Charleston, Day 1: The Market, Washington Park, Battery Row & The Harbor

With anticipation building, a relatively short jaunt down I-95 from Florence, South Carolina, led us to the beautiful city of Charleston, where our vacation would truly begin.

After some initial difficulty in finding a spot, we eventually found a downtown parking deck and got situated. We walked down Queen and found the Market, which was hopping on a Sunday late morning.


The day was moving quickly toward hot and crowded, so we decided to cut the shopping short and embark on our self-made walking tour. To aid the process, we grabbed some sandwiches from the Market Street Deli.


As we wound our way down Church Street, we stumbled into the famous Dock Street Theater—the first building in America designed to be used as a theater.


After discovering a beautiful cemetery across from the French Protestant Church, we moved on through the heart of the French Quarter to arrive at Broad Street.


Taking some time to directionally orient ourselves, we then came to our tour’s unoffical starting spot, Charleston’s oldest park: Washington Park.


From Washington Park, we walked down Meeting Street to Tradd, then came out on East Bay Street to start down Battery Row—a breathtaking series of homes facing the waterfront.


We traveled down East Bay all the way to White Point Gardens, better known as Battery Park. From there, we took King Street on our way back toward our car. There we discovered O’Donnell’s Folly, a beautiful home that got its name from the fact that its owner built it for his love, who married someone else before it was completed.


As our energy flagged, we went to check in to our hotel. With the afternoon passing quickly, we only had a small amount of time to head down to the Charleston Maritime Center. From there, we had a harbor tour scheduled aboard the Carolina Belle. We did a sail-by on Fort Sumter, as well as the USS Yorktown, which now serves as part of a state park.


Thoroughly exhausted by this point, we headed back to the hotel, gathered our strength, and headed off toward Jestine’s, which was thankfully only a few blocks from our hotel. Unfortunately, however, the line for this soul-food joint was around the block, so we begrudgingly had to settle for a chain restaurant called Sticky Fingers. A couple of Palmetto Lagers and some surprisingly good food later, we had our energy (somewhat) back. I grabbed a six-pack on the way back to the hotel and toasted the city out on the balcony as I thought of what lay in store for the following day: a photo shoot, more exploring downtown, a visit to the South Carolina Aquarium and dinner at Hank’s (well, maybe).