Charleston and Edisto Beach, South Carolina

As mentioned last time, I was headed out of town Wednesday. Indeed, I rolled back in around 11 Saturday night — just in time to catch a couple of songs from the MagTard midnight performance at Bragg Jam … before collapsing from exhaustion. Stay tuned, as MagTard’s photographs will be posted tomorrow or Weds.

Charleston, South Carolina, is a city I’d heard good things about from folks who have been. Many compared it to Savannah, here in Georgia, a city I really enjoyed spending time in earlier this summer. (Delighted by, could even say.) Either way, I had a couple of cameras and 24 hours to walk as much as my feet could take.

Turns out it wasn’t really what I expected. It’s not Savannah, at all; it’s feels “older,” it’s more upscale, more of the buildings have been modernized (and most not as well), and there’s a much bigger disparity — it seems — between the “haves” and “have nots.” Where Savannah had scooter parks and vegetarian restaurants, Charleston has valet parking and … well, an Apple Store, right downtown. Next to the Saks Fifth Avenue, $1 million lofts, and “for rent” signs. Everywhere.

Here are a couple of examples, right across from each other in Citadel Square.

To one side, an example of Charleston’s long history of religious tolerance proudly standing behind a gentle fountain (in a beautiful semi-tropical sunset, even):

Citadel Square Fountain (and Church)

Only a few meters away, urban blight (government-related, even):

___R___T__ _O__TY _I_R_RY

Some of the historic details elsewhere in the historic district are exquisite. Although today used as a Confederate Museum, originally (~1840) it was The City Market:

City Market Hall (Railing Detail)

Beautiful. As are the many church buildings south of the Market, with their super-human scale:

Church Street, Charleston, SC

Come Thursday and the end of those 24 hours, it was time to decamp to Edisto Beach, about an hour from Charleston and one of South Carolina’s barrier islands, for some planned R&R. With no internet access and no cell service (most of the time, at least), it was a chance to really just fall off the grid.

…And enjoy it!

Edisto Beach, despite being 75% resort town these days, is nearly as old as Charleston. I couldn’t resist a practice photostroll or two — hey, we all have our own ideas about “vacation,” and I had fun company — to find some interesting local stuff. A highlight was this church, whose congregation originally formed in 1685, and built the current building in 1830:

Shutters for (God’s) Winds

The central theme of any coastal vacation, though, has to be the beach. Photographically, I really wanted to catch a summer ocean sunrise — and nature provided a nice one:

Edisto Beach – Atlantic Sunrise, July, 2009

While there’s only a few sample photographs (including what the camera, above, imaged) from Edisto Beach, I’ve gone ahead and posted the whole 77-photograph gallery from Charleston. Enjoy.

Many thanks to all for a fun, refreshing weekend.

Up next: MagTard at the Rookery. Then, later in the week, filling in a couple of back items. As always, thanks for stopping by.