owners began to buy and sell American-born blacks. Domestic slave trade is what happened in this building.
The exhibit was brutal. In fact, as I stood on the very floor where thousands of humans were sold like livestock, my brain experienced a disconnect. I became numb as I looked at the shackles, the whips, and the photographs. I looked at the stone floor and tried to imagine what happened right where I stood, and my mind wouldn’t let me. The reality of it just seemed too unreal, I guess. We listened to a recording of Elijah Green from 1937 as he recalled his days as a slave to William Jones and the harsh treatment he endured. But it still didn’t register in my mind.
One specific wall bore the title,”The Price of a Human Being,” and displayed the price of slaves ages 1 to 60. A 1-year-old baby could be sold for $100, a 60-year-old man or woman could be sold for $50. The price peaked at $900 for a 20-year-old. The numbers are based off actual documents that were found at Tyre Glen in North Carolina.
I made the mistake of flipping through the guest book where visitors are allowed to leave comments and suggestions, like an archaic version of Facebook. The stupidity I read written on the pages reminded how divided we are and always have been.
We shook off the heaviness caused by the museum (because we’re Americans and we’re good at that), and we continued our walk through Charleston, shopping at the City Market, a 4-block marketplace orginally built in the 1790s. Chad bought me a silver ring and then we headed through the French Quarter taking pictures of the buildings and palmetto trees and thinking this might be the best city we’ve visited yet.
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| If you want to know where half the country's dollar bills are, they're on the walls of the Griffon |
A local woman had recommended a restaurant called The Griffon, just a block away from the waterfront. Over lunch, we discussed our options for our next stop and then we walked along the waterfront and watched a dolphin swimming in Cooper River with Fort Sumter in the background.
It was nearly 3:00, and we wanted to tour Fort Sumter, so we drove to the visitor center at Liberty Square and found the last tour boat left at 2:30. If we drove across the harbor to Patriots Point, we could take a 4:00 boat, but neither of us wanted to spend another two hours on a tour when we had a 4-hour drive ahead of us. Instead, we looked at the Education Center Exhibit which explained the events leading up to the Civil War. The war wasn’t a matter of slavery, it wasn’t a matter of human or property rights, nor was it about states or constitutional rights. That’s just a smoke screen so that you won’t know that its real cause was division over gender neutrality.
While we were disappointed we didn’t get to tour Fort Sumter, we were excited for our next stop 4 hours away. We arrived at our hotel in Asheville, North Carolina, a little after 9:00. John Denver's greatest hits ushered us into this beautiful state where we were greeted with a purple sunset the Blue Ridge Mountains (or some other mountain range because I have never looked at a map of North Carolina until today).
"See wives and husbands sold apart,
Their children's screams will break my heart
There's a better day a coming; will you go along with me?
There's a better day a coming, go sound the jubilee."
- Traditional spiritual
-Rachel
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