Charleston

Headed down to Charleston today (Tue, 15-Jan). During January they have what's called a "Museum Mile" pass where you can get into 13 different museums/homes/etc for free. It's going to take more than one trip for us to make full use of it!

Today we hit only three locations: A train museum, The Charleston Museum, and the Aiken-Rhett Antebellum Home.

This train museum is always free. It's tiny, but not uninteresting. My favorite was the 1830 reporter's quote: "Away we flew on the wings of the wind at the speed of 15 to 25 miles per hour, annihilating time and space. . .leaving all the world behind."

Benjo enjoying the original steam engine train

The only pic I got of the Charleston Museum. The kids enjoyed the kids section, but it wasn't the most interesting we've seen.

The Aiken-Rhett home. Love the yellow!

The slave quarters. The Aiken's held more slaves than any other family in SC, many working for the family here, more out on rice patties and working the land. This tour gave a really clear sense of what slave life was like; difficult is far too simple a word. Though it was outlawed in South Carolina, it's been learned that some of the slaves here had surreptitiously learned to read and write. They don't know all the people who were slaves here as records, kept by whites, rarely regarded them enough to log their names. However some have been discovered and some stories of their descendants were shared in the tour.  

The double parlor for parties. Makes me think of movies set in the period.

Our favorite room in the house--the library!

With that, it was getting on dark. And cold. So we did a quick drive around the peninsula then headed back home.