Quick trip to Charleston

Monday, November 1, 2021 - In July of 2020 we had a trip planned to Oregon that we had to cancel due to the pandemic. The airline tickets were going to expire at the end of 2021 if we didn’t use them, so we (I) decided we would go to Charleston for a few days. We also had Marriott stays that were going to expire if not used, so the trip was basically free!  Our fight was at 6:00 (which was pretty painful) but it got us to Charleston at 10:30, so we had a full day of sightseeing.  It was 70 degrees and sunny so we decided to walk the city. 

Sunrise over Philadelphia

First stop - City Market 

City market, inside. It was about 5 blocks long, lots of local artists

The Pineapple fountain.  Guess we'll have to come back, since the fountain wasn't on.

Rainbow row, beautifully painted row houses.

Joggling board-it’s a rocking bench!

Nathaniel Russell House tour

Beautiful gardens everywhere!  We found this in the Nathaniel Russell garden

Front door of Nathaniel Russell house. This house has been restored to the the mid 1800s. We really enjoyed the hour long self guided audio tour.  It was a great day walking around Charleston...we walked 9.5 miles!

Tuesday November 2, 2021 - Today was going to be 75 degrees and sunny, so we decided we should spend the day outside.  We headed straight for the harbor and did a 90 minute boat tour.  We then did a pub crawl and found some great outdoor bars.

Ravenel Bridge in the background

Fort Sumter in the distance

Aircraft carrier USS Yorktown

Port of Call Brew Hall 

Rooftop bar - Vendue

Charleston Crab House rooftop for dinner.  Kev can't get enough crabcakes.  Had them yesterday, as well, at Aw Shucks.

Wednesday, Nov 3, 2021 - Today was a COLD 65, after yesterday's sunny 75!  We had a few museums we wanted to visit: a tour of Aiken-Rhett house, Post office museum and Slave Mart Museum.   We did a late lunch at Poogan's Porch, for some classic southern food and lots more walking!

Our walk to the Aiken-Rhett house.  We did another self-guided audio tour here.  This house had been preserved (not restored like Monday's house we toured).  This house was used by the family from the mid-1800s until the 1970s.  So many things had been done to the house over the years.  I don't think I've ever toured a house that's been preserved, but it was quite interesting to see the process of it all.  They also had a lot of info about the slave quarters.  We also visited the Slave Mart Museum, but didn't take any pictures of it.  It was a rather small museum but had so much info about slaves in Charleston.

View from the slave quarters at Aiken-Rhett house

Several rooms in the slave quarters did not have outside windows, only internal windows to the hallway.

Courtyard of Aiken-Rhett house

Charleston is full of houses with beautiful porches.

Mirror mirror....

Fried green tomatoes and she crab soup at Poogan's Porch.  YUM

Small post office museum 

Ironworks are found everywhere in Charleston.  This was inside the Charleston post office

Love the cobblestone streets!!

A beer on the Marriott rooftop...Kev's tired after another 9 mile day of walking

 

 

Mesa Verde, Pagosa Springs and the Great Sand Dunes

 Sunday October 3 - It was a 10 minute drive to Mesa Verde from our fantastic dispersed camping site.  Once in Mesa Verde though, it was an hour drive to Wetherill Mesa.  This section of the park is a less crowded area, which we decided to visit, since it had a paved bike trail.  First we did the self guided tour of Step House. Most of the cliff dwellings you need to have tickets for a guided tour (which should be done a week or so ahead of time and we didn't do).  After Step House we rode our bikes around to the other sites, which were mostly overlooks of cliff dwellings.  It was a great day for a bike ride and there was hardly anyone there, so it was quite enjoyable!

Hike down to Step House

Step House

Nordenskold Site # 16-  The cliff dwellings were explored and photographed by the Swedish scientist Nordenskold in the late 1800s.  He is considered the first archaeologist to study Mesa Verde.

5 mile bike loop

Long House

The drive down from Mesa Verde.

It's all of a sudden Fall!

Monday October 4 - After Mesa Verde we drove 2 hours towards Pagosa Springs.  We found a dispersed camping site, on the east side of the Piedra River.  We enjoyed our view of the river all evening and Kev flew the drone and got some great video and pics of the area.

The Piedra River west of Pagosa Springs (view from our RV)

Dispersed camping next to the Piedra River

Tuesday October 5 -  It was about a 20 minute drive from our campsite to Pagosa Springs.  It was fun to see the town and area we have heard so much about from Bob, as he used to come out for an annual hunting trip.  The town is full of spas, but also has free pools to soak in all along the San Juan River  We enjoyed a quick soak (I only soaked my feet) and then went for a walk along the river.  It is a beautiful area, nestled at the base of the San Juan Mountains, which had quite a bit of fall color going on.  On the way out of town we stopped and hiked the 1 mile trail to Treasure Falls and got a beautiful overlook view of the Pagosa Springs area.  Next we were off to our 26th National Park...The Great Sand Dunes.  This park was a 2 hour drive from Pagosa Springs.  It was cool to be able to see it off in the distance a good 45 minutes before we got there.  From what I read it was a 2 hour climb to the top of the 750 foot tall dune (the tallest in the country) and we decided that was more than we really wanted to do, so we hiked 15 minutes up a small dune and called it a day.  This was the last sightseeing we had planned, and we would be heading home after a visit to Aunt Gerry/Uncle Gene and then a few days fishing with Bob.  Gotta say it was quite a trip, and we're a bit sad our next big trip isn't until mid January!!

hot springs along the San Juan River in Pagosa Springs

Kev's ready for videoing the soak with his GoPro

The San Juan Riverwalk

Views of the San Juan Mountains

More Fall colors

Beautiful views while leaving Pagosa Springs

Treasure Falls

Overlook of the mountains

Looking down toward Pagosa Springs from the highway

We could see the Great Sand Dunes below the mountains, for miles before we got there.  The dunes were formed over thousands of years, as sand deposited by mountain streams and lakes on the San Luis Valley floor was carried by southwest winds toward a low curve in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Getting closer!

If you look closely you can see tiny people climbing the dunes

top of a little dune