Charleston, SC

From Steamboat Landing we had a short days run down the ICW to Charleston, SC where we tied up at the Charleston City Marina. The marina runs an hourly shuttle for boaters into Charleston. The world famous Spoleto Music Festival was underway. Friday night we tried to get last minute tickets to the opera, Don Giovanni, but had no luck. So we went to a free outdoor salsa music concert and dance outdoors behind the Charleston custom house. The energy of the dancers and the audience were infectious. Saturday we took the ferry to Ft. Sumter where the first shots of the civil war were fired. Later in the day we drove to Middleton Plantation, a rice plantation established in the 1700’s with slaves from Sierra Leone. During the civil war when the owners fled the plantation the slaves who brought the technology of rice farming continued to manage the plantation. In the evening we went to a tennis stadium in Charleston to hear one of our favorite jazz singers, Jane Monheit. A minor oversight by the stadium grounds crew had sprinklers spray the court floor sending concert goers in evening dress diving under tables for shelter. It was good fun. The conductor said he had never seen an audience so surprised