Return to Charleston
Visiting Charleston, SC | Angel Oak | Downtown Charleston | Charles Pinckney NHS | January 2024
It’s so hard to believe that it’s been 8 years since we lived in Charleston. I can accept that we’ve been married for over 10 years and are now in our 30’s, but when I think about memories I have from living here, I feel like they were only a couple years ago. I also feel like we’re completely different people than we were back then, so much so that I can barely stand to reread my posts on here from that time in our lives. This wasn’t our favorite place we’ve lived, but our time here was short enough that we never lost motivation for getting out and making the most of where the Navy had sent us. When we moved away from Charleston, we left having made great friends, created beautiful memories, and were confident that we had done all the things we wanted to do, so we never had to come back if we didn’t want to. Fast forward to today, we were going to be passing through, and revisiting our favorite places just felt right. We’re 8 years older, having made homes in several other states since then and made memories all over the US. Now it was time to come back here under totally different circumstances — having achieved a life we could only dream about back then — and reclaim these places and memories under a completely different mindset.
Because we visited all the attractions that we wanted to see when we lived here, we felt free to do whatever we wanted this time around. Of course, we couldn’t go back to our house here because we no longer have access to military bases, and all the friends we had made also moved away. So instead, our time was going to focus on a few of our favorite parts about Charleston: the charming downtown area, the giant trees, the history, and finding quiet, peaceful spots by the water.
After leaving the Old Sheldon Church ruins, we drove to our boondocking spot for the night: a large parking lot for a boat ramp on St. John’s Island, South of the city. There was a long list of very specific rules for this spot, such as no selling things in the parking lot and not leaving certain equipment here, but nothing barring sleeping in your vehicle overnight. It did say there’s a 72 hour parking limit, so we could have conceivably spent even more time here, but one night was all we needed for what we wanted to accomplish. It would have been fun to take our kayak out, since we learned when kayaking to Morris Island that the best way to be active and enjoy the beauty of the South is by boat, but the wind and waves were far too strong tonight that even Curtis didn’t want to go. The wind kept us inside the van for most of the evening, but we stepped out to enjoy the beautiful sunset over the marshland.
We started our morning drive through Charleston by paying a visit to the Angel Oak tree, supposedly the oldest living thing East of the Rockies. This is also one of the first things we visited when we moved to Charleston and we jokingly wondered if it would be noticeably bigger since we last saw it 8 years ago, but it’s hard to tell. It’s still very protected so hopefully it will continue to stand for years to come.
After that, we made the drive over into downtown Charleston, pointing out restaurants and other highlights that we remembered. There was some race going on downtown so traffic getting in was heavy, but we made our way to White Point Garden at the Southern end of the peninsula where we parked for free and began our morning walk down memory lane.
The last time we were here was in August, and when we moved away it was simply a relief to leave behind the heat and humidity of the South. Today was just about the opposite of that, with highs in the 30’s and a bitter cold breeze that bit at our exposed skin. But I guess I prefer that over the heat, just for Charlotte’s sake. The one thing that was missing were all the different flowers that bloom here, especially in window boxes — today any plants that were outside were covered in tarp to protect them from frost.
We started by walking North on Bay Street, with the colorful mansions to our left and the harbor on our right. I hadn’t thought about all the islands and forts that exist around here since we left, but looking out on the water all the memories came flooding back and I could remember the names of each landmark. We passed by Rainbow Row, a sight I had seen several times in the past but my mind just craved seeing those colorful houses all lined up together again. We walked a few blocks West to a park and the ‘Four Corners of the Law’ before making our way back to the van (the walk may sound short when I describe it, but it certainly didn’t feel like it with how pokey Charlotte was being!) Our walk was just what we needed to bring back some of our favorite memories here, and now when we think about Charleston we don’t have to picture our last memory of driving away in the sweltering heat of August, instead we can remember the time we drove through in our van and did just what we wanted to before driving away.
We left the city and drove across the Ravenel Bridge. Because we still had a couple hours of driving, we decided to stop at a historic site for a picnic and more outside time for Charlotte. Since she isn’t allowed in Fort Moultrie, we settled for Charles Pinckney NHS in Mount Pleasant. I remember visiting this site on a Monday morning in January shortly after we moved here, but since then they must have changed how they operate because today the visitor center had signs that it was “closed for the season”. Oh well, since we had already been here we weren’t missing much, just cancellation stamps for today. We enjoyed our picnic and Charlotte led us on another long walk around the open grass, and then we got back on the road heading North towards our last campsite of this trip.
