Overall, I'm a big fan of Charleston, although I am curious to see what it's like at a more crowded time of year. That being said, I feel I got to know it in a very different way since it was over the holiday. I didn't get to go everywhere I wanted, or eat in every restaurant, since many were closed, but you know what - that's ok. I did come to understand that the people in the South really are so so much nicer than they are everywhere else. (http://www.eatdreamtravel.com/2011/12/people-in-south-really-are-nicer.html)
*I will add more pics/blog posts later!
Here's what we did...
1. Dinner at McCrady's. Do it. Especially when you have the whole non-holiday menu to choose from. I'm sure Husk is amazing also. (http://www.eatdreamtravel.com/2011/12/dinner-at-mccradys.html)
2. Running down by the water on the battery. It was so beautiful it distracted me from the pain in my knees. (http://www.eatdreamtravel.com/2011/12/running-in-charleston.html)
3. Fort Sumter. Good for the "I can never learn enough about war" set (a.k.a. my husband). Also fun if you like boat rides, but you really need to dress as if it's 10-15 degrees colder. I was freezing out there.
4. Carriage ride. We went with Carolina Polo Company solely because it was rated highest in Trip Advisor. We had a good guide who liked to mention every few minutes that he was actually from Charleston, and that most of the stuff other guides tell people is lies. All lies. Great way to see the city though. I covet the porches on these mansions, they are amazing.
5. Nathaniel Russel House. This was ok. I just really wanted to see the inside of one of these houses. The three story "flying" staircase is really neat. No photos allowed inside, which was kind of a bummer for me.
6. Lunch at "Caviar and Bananas." We ate at the small one at the city market, but the original bigger one is on George St. Top 5 sandwiches ever: Duck confit, aged gouda, pickled red onions, fig jam, and black pepper mayo toasted on sourdough bread. Mmmmmm.
7. Dinner at FIG. Amazing Italian/Southern food.
8. Breakfast/brunch at Toast. Ok food, but generally overly hyped. Only place that was open on Christmas really, so I would not wait 45 minutes for this on any other day. Signature French toast tasted re-heated, although the fried green tomatoes were a great introduction to Southern cuisine. Atmosphere is fun here though (see my #2 in why Southern people really are nicer...). And bottomless mimosas are never a bad thing..
Charleston over Christmas
Recent Activity
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Some more posts about the trip: (Sadly a bunch of my photos got deleted)
About FIG restaurant: http://www.eatdreamtravel.com/2012/01/fig-food-is-great.html
Charleston vs. Savannah (I will post a TR on savannah in a bit): http://www.eatdreamtravel.com/2012/01/charleston-vs-savannah-porches-or.html
Checked out all of your posted photos.
Yes, Charleston and Savannah.
I was out early each morning taking photos as my wife slept.
I learned a bit of history about "the war of northern aggression".
If you were visiting the Nathaniel Russell House on December 28th or the Fort Sumter boat ride the 29th, I was there too, but it sounds like you were a day or two earlier... And I agree, that elliptical staircase was something, and that boat ride was quite lovely (dressed appropriately as I was with hat and layered)!
Thanks for your pictures and words. Wish I'd had a few more days in Charleston! Daniel
sharbear,
I just checked my photos and I have some inside the Nathaniel Russell house.
I have the staircase.
www.travelwalks.com
Myer, we call it the "Recent Unpleasantness"!
Myer - fabulous photos! Someday I will learn to take photos like that. I have a new camera and I took a class, but I still need to practice more. You must have been sneaky to photograph the staircase, they were being very strict with us. You also got some of my favorite porches on camera - I'm still mourning the loss of a day of photos. I also wish we'd had time to get to some of the plantations, they look lovely.
Daniel - yes, we were a day or two before you - glad you enjoyed!
And yes, I was counting all the different euphemisms I heard for the Civil War...
sharbear,
I used to being sneaky.
What kind of camera did you get?
How did you lose a day's photos?
Depending upon luck they may still be on the memory card.
M
suewoo,
And also "the war between the states".
A micro 4/3 - Lumix G3. I "lost" the photos because I let my husband upload them onto my computer....then when I looked later they were not on the camera, and I had told him to delete them off the memory card (thinking they were on the computer). Dumb.
Let me explain how memory works. Computer disk drives and memory cards.
There are two parts:
a) The directory that contains the file name and the address of the data
and
b) The data
Typically, when you delete a file the directory entry is deleted but not the data. The data location may get reused when you write more data as it's not addressed in the directory.
Formatting usually obliterates the data portion. Deleting files does not.
Several years ago my daughter dropped her laptop and ruined the hard drive. She didn't have a backup. She asked me for copies of all photos I may have.
I had her download from download.com a free program named PC Inspector File Recovery.
It ran all night and recovered over 1,800 of her files.
The only problem is that since it's recovering from the data part of the card and not both the directory and data part, the files are named sequentially and not with their original names.
That's little price to pay to get your data back.
Try it. I first tested it with another card just to see how it acted.
I'm not familiar with your camera as I've always had a Canon.
I never buy the lens that comes with the camera. I make sure to have a very good lens. My lens is a moderate wide, moderate zoom that's extremely sharp at all focal lengs and apertures. Also,th camera sensor is exemely clean even at higg sensitivity so I can take dimly lit photos without using a flash. It's a hobby.
All I can tell you is to practice with the camera but stay away from auto modes. Get used to Shutter or aperture priority or manual mode. That's the only way to really learn.
Back to that software. I don't remember if it was PC Inspector File Recovery or PC Inspector Smart Recovery.
I can check tomorrow.
I almost positive it's PC Inspector Smart Recovery.
Try that first.
The important thing is that you don't use the memory card until you recover files as you may write over some of the files with the new files.
Good luck.
Thanks Myer. I will try, although I have used the memory card since then.
Just because you used it doesn't mean you can't recover.
You just may have covered some files.
Let me know what happened.
I just loaded a program available on download.com named Recuva.
It works with all versions of Windows including Windows 7.
I formatted my memory card and then shot 6 photos.
I deleted them one-by-one.
I have a multi-card reader in my computer so it's pretty simple for me.
I started Recuva, pointed it to my memory card and it found all 6 images. I then selected Recover and it asked me where to store the files.
That's it.