October 5, 2008

Sunday 5~~~ We rode the bus from the campground to the greyhound tours where we got on a tour bus and we rode all over Charleston and saw the beautiful mansions and heard their stories. They have a lot of the old "Live Oak Trees" that are not like our oak trees. They have leaves year round, the new leaf pushes off the old leaf. These are the low hanging trees in the plantations drive ways. They also have "Ginkgo" trees, they have a sort of cloverleaf type leaf and are used for the ginkgo pills some people take We took several pictures and later after the tour was over, we took a trolley you could ride and get off of and back on when you were done looking at the area. There were a lot of young men making roses out of palm leaves to sell. They could make one of these roses faster than I could get the picture taken. (Picture) A lot of the streets are made from large cobblestones, you have to be careful walking on them so you don't twist your ankle. (picture) After we ate lunch, we went to "The Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon c1771 building, there is a large museum there with an old post office with the types of letters and stamps used in the 1700's plus room after room of period furniture and items. The most interesting part of the building was the dungeons that are still there where they held pirates who robbed the ships of its goods and were caught until they were hung. Pirates were a real common problem, they took control of the ships they robbed and also control of the crew. If the pirates were caught they took them back to the port and hung them on the wharf, they let them hang until they rotted and fell to the ground. They felt it would scare the pirates into leaving and anyone from wanting to become a pirate. In time the pirates left the Charlestown shipping alone.