Wednesday, April18, 2012

Jay and CJ

Said goodbye to our wonderful friends this morning ... they had to go to work/school and we had to get on down the road.  It was raining again, but it didn't make us sad. The countryside was really beautiful and green and all the houses had nice big lots.  However, it doesn't tempt us to move here ...

 Jay and Rachel's house

We noticed that almost every town has the same businesses.  McDonalds, Burger King or Hardees, Target, Home Depot, etc.  Now I understand about America losing their Mom-and-Pop stores.  May not be worse this way, just interesting.  We noticed a lot of Waffle Houses and finally stopped at one for breakfast this morning.  I had their "City Ham Biscuit" for $1, which was really pretty good.  Craig had their egg and ham biscuit, which was much better than McDonald's !

It  started pouring rain on our way to Charleston, but stopped by the time we got there.  We went to the Charles Towne Landing, where the original settlers set up their town in the 1600's.  It was a large, beautiful park and museum.

 Entrance

Spanish moss on the trees

We drove around Charleston for a while, looking at the beautiful old homes.

Just one example of the old homes.  Interesting to see that the homes sit "side-ways" in that the wide part with the porch is on the side and the narrow end has the front door.  It reminds me of the way the "Dream Homes" housing tract was designed in Sunnymead !

Charleston is a large city and quite crowded, so after driving around for a little bit, we headed on up the coast.  See what looks like sails in the middle of the picture?  That is a beautiful bridge that we crossed.

Along the way out of town, we drove down Sweetgrass Highway, where there were lots and lots of small stands of African American women selling these beautiful baskets. 

 

According to the information I was given, Sweetgrass basketmaking has been part of this area for over 300 years.  It is one of the oldest art forms of African origin in the United States.  And this is the only part of the US where this form of basketry is practiced.  So, of course, we had to buy one !

Then we drove on the Wilmington, North Caroline ... bought gas for $3.66/gallon.  Getting pretty good gas mileage, averaging about 27 mpg.  

We checked into our hotel, which is on the Atlantic ocean and the Cape Fear river.  We are staying on the river, near the picturesque downtown area.  We went to dinner at Cirque 1922 and had a wonderful dinner.  I had some of the best mushroom risotto that I have ever had and Craig had their plank steak.

Then on to bed !  We have been driving pretty long distances, but it hasn't been hard on us.  We stop frequently to walk around and use the "facilities" and then go on.