The Charm of Charleston: Port-Of-Call Your Travel Agent

by Mary Best

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A great and memorable city gains its power from the history it encompasses, the cultural graces it cherishes, and the generations who steer its course. No doubt, this is why time has been kind to Charleston, bringing change without taking away precious patina and charm. I never miss a chance to visit this city of some hundred thousand inhabitants that rises on the tip of a marshy peninsula in the heart of South Carolina's Low Country. So, recently, when my husband invited me to tag along while he attended a conference there, I was in the car before he could say "shrimp and grits."

Even my gloomy Eeyore of a coworker couldn't curb my excitement. "Charleston? I mean, really," she sniped. "I've never been there, but it's just so ... old. Probably filled with patrician sentinels still watching over the harbor. Just like their great-great-great-granddaddies."

I ignored her. The elegance, salt-sea flavor, and cosmopolitan flair of the town were pleasures I knew well and keenly anticipated again. I didn't even wait to check into our hotel before setting out to rediscover what Edgar Allen Poe is said to have referred to as the "kingdom by the sea."

Springtime feels timeless in the city's venerable historic district. Horse-drawn carriages carry tourists at a stately pace past storied sites while hip-looking twentysomethings and over-caffeinated college students maneuver along crowded sidewalks -- indications of Charleston's increasing identification with the New South. Lining the cobbled streets, well-kept brownstones stand decorously spaced between manicured courtyards.

The city's urban personality intensifies at the open-air Old City Market, an antebellum relic where slaves were once auctioned. Today, women continue the centuries-old West African tradition of sweetgrass basket weaving -- next to tattooed ingenues selling contemporary art and latte pushers serving double something-mocha brews.

The former colonial capital blends a profound sense of history and heritage without lingering lamentations about what some Southerners still call the War of Northern Aggression. That conflict left an indelible mark on Charleston, no doubt, as it did on other cities of the Confederacy. But vestiges of the city's past fit less into an enduring mythology than into a fascinating historical context that includes pirates, Revolutionary War heroes, civil rights stalwarts, and far-sighted entrepreneurs. Moreover, galleries, specialty shops, restaurants, and houses of worship enhance the city's multidimensional personality.

Ambling through the city will reveal a place that has, because of a tumultuous relationship with nature, developed the ability to show grace under pressure. The pristine steeple of St. Michael's Episcopal Church, Charleston's oldest, still dominates the skyline, even though it sank 8 inches during the earthquake of 1886. And though Hurricane Hugo devastated the city in 1989, few scars remain visible.

The city's character is, first and foremost, shaped by its long-standing marriage to the sea. Part of that bond is evident in a massive naval base that gives Charleston a pride of purpose touching many nonmilitary aspects of the city. But a burgeoning importance as a center and destination for private and competitive sailing also lends vigor to the port.

Brad Van Liew, a former solo around-the-world sailboat racer, moved to Charleston from Los Angeles a few years ago and is now executive director of the South Carolina Maritime Heritage Foundation. "I never saw a host port with so much enthusiasm," he says. In mid-June, the city hosts the annual Charleston Maritime Festival; if you're someone who likes to plan way ahead, mark your calendar for spring 2008, when the Global Ocean Challenge race of solo and double-handed sailboats will use the city for a stop on its globe-circling competition.

Charleston offers a dazzling spectrum of restaurants. Not surprisingly, seafood gets star billing. On the patio of Bubba Gump's, you can feast on the four basic food groups: shrimp prepared nearly every way mentioned by Bubba himself, hush puppies, bread pudding, and fruity concoctions that might melt the macho heart of the Great Santini himself. Then, cap off the evening at the Rooftop, a swanky bar atop the Vendue Inn, where you can look down on narrow streets overflowing with funky frivolity.

On my last morning in Charleston, I walked to the city's landmark promenade, the Battery. Here, across the water from Fort Sumter, spring emblazoned the park with a carpet of tulips, and I thought it ironic that a spot notorious for the outbreak of the Civil War could now display such an intoxicating, impenitent beauty. As I turned to leave, I noticed an elderly couple sitting on a nearby bench. They sat gazing across the harbor, like sentinels. Just like their great-great-great-grandparents before them.

Explore More:

Spoleto Festival USA
May 26-June 11, 843-579-3100
One of the world's top arts festivals, with more than 140 performances in disciplines including music, theater, dance, and the visual arts.

Sweetgrass Cultural Arts Festival (in nearby Mt. Pleasant)
June 2-3, 843-884-9910
An assortment of Gullah Geechee skits, storytelling, food, music, dance, and demonstrations and lectures on the history of sweetgrass basket making in the Low Country.

35th Annual Scottish Games and Highland Gathering
September 16, 843-529-1020
Bagpipe music, Scottish heavy athletics, highland dancing, fiddling, children's games, and Border collie demonstrations at Boone Hall Plantation.

This article was also published in the April 2006 issue of Edutopia magazine .