The Terrible Catsafterme

I had only been back in Myrtle Beach for one evening – and we were already taking another road trip to a nearby city. A group of us had taken the jaunt to Charleston, South Carolina, two years earlier and visited Fort Sumter – but at the time I wasn’t visiting the graves of the Vice Presidents, so that was my primary motivation for returning here again. Besides, it’s a cool place. Aaron and Bob also wanted to see it as they hadn’t visited before. Ashleigh and Briana were more interested in their boy suitors who had somehow joined us during the week, so they stayed back in Myrtle Beach. The rest of us got up early, loaded up the car, and were on the road by 9:30am on the morning of Thursday, July 30, 2009.

Megan is as snug as a bug in a car seat as we head out for Charleston

Adam sits back and readies himself for the journey

We arrived around noon, parked in the parking garage as we had done before, and started off at the visitors center. I of course had a few graves on my mind to visit – but other than that, there is really no major historical site to scope out (other than Fort Sumter, but most of us had seen it, and the others weren’t clamoring for it). Still the town is rich in history and we wanted to just get an overall feel for it. Founded in 1670, it played an important role in both the Revolutionary War and Civil War. Whereas during our previous visit, we took a horse-drawn trolley through the city, this time we purchased a self-guided walking tour book.

Welcome to Charleston

It took about twenty minutes to walk to the heart of the city (which I consider to be the City Market). Naturally the first order of business was to get something to eat. This was a chore in itself, but we eventually settled on the Market Street deli, where the service was terrible, the food was mediocre, and we had to fight (almost literally) for our seat. I had the Cobb Salad.

We were able to get my checklist completed almost right away. The St. Philip’s Church was located just a couple of block from the restaurant we chose and this was where I found the three graves that I was scouting. Bob and I headed out as the others were finishing up lunch to begin the hunt.

The first – and most important – was John C. Calhoun, the 7th Vice President of the United States. Calhoun was one of only two men to serve as VP under two Presidents, in this case John Quincy Adams from 1825-1829 and part of Andrew Jackson’s first term from 1829-1832, at which time he resigned after serious feuding with Jackson.

Calhoun’s grave was located across the street from the church itself. I almost made the fatal mistake of only getting a picture with Calhoun’s father, who had the same name. Bob saved the day though when he pointed out the other John Calhoun grave. After finishing up here, we headed across the street to the churchyard cemetery.

At the grave of the 7th Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun

In this cemetery were located two gentlemen that I wished to find. Since I had started the hobby of getting pictures with signers of both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution during my Pennsylvania/New Jersey road trip with Bob, I decided to continue the tradition here.

The first of the two was Charles Pinckney(1757-1824) was both a South Carolina Governor, Senator in the Federal House of Representatives, and a signer of the U.S. Constitution. He is not to be confused with his first cousin once-removed Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who was also a signer of the Constitution.

Entering the churchyard of St. Philip’s

United States Constitution signer Charles Pinckney

Edward Rutledge (1749-1800) also served as Governor of South Carolina, but he signed a different famous document – the Declaration of Independence. Also like Pinckney, he had a relative who signed the Constitution, in this case his older brother John Rutledge.

Declaration of Independence signer Edward Rutledge

Mom, Aaron, Denise, and the kids met up with Bob and me at St. Philip’s and our walking tour commenced at about 1:30pm. So we walked through the French Quarter checking out the houses and building. One area known as the United Alley, contained the remnants of the McCrady’s Tavern, where George Washington had been a guest of honor. It was sweltering out at this point, so about twenty minutes later, we were apparently ready for a rest.

On the streets of Charleston in the French Quarter

In the United Alley. George Washington was entertained in here, but it doesn’t look like that much fun to me.

We chose to enjoy this rest at Waterfront Park, which spans about a half-mile along the Cooper River. Adam had the most fun here, but we all had a great time watching him feed the seagulls and then play in a water fountain. It was particularly amusing to watch him start with bare feet, then remove his shorts, and finally his diaper (which pretty much just fell apart). The jury is still out as to whether he peed in the fountain or not.

Adam gets his first taste (literally) of getting wet in Charleston

Aaron, Adam, and Denise enjoy feeding the seagulls

My Gang and the Cooper River with the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge in the background

Adam loses the shoes and begins to wade in the fountain

Adam loses the shorts and continues to wade in the fountain

Adam has lost everything…except for his dignity, as he gets soaked in the fountain

We actually spent about an hour hanging around the park and fountain, followed by a full hour of additional walking through Charleston, noting a variety of famous sites along the way. For example…

As noted, it was in this building that South Carolina voted to ratify the United States Constitution. Three of the four signers of it were present.

The Heyward-Washington house. In May of 1791, George Washington was entertained here. I wish that all house in which I have been entertained would name their estate after me and put up a plaque to commemorate the occasion. So far this hasn’t happened.

The home of Thomas Heyward, built circa 1803. Heyward was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

One of the notable residences in all of Charleston, this is the Calhoun Mansion, the largest private dwelling in the city. Although open for tours, we did not care to shell out the fee. And by the way, it was not the home of the Vice President.

One noteworthy spot that will play more of a role in my personal history is the Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon museum and gift shop. Despite the heat and the fact the we had small kids with us, they wouldn’t let us use the facilities unless we were paying to take the tour. So I left them my thanks in the alley behind them, specifically on the door of their rear entrance.

At precisely 3:36pm that afternoon, I found myself standing at the corner of Broad Street and Meeting Street. This intersection is known as The Four Corners of the Law (as coined by Robert Ripley), because the buildings at each of the corners represent the federal, state, local, and ecclesiastical law. But the worst part of this was that the ecclesiastical law was represented by St. Michaels’s Episcopal Church. And in the churchyard of this church are the graves of Charles Cotesworth Pinckneyand John Rutledge, both mentioned above, and both signers of the Constitution. How I missed these is anybody’s guess and a bit of a sore spot. Something is obviously trying to pull me back to Charleston once again.

The Four Corners of the Law

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church…mocking me

We ended up our tour of Charleston by roaming through the City Market where we had basically started. Most important here was that Megan, who had been rather grumpy all week and didn’t want anything to do with anyone but Denise, let me hold her as we walked through the market and actually fell asleep in my arms. So I got to carry her all the way back to the visitor center garage where we picked up the car and headed out a little after 4:00.

With the sleeping baby

It rained during our drive back to Myrtle Beach and traffic was horrendous so it took well over three hours to get back to our area. We were all starving at that point so we went straight to the Buffalo Hot Wings Grill & Bar where we loaded up on wings of the teriyaki, honey barbecue, and hot variety, loaded fries, and beer. Quite a healthy meal I must say. Megan wrapped up her era of grumpiness here when she had an unbelievable major diaper blow-out, which freed her up to be a happy baby once again for the rest of the week.

Adam with a considerably better-tempered Megan

Digging into the wings and beer after a long, hot day

And thus ends our Charleston adventure and excursion. Except for one thing. Denise and I had long noted the ridiculous faces that were currently being made by Ashleigh and Briana (and probably a million other young girls across the world) in the photos that they snap of themselves. One such example might be found here. I’m not sure if it was the beer, the heat, or the exhaustion, but while at the wings joint, we decided to analyze and document these four known poses: the Tongue, the Duckface, the Pucker, and the Squint-and-Beam. Each of us got the opportunity to try all four in the series below.

The Tongue and The Duckface

The Duckface and The Tongue

The Squint-and-Beam and The Pucker

The Pucker and The Squint-and-Beam

And then we headed back to the Links and crashed. It had been a grueling three days. We had one day left of the trip and it would finally be spent just relaxing.

The Myrtle Beach trip will conclude in the next posting…

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at 6:44 am and is filed under 2000's - Late, Famous Graves, Historical Locations, US Presidents, Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.