Carriage Tours and One Hot Horse!

We decided to take our carriage tour with Eddie and Susan today.  Off we go to find a parking place in Charleston.  We eventually found one nearby at a closed bank.  The lady working the deck was kind enough to let us park in "RESERVED" parking spaces.

The horses pulling the carriages are HUGE.  The brown ones are Belgian Draft horses gotten from the Amish.  The black and dappled ones are Percheron horses.  They are so large!  The workers there explained how well cared for these horses are.

You board the carriage from a ramp that doesn't require you to climb up.  You just watch straight in!  There are 3 different tours, but even the carriage driver doesn't know which tour will be taken until you stop at the next corner.  A "bingo" system of balls pops up and that determines which tour you are on.  They attach a small metal plate to the back to show which one you are.  The drivers can be fined for backing up traffic or straying from their designated tour route.

 Some of the horses might bite, so you see this sign as you load up.

This is our carriage and guide.

There is so much to see in Charleston and you really need weeks to see it all, the next pictures are from the tour....some described, some not.

One of the original stone streets.  The stones were actually ballast from the incoming ships.  The city had to dig up part of the road to fix something and each stone was numbered and placed back where it had been originally.  There is a hefty fine for trying to take one of the stones.

Closeup....how would you like to drive or walk that everyday?

 Dueler's Alley - Duels actually took place here and bullets are still being found.

 The black iron on the building is a set of earthquake bolts.  Not there to hold the house together during an earthquake, but to hold the house together following a large earthquake in the 1800's.

 Can you find the 16 hats in this painting on a building?

 Blue man group...sort of

 Earthquake bolt on left and Fire Insurance Medal on right.  You paid for fire insurance and they put a medal on your house so you could prove you had paid.  No medal, no firefighters.  There are many different fire medals in the city.

 The steeple on this church leans 3 degrees following the 1800's earthquake

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 Fancy moulding on house

 More medals

 Beautiful gate and a beautiful garden beyond

 All the lions on this building are different.

 This beautiful entry was featured in the movie "The Notebook."

 More wrought iron

 The Pink House...pink walls, pink pool, pink dogs.

 The border around the windows and door is a rope.  It was an indication that the person was a merchant.  The more rope and more detailed rope marked a well-to-do merchant.

 A warning to pirates on The Battery.

 Rainbow Houses

No particular house....just liked it a lot!

The hour for the tour was nearing an end and our horse, Laddie, knew it!  He started to almost run pulling the carriage and all of us!  Amazingly, he parallel parked himself at the carriage stop and began drinking his water!  Smart horse!  

This is Susan petting Laddie.  We all did and realized immediately that we all needed to wash our hands! That was one warm horse that smelled like he'd been working out!

We stopped for a quick lunch at Jason's Deli and started back to the campground.  We remembered a church we wanted to photograph, so Eddie drove us back to the Catholic Church for photos.  Here we go pictures of the church and the iron work on the house next door.

Then Susan and Eddie had to go home.  They dropped us back at the campground and headed home.  

But...more friends coming!  Dennis and Brenda McGowan came to visit us!  We know Dennis from our work with Alabama Raceway Ministries.  David and Brenda had not met before, so we had a great time eating and talking into the evening.  Managed to get a quick picture before they headed back home.  They live nearby, so it wasn't toooo far for them to go!

Tomorrow is cleaning day...laundry, dishes, floors, etc.  We do have plans to visit the dog park and the beach!

Catch us down the road!

Jenny :)