"Unique Low Country Experience" - Time Out #45

My bride and I had been wanting to visit America's so-called "Low Country" for years.

So many places, only a finite amount of time.

We were able to pull it off recently, a week-long adventure to the special American cities, Charleston, SC, and Savannah, GA.

Over the years, I have studied the professional organized tours to the area with various vendors. Eventually, I thought we would pick one of those companies, and experience the area via motor coach after flying to either city. All is good with those folks such as Taulk, Collette, etc., but they don't offer their organized trips there during the hot/humid southeastern USA summers.

Therefore, after studying their various itineraries, we thought we could go it by ourselves, realizing the weather in that location in late June might be iffy.

We had luck shine on our visit; most of the adventure had nice weather, and less than oppressive conditions temperature-wise.

We initially flew from OKC to Charleston, and stayed there 4 nights, centrally-located in their large, beautiful historical district. Our hotel dated back to 1857, and we thoroughly enjoyed sitting on our 2nd floor wrought iron balcony room, overlooking busy Queen Street. We chose this people-watching location outside our room several times each day.

Lots of memorable activities in this special city for our visit.

The highlight was probably taking the National Park Service concessionaire boat on a very wind day in Charleston Harbor to Ft. Sumter National Monument. I am such a Civil War buff, this spot had been high on my list for decades. As fate would have it that first afternoon, I was fortunate to walk past a huge public gathering outside the famous Emanuel AME Church on my walking way to the boat dock. They were in an outside prayer gathering since it was the first anniversary of the mass shooting there. There was a large police presence at the gathering, and several streets were blocked off to vehicles.

I was humbled when reading the various plaques honoring the deceased church members on several outside benches, and seeing the outpouring of love for the victims from that fateful evening a year ago.

Because of the proximity of the sights we wanted to see in the famed historic district, we were able to tour the Old City Market, take a guided,horse-drawn carriage tour, toured the Heyward-Washington House, the Nathaniel Russell House and the Aiken-Rhett House (3 of several homes operated by the Charleston Historical Society), and, of course, ate too much delicious Southern food. Outside the district, we walked the Citadel University campus, and spent an afternoon on the 500-acre Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, located along the Ashley River, 10 miles NW of the city.

For the entire time in Charleston, we were absorbed with the plant life in the compact city. The beauty of the many live oak trees, the shrubbery, the flowers, the various ground covers, all are memorable.

The magic carried over to Savannah, GA, about 130 miles to the south, too. We enjoyed the short drive via a rental car between the 2 Southern cities. The scenery during the drive was GREEN.

Our historic hotel location in Savannah was right on the huge Savannah River. In fact, from our 4th floor balcony room, we were able to see the giant container ships moving up and down the waterway, to and from the Atlantic Ocean, about 15 miles to the east. Immediately below our hotel were the famous River Street restaurants, entertainment and shopping areas.

Savannah's historical district doesn't appear to be as large as Charleston's, but it is memorable, too. It is an extremely unique city by having 24 separate squares (parks), each one with its own charm. Most have nice monuments in the center of each square, all types of people represented with the statues. The signature for the city is probably Forsyth Park and it's spectacular fountain. We saw this, and most every other site in their special area by taking a 90-minute, narrated, hop-on, hop-off trolley tour. As for seeing a new city, we think the vehicular on/off system is the absolute best way to visit.

Before we departed the Savannah area to make the return drive back to Charleston, we traveled east, past the spectacular homes on East Victory Drive,.destination Ft. Pulaski National Monument and the crowded beaches of Tybee Island.

With a week of memories, 500 digital photos taken and 6 extra pounds of weight, we headed home, ready to tell about our Low Country visit to anyone who asks about it.

That's truly one of the joys of seeing new places and experiencing different people, scenery and events.

Travel..........a magical thing.