Charleston and Folly Beach (Once Upon A Time in the South East, Part V)

 On Thursday, February 14, we found ourselves trailing Bo and Taylor across the state line.

I'll tell you that in Canada, when you drive across a provincial border, you may very well have no idea that you've gone from one province to the next. Chances are there is a little information booth and a couple of flags, but other than that, you can make your way obliviously across the country with only the gradual changes in landscape to tell you that you ever left home.

In America, when you cross a state line, this happens:

It turns out that laws from state to state are much more varied. In South Carolina, for example, completely nude adult entertainment is allowed, while in Georgia, there are more restrictions on what must be covered up. (yes, there was a sign for that too) Fireworks are more freely available in SC, as demonstrated by the entire warehouses dedicated to their sale just on the northern side of the state border, and apparently fully automatic machine gun shooting is considered a regular past time!

We arrived at our hotel and were immediately welcomed to our rooms. No hassle, no fuss, super-friendly people (and, we would find out later, a killer complimentary breakfast). We changed and headed out to The Firewater Grill to meet a number of Bo's family members for supper. To be honest, the food was meh, the service was downright poor, and the atmosphere of the restaurant itself left a lot to be desired. The conversation, however, was great ("So, how did y'all meet?" "Well, see, there's this video game...") and the company was superb ("Do y'all have polar bears where you live?") and it wasn't hard to lose myself in the southern accents and friendly curiousity ("Do y'all really say 'eh' all the time?).

The next day, we set out for Charleston. First stop: Folly Beach.
One of the first things people ask when you tell them you did the tourist thing in South Carolina is if you went to Myrtle Beach. We did not. We were approximately two hours away and we were told by more than one local that Folly Beach was just as beautiful, as well as being substantially closer. 

They weren't kidding.

 

 Bordering the actual beach is the city of Folly Beach. It's weird to call it a city, because walking up the quaint streets was like walking through the set of one of those all-American twenty-something sitcoms where no one ever has to have a job or go to the bathroom until it's convenient to the plot. It was amazing!

We had lunch at the Black Magic Cafe and it was one hundred percent fantastic (or maybe we were just substantially less discriminating after the supper the night before, but I don't think that was it). I had some kind of funky wrap and it was so fresh and yummy and filling that I'm pretty sure I didn't finish, but packed up the last two bites because I just couldn't leave them behind. Then we walked a few of the streets before it was time to head into Charleston to see what there was to see there.

 Charleston was beautiful. We walked for blocks and visited a downtown market before walking some more. We stopped at St. Phillip's Church and admired the architecture, both inside and out.

There were a lot of churches, in fact. At any given point it seemed you could see one...

...or three.

We wandered the streets and got ridiculously lost trying to find the car. 

Fortunately, though, we eventually made it back to the parkade, onto the highway, and to the hotel.

Just in time...