Off-Limits

Today’s exploration was bookmarked by bus rides. We started with a trip to the Battery and a walk though the Edmondston-Alston House, which had an incredible collection of furnishings and artifacts. Photos aren’t allowed inside, but they took us out on the second floor piazza so we could enjoy the harbor view; this time, I actually did take a picture of Fort Sumter!

From there, we walked along the Battery before going inland to tour the Heyward Washington House (Washington actually slept there, so they added his name to improve its attractiveness to tourists).

Lunch was at Eli’s Table; we got to choose our own entrée, but the tour had pre-ordered appetizers (fried green tomatoes) and desserts (beignets) to save time. When I told the server that Diane and I couldn’t eat shellfish and I was actually allergic, he told me that he’d have to find alternative appetizers and desserts for us, because of possible cross-contamination. I think we won – the appetizer was a waffle with an amazing cinnamon spread, and dessert was a peanut-butter caramel cheesecake!

We didn’t get to walk off much of the lunch because our next stop was at the Gibbes Museum of Art, nearly 100 yards away. We got a quick tour of the permanent collection – I liked the painting of the Bombardment of Fort Sumter.

I was also amazed that someone could sculpt a very realistic veil in marble.

Then it was back to the bus and the hotel to rest up for our evening adventure. Except that we needed some insect repellant, so we walked to Walgreens across the street. And as long as we were out, we continued on to the first Reform synagogue in the US, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (KKBE).

The gate into the courtyard wasn’t locked, but it didn’t want to open easily, so we were just about to go back to the hotel when another couple walked up and levered the gate open. We walked in with them and took a couple of photos, one of the sign over the entrance to the Sanctuary building and one of a much newer sign.

We were interrupted by a guard. As he came out, I could hear him telling someone that “I guess I didn’t lock the gate”; he decided we looked harmless and told us we could enjoy the courtyard for a few minutes, but if we wanted to come back, we should book a tour. We’ll be back on Thursday.

Dinner tonight was different – the group went to Bowen’s Island for a Low Country Oyster Roast. We had a private dining area out on the dock so we didn’t have to wait in the line.

It was a beautiful evening – we’d been warned to bring mosquito repellent, but we didn’t need it.

Lots of people were enjoying the late afternoon sunshine on the water, too.

We took a walk and saw the oystermen hard at work steaming the oysters.

Soon enough, oysters were delivered to the table and our host, Austin, showed people how to shuck them.

Everyone seemed to get the idea and they made short work of the oysters and the Frogmore Stew which followed. Well, everyone but Diane and me – our dinner was salad and pasta (not photo-worthy, I’m afraid).

Sunset was almost too pretty to be true.

It had been a good evening, but we had to get back on the bus and return to Charleston.

Learning Charleston by Foot

Our flight from Dallas was delayed, so we didn’t get to the Frances Marion Hotel until well after midnight, and it was at least 1:30am before we were in bed.

This morning, we had breakfast at the Swamp Fox Cafe (the hotel restaurant) – omelettes, toast, grits, and fruit. There was too much food to finish, though we tried!

The first event on our tour was at 4:30pm, so we had the day to ourselves – we decided to walk the Year Round Volksmarch to get an overview of Historic Charleston. We had a choice of the 5km or 10km distance, and we decided to do the whole thing.

The start point was a few blocks from our hotel, and the first stretch of the walk took us right back to the hotel – actually, to Marion Square across King Street. We took the obligatory selfie and also photographed the remains of the Tabby Horn Work (part of the original Colonial defenses) and the Rotary Fountain.

Next, we explored the College of Charleston, which we’d return to with our Study Leader this evening.

Then we walked into downtown Charleston, stopping at Charleston City Hall to see the Trumbull portrait of Washington in the Council Chambers, along with a bust of Fulton and, of course, a painting of John C. Calhoun.

We continued to White Point Gardens (The Battery) on the waterfront to enjoy the breezes and the views, including Fort Sumter (though the photo below is of Castle Pinckney).

There were even flowers!

We continued on to Waterfront Park for a much-needed Italian ice and more views.

Charleston has recently started to confront the history of slavery, with markers and the Old Slave Market Museum.

We also saw other, happier, historical commerce continuing to the present day.

Our final stop on the walk was Emanuel AME Church, the site of the murder of the Emanuel 9.

And then we returned to the hotel to rest briefly until it was time to meet the others on our tour and get started with a short lecture and a tour of the College of Charleston, led by our Study Leader, John Meffert.

We saw the Porters Lodge (old entrance to the college), Randolph Hall, houses that had been in the community but now were part of the college (such as the yellow “show house” built by a merchant who was using it to advertise his ability to build a similar house for others), and more. John told us how the college had grown and changed over the years, and how it affected the city.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a busy day, too.

Delayed – what a surprise!

I’m writing this entry from “The Club at DFW”, which bears a very strong resemblance to “The Club at SJC”, though it is far more crowded. “The Club at SJC” took over the space of the old American Admirals’ Club where I’d spent far too many hours while traveling for IBM; we were there too early to want to take advantage of the open bar (something the Admirals’ Club didn’t offer), but we did have a nosh to prepare us for the flight.

American has been slowly improving their in-flight catering (not in Coach, of course) and we had a choice of Greek Salad or Turkey Sandwich on the flight from SJC to DFW. Diane had the salad and declared it to be “ok”, which is about what I’d say for the turkey sandwich – the accompaniments were better in both cases. We had Black Mountain Merlot to go with our meals; it was barely OK – afterwards, the flight attendant found some Malbec which was much better.

We got to DFW early, so of course our flight to Charleston has been delayed – so far, by an hour, which means we won’t get to the hotel until after midnight. Fortunately, our tour doesn’t start until 4pm EDT tomorrow, so we’re not terribly upset if we come in late – though I do hope we have enough time to see some of Charleston on our own! The Rabbi Educator at Shir Hadash went to school at the College of Charleston and gave us many suggestions; there’s also a year-round Volksmarch that starts near our hotel that we hope to do before we leave.

Onward!

Getting Ready

The big task for today was packing; naturally, I interrupted myself by finding other things to do.

I finished (and mailed in) my answers to the Almaniac; I’ll find out how well I did in another month.

I visited the bank to get them to stop mailing me solicitations for additional credit cards.

I finished reading Station Eleven – now I want to watch the TV version.

I updated my phone, iPad, watch, and computers to the latest version of the system; I even cleaned the screens on everything!

Despite my best efforts, we’re packed and should be ready to go tomorrow.

Pandemic Journal, Day 509

t was our last day in Iceland; we had breakfast at the hotel again (the barista there makes a very nice espresso macchiato!) and finished packing before setting out for a little last-minute exploration.

We hadn’t walked all the way around The Pond yet, so that was our goal. Along the way, I was playing with Google Maps and found something called “Trivial Earth Lovers” – the description calls it a place of worship, but the photo associated with it appears to be that of the headquarters of the DAS Lottery! At any rate, that made me think of geocaching, so I hunted for easy caches near us and found two virtual caches, The Unknown Bureaucrat and Monument of Jón Sigurðsson – we’d been to both statues several times during the trip, so all we had to do was go back and take photos with one of us in the picture with the statue and submit the log.

We finished our walk around The Pond before getting the necessary photos; it was a pleasant day for a walk (we were amazingly fortunate in the weather the whole time we were in Iceland). If we’d had more time, we might have explored the “Human Expansion Station”

but we skipped it in favor of leaving time for a visit to the National Gallery of Iceland (our Reykjavik cards were still valid, and I wanted to get full value from them!).

The National Gallery had a number of special exhibits – we had just enough time to visit two. The first, Death is Elsewhere, was a seven-screen video showing a couple dancing and singing very odd songs (in English) about Death being elsewhere – we stayed for a few minutes and moved on before the songs became total earworms.

The second, Hello Universe, was more traditional – it mostly had paintings, though there were some odd mixed-media pieces like Halldór Ásgeirsson’s Aurora Borealis Bar.

The labels for “Hello Universe” were only posted in Icelandic; fortunately, the museum had put the English versions online so we could look at them while walking through the exhibition.

After visiting the National Gallery, we took photos at the two geocaches and walked back to the hotel to finish packing and to check out, then we set out for one final meal at the Reykjavik Fish Company. I was pretty sure I knew where it was, but I brought it up on Google Maps to be certain – that was a mistake, because Google had the wrong address! We found it anyway and enjoyed fish and chips (they were out of Arctic char). It was next to Valdis Ice Cream – even though I wasn’t the slightest bit hungry, I wanted to try the ice cream. Valdis was the place we’d been hunting for the entire trip – our trainer had told us to find a place that served ice cream on waffles – but I had to limit myself to a single scoop on a cone. It was very good; next visit to Reykjavik, I’ll plan to go to Valdis for the full experience.

Then it was back to the hotel to retrieve our luggage, a quick walk across the street to the bus stop for the trip to the bus terminal and thence to Keflavik to fly home (well, to Boston).

The route to the airport took us near Fagradalsfjall Volcano. It had been pretty quiet the last few days, but as we passed it, there was lots of steam coming out.

The commentary on one of the YouTube channels carrying live video said that there’d been a wall collapse a few minutes before we passed by, generating lots of lava. All I could do was watch the feed and wish I were there.

Now we’re on our flight to Boston – there was no chance to see the volcano when we took off, but I did enjoy the view of glaciers over Greenland.

The movies and TV offerings on this flight didn’t excite me, but I was drawn to one album, “IBM 1401, A User’s Manual” by Jóhann Jóhannsson.

The first track, “IBM 1401 Processing Unit”, was strictly musical, so I was really surprised when the second track, “IBM 1403 Printer”, included readings of parts of the manual! Diane says she wishes her father had been able to hear this album – he spent years servicing 1401 systems as an IBM Customer Engineer.

We should land in Boston in a couple of hours – we’ll have to stay awake until 10pm or so Eastern Time.

Tomorrow, we see our son!