Charleston, Day 2: Waterfront Park, the Market, South Carolina Aquarium, Hank’s

After a thoroughly exhausting first half-day in Charleston, we headed down to Waterfront Park, the following morning for a modeling session family photo shoot. I grabbed a nice parking spot in the one-hour meter area, then we stumbled across our unexpected-looking photographer. I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that she didn’t quite know what she was doing as we wandered down side streets and alleys, but I guess we’ll see when the results come in.

I ran back to feed the meter, then we successfully found the famous Rainbow Row.


The houses were much more modest than the ones on Battery Row, but very colorful (or was that obvious in the name?). Depending on who you ask, there are some “colorful” explanations for why the homes are painted thusly, but my favorite was so that drunk sailors could successfully remember which house they were staying in after a jaunty night on the town. Another intriguing explanation was the stretch was once home to a series of shops, and they were painted in this fashion so that illiterate slaves could be instructed which shops to visit by color.


After some strolling, I was ready to check out the relatively well-recommended Charleston Beer Exchange. And if Rainbow Row was a tad underwhelming, the Charleston Beer Exchange was outright disappointing. The clerk had little to no interest in helping us track down notable regional beers and they had a weak selection, though I still somehow found a way to spend like $40. Boo, Charleston Beer Exchange.

Following yet another meter feeding, we found the Charleston Crab House in the middle of the Market area. And after some calamari, a crab cake and a Palmetto Espresso Porter, I was feeling better about this city. We bought a couple of trinkets in the market, then headed back to the hotel and later (surprisingly) found a nearby Harris Teeter for a few supplies. Then we headed off to the South Carolina Aquarium a few blocks away (please note the pelican in the upper right-hand corner of the shot, above the tree, below).


We weren’t able to check out the renowned 4-D theater at the aquarium, but overall it was a nice facility, dominated by an epic 385,000-gallon Great Ocean Tank. The albino alligator was pretty cool as well.

Outside offered some tremendous views of the surrounding docks.


As we had been enjoying phenomenal weather, the harbor was hopping with boaters, etc., surrounding the New Cooper River (Ravenel) Bridge.


A little while later, after a pretty comprehensive tour of the aquarium, we headed back to the hotel and then off to Hank’s Seafood. The restaurant and presentation looked lovely, but what was a bit too formal for us. The clientele, mostly comprised of tourists, wasn’t well-dressed, but the wait staff was (note: when you’re calmly informed that they need to “go next door” to finda high chair, that’s a Deep South subtle tipoff for “your toddler isn’t welcome”). So we elected to have a drink while we ordered food to go, and apparently the kitchen quickly found out there was a toddler on the premise, because they broke all kinds of culinary records in getting our food out and us out of the restaurant (the below picture was snapped as we were fleeing).


We headed back to the hotel, where we were invited to eat our take-out food in the lobby café by one of the nicest and dumbest waiters in the history of the world. The shrimp and grits and Seafood a la Wando (scallops, fish, crabmeat and grit cakes) were both tremendous (aided by a Sierra Nevada), so Hank’s did certainly bring it when it came to the food.

After another memorable and tiring day, we rested up for the following day’s foray: Sullivan’s Island.