Tour de Charleston
Emily Goldenberg, Guest Blogger
Hello and welcome to my guest blog post, where I will be taking you all on our tour de Charleston! The three Goldenberg girls flew to Charleston, SC on October 7, 2021, where we met up with my dad (Claude, to most of you) for a five-day fun-packed vacation. I’ve included some of my favorite parts of the trip using the pictures below because pictures are always more fun than my going on and on. (Well, the actual reason is it’s easier for me to drag and drop pictures and include links to Wikipedia rather than type out a whole bunch. Not all of us have the privilege of being retired with an endless amount time on our hands J)
So, with no further ado, please enjoy some highlights from our trip!
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens
Magnolia was the first of two plantations that we visited on our trip. It was very large and had many different areas to explore. We started by heading to “Slave Row” and heard stories from Black actors. We were struck by just how prominent the theme was throughout the plantation that these were enslaved people, rather than “slaves.” Their humanity was front and center. The stories from Black actors telling complex stories of the enslaved, beyond “yeah it was terrible” brought this time in American history to life in the not-so-complimentary-but-extremely-necessary kind of way. I looked in one of the “houses” that enslaved people would live in and captured a pic. It was very small; the fact that entire families would live in these one-room houses (shacks actually) is mind-boggling.
Dad/Claude bought some sort of spice from one of the actors. I have yet to try it but I am very excited.
We then took a boat ride through the rice fields. This tour was awesome, and we got some great pictures, which you can see below.
This one isn’t from the rice fields, but I wanted it to be included, nevertheless. What a little jokester.
The second plantation that we visited was called McLeod. This might have been the highlight of the whole trip for me. Our tour guide was fantastically knowledgeable, and she captivated the entire group.
This tree has seen some things.
Something interesting is that there was a cemetery a little down the road from McLeod with many unmarked graves of enslaved people from the plantation. Scientists use the bones, DNA, teeth etc. to try to learn about the origins and lives of those buried in the cemetery. These were real people, many of whose existence have been forgotten.
Charleston, The City
We spent a good amount of time exploring downtown Charleston. Some notable activities were:
Rainbow Row, a pretty row of pastel-covered houses along the Battery (a very upscale part of the city).
After looking at the houses for about… 2 minutes… we walked into The Tavern, the OLDEST LIQUOR STORE IN THE COUNTRY! Three of us were very impressed. One of us wasn’t fazed at all (can you guess who?)
We also went on a boat tour that took us around the Charleston Harbor. This was very fun not only because it was a beautiful day (which meant great pictures), but our tour guide spewed Charleston facts at us for 90 minutes straight – it was very impressive!
Well, that’s it for me! If you want to see more blog posts featuring me as the guest blogger, tell my dad to take me on more trips J J J J