Charleston, SC

Our hotel is in the historic downtown district. This morning (Saturday) we walked down to the market area, which used to be the Slave Market before the Civil War. The Pinckney family donated the land for it to be used by the city as a market as a reminder of the city's beginnings. We looked in particular, at the sweetgrass baskets for sale. Sweetgrass is now being grown especially for weaving. These baskets are hand woven by African-American women who learned this skill as part of their heritage. They are not cheap to buy because of the hours taken to weave them and perhaps will become a dwindling produce because the ladies' grand-daughters are not interested in learning or selling the baskets. We did buy one and hope we can get it back through customs!

We lined up to do a horse drawn, fully narrated city tour. There are 5 companies offering 1hr tours! I took a photo after we had finished of 'Henry' and our carriage. It was very interesting and informative! The motorists were very patient around the horses. We were very interested to hear about the houses in the historic district - the second photo is one of the houses at 'The Battery' on the Cooper River - these are very expensive and worth a few million dollars!!!

Charleston is the oldest city in the in the U.S. state of South Carolina and is currently the second largest city in the state. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location (Oyster Point) from a location on the west bank of the Ashley River in 1680; it adopted its present name in 1783. In 1690, Charleston was the fifth largest city in North America, and remained among the ten largest cities in the United States through the 1840 census.