October 26 - Charleston, SC

 This is our 2nd full day here and we are continuing's our tour of Charleston historic old town.  We started off at Rainbow Row on East Bay Street.  These Georgian townhouses are painted very subtle pastel colors.  I've been in several countries where the "painted houses" are bright and striking colors.  Subtle fits in with the history here.  But I didn't find them particularly photographic.

This is a side street leading to the river.  

The street of Rainbow painted houses.

The house lanterns are designed to look like they are flickering gas lamps.

Home entrance on a side street.

A view across the marsh of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge.

From the river back to the painted houses.

Next stop was the Old Exchange and the Provost Dungeon.  Built from 1767 to 1771.

The first and second floors showcase the Old Exchange.  

The old post office was located in this building.  Note the customer window on the left side.

Down in the basement was the Provost Dungeon.

The Post master had built steps to the basement area where his supplies were kept.  When the dungeon was excavated and they dug deep down - the steps were literally left hanging!

A diorama of prisoners in the dungeon.  The prisoners were not kept in separate cells, instead all were thrown together in the main room.  Guards kept their watch from outside the doors.

Another diorama.

The colonists hid a lot of gun powder in the basement and built a false wall to hide it.  When the British retook the Old exchange they never realized that the gun powder was hidden there.  When the British were finally kicked out the colonists discovered the 1/3 of the gun powder was ruined because it was below the water table.  The rest was OK and useable.

Later, the area behind the false wall was used as the area to hang prisoners.

View out the window of the Old Exchange.  That is St. Michaels Church off in the distance.

Much later, the Old Exchange 2nd floor was used as the area to debate and then sign the U.S. Constitution.

Slave Mart Museum on Chalmers Street.

The presentation given on the second floor was very informative.  Unfortunately it was open to the first floor on two sides - so with new people arriving constantly it was hard to hear the presenter.  He did a great job giving us information.

The complex used to be a lot larger.  The displays on the first floor also was well done.

Next stop - the French Huguenot Church.

All around the sides of the church were these placards giving the names of the congregants with their location at birth and at death.  

Just down the street - St. Phillips Church.  We stopped here and went looking for lunch.  Turns out we were very close to Poogan's Porch - so we had our lunch there again.  Then took an uber back to our apartment for a rest.  We have a sunset cruise scheduled for 5 - 7PM.  

U.S.S. Yorktown - It hasn't moved from this spot in decades.  It is an aircraft carrier used in World War II.  You can now tour it for $25 each.

Fort Sumter National Monument.  Another place you can visit.

The beginning of the sunset - this was a sunset cruise afterall!

Views from our pilot's glasses!

It was right about here that the host - Victor - offered to take everyone's sunset photo.  The people all lined up right where we had been sitting, so we had to (wanted to) make our way around the boot to take photos.  We usually don't go for these hooky photos - but decided to join in the fun.  So at the very end Michael gave him his phone and we got these shots.

I like this one the best.

I was really trying to get the sun in focus.  I deleted twice as many pictures - as the boat was going pretty fast at first and was rocking and rolling.  I almost sat down in a couple of people's laps in the process.  Everyone was very nice about it.  It was very hard to frame a photo.  I was just lucky to get what I got.

Boats after sunset.

One shot of the moon as we headed back to the dock.