A Love Letter to Charleston

So out of the 9 months we've been on the road, we've now spent two of those months in Charleston South Carolina, which when you think about it, is a pretty long time for us. I love this town so much; there is something about the atmosphere here that has completely captured my heart and soul from the first time I walked around downtown. 

I was recently writing to a friend and she asked about Charleston and I ended up going on and on about it, telling her about it here and how much I love it. So this is my love letter, my master post, my introduction to Charleston South Carolina for those of you who might not know about this little corner of history and beauty.

Let's start with the basics. 

SC flag

The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon

 Palmettos. The state tree. If you haven't heard of them before, they're just shorter palm trees and they are everywhere! It's a pretty cool site to see wild palm trees, growing everywhere. In California I've only seen them when they've been planted in rows. 

Charleston saw the beginning of the Civil War. The first shots were fired at Fort Sumter which is a little island  not too far off the coast. Little Known Fact: It's actually a man-made island. It took around 30 years of dumping rocks and stuff into the ocean to build it up! A lot of modern day Charleston is man made, years of filling in the ocean and making more land.  When we went to The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon we visited the place where they rediscovered the original seawall. It's now 3-4 blocks away from where the modern day seawall is but it's so easy to imagine you're standing and looking out on the ocean when you're actually in a dark dungeon, looking down at the old wall with seawater still slowly rising up under the building. 

The original seawall

The King of Bling and me

It was originally called Charles Town after King Charles II. If you know anything about Charles the Second, it explains a lot about the vibe the town gives off.  Horrible Histories called him the King of Bling (you're welcome). 

Pirates are fun characters in Charleston's history. Once in May 1718 Blackbeard held the entire port hostage. They captured ships and held the prominent citizens hostage, threatening to remove their heads if he didn't get the medicine he needed. The town cooperated and he sent two pirates and one of the hostages into the town to receive the drugs from the governor. Blackbeard gave them two days to get the drugs and get back to the ships. The retrieval crew was delayed due to their ship sinking on the way into town and the two pirates getting "lost" A.K.A discovering some old friends in a tavern. Once Blackbeard had his medicine he gave all the ships and hostages back and fled the scene. Oh yes, the medicine he so badly needed? Mercury to treat his syphilis. Uhuh. Pirates. *eyeroll* 

Brief histories next the the front doors

This town loves its history. There are tons of walking tours, horse carriage tours, self guided tours that are all very well organized. You have to go through some serious training to be a certified tour guide and if you're a guide you have to wear a badge to show you're certified. There are tourism enforcers who ride around on bikes and make sure no one is giving a tour without a badge. It's very important to them that the correct history is being taught, not some yahoo making up stories. The streets are kept clean by constant crews. I've never seen a place that's kept up so nicely. 

My love is mainly for the downtown area of Charleston. There's obviously a lot more modern areas with shopping and fun stuff like that. But it's the downtown area where most of the buildings were built in the 16-1700s.  A lot of the houses have brief histories next to the front doors so that you can read and give yourself a self-guided tour of the downtown area.

Broad Street

Did I mention the town is
still lit by GAS LAMPS

 But the whole historic downtown just gives off this vibe of comfort for me. This town has survived war and earthquakes, it's burned to the ground multiple times, it gotten smashed by hurricanes and it's all still there. They take a lot of pride in themselves but not in a vain, arrogant way. More like confidence. It's so hard to describe it with just words. It's graceful, refined, genteel, classy, elegant, well- mannered. It's posh but not in an off-putting way. It blends the old and the new so smoothly. Like for example, when Mom and I were walking around the other day, a snazzy Prius drove by blaring pop music. It just fit in perfectly, driving past all the old houses, through the groves of ancient oak trees. It wasn't surprising or out of place at all, it was just normal and perfect.  In most places when there are a bunch of super duper rich people nobody likes them. "Ugh, rich people, they're so snobby and rude." But here they're not. Here they are the great-great grandchildren of the families who built all these houses. These families have been living here since the town was founded in 1670! They have been putting their best suits on to go to church every Sunday with each other, generation after generation. Those elderly women walking to church together have likely been doing this weekly since they were little girls.

The 1st and one of the last
Huguenot chruch

Once, I swear I heard an elderly man addressed as "Your Excellency" in front of the Huguenot church.  They are "Your Excellencies" and "Madams" and "Sirs" and they know it. But they're not going to shove it in your face. They're going to "Sir" and "Miss" you back and genuinely wish you well and walk back to their fancy cars and wave pleasantly as they drive back to their 300 year old mansions. And you're going to feel so happy for the rest of the day. But it's not just the rich folk that will treat you like that; EVERYONE in this town calls everyone "M'am" and "Sir" and is so welcoming, kind and well-mannered. 

Downtown is split into two areas. South of Broad Street (SOB) and Slightly North Of Broad (SNOB). Each street has it's own personality and mood. If you've lived here long enough I think that you'll learn what each street's personality is. I don't quite understand them all but I want to. I read a book that's about a haunted house in Charleston, where the characters would be like"ohh you live on TRADD STREET?! how posh!" "Oh yes I'm up on King Street, so hip!" "Montagu street? much class!"  

Most of the houses cost millions of dollars, because not only do you have to buy them, but then they have to be renovated so they don't collapse. Everything you do has to go through a committee to ensure historical accuracy. Every detail must then be approved and then all the work has to be done by hand. Sanding floors, chipping paint, replacing carpet, everything! It's not a project for the faint of heart or the poor.  There is a huge demand for skilled craftsmen to work on these houses. 

You can tell some places are totally haunted. Not in the movie-style-actually-seeing-ghosts way but in the vibe that the bricks give off. The bricks that make up almost all the buildings were made by hand (slave hands, which, granted, is way less romantic). They still have fingerprints in them! Seriously, if you look hard enough you can find hand prints in the bricks, it's so cool!  I think the bricks of Charleston could be like Warehouse 13 artifacts. They have a tragic, personal history and they've been imbued with magic. 

 When I last walked downtown, I walked by The Elizabeth Williams house. I became enamored with it as soon as I saw the "for sale" sign. It's not as large as some of the houses around it. It still has the "kitchen house" (old kitchen + slave quarters) in the back, which is the perfect size for 2-3 people to live in. The front house is two stories and it has a garden that at one time was designed by an apparently-famous gardener. It's all covered in weeds and needs a lot of work but I love it. The front gates were open so Mom and I carefully snooped around the yard. We looked in the windows of the back quarters and you could see the original hearth (built late 1700s). I nearly died of excitement. It's so haunted. It's like you could almost SEE the men and women walking around. You couldn't see them, not really, but you could tell where they would be and almost feel them. It's so magical and while I was there it completely captured my heart. If you lived there I'm sure that you would become friends with the ghosts there. I'm going to need like $6 million to even make it livable. Which will probably never happen, but a girl can dream right? 

Panorama of the Elizabeth Williams house

I'm sad to be leaving here already (we're coming back in like 2 weeks). This is the first place since we moved from Whitehawk California when I was 13, that I've truly felt at home.

 I would live here in a sticks&bricks house in a heartbeat if it meant I could drive over the Ravenel Bridge and see the church spires everyday. I didn't even talk about the churches or cemeteries (they're amazing!) but I'll save those for another love letter. 

Dearest Charleston, you have bewitched me body and soul. I love your history and your class. I love your beautiful trees and window boxes, your quiet alleys and your spirit and magic! Until we meet again (coughcoughin2weekscough)

Why I Like To Cook So Much

I've been wanting to write on here lately and I had no idea, no sudden inspiration of what to write about. So I asked some of my friends and I got a question about my favorite subject! (warning: this will be rambling and lovey-dovey).

 Why Do You Like To Cook?

First let me talk about some of my ideas and philosophies about food.

To me, food is the most important part of our lives and I think that we should treat it accordingly. I believe that food is the glue to any culture, the way to learn about people, to connect with others, to take care of oneself, to show love to another person, to do ANYTHING you need food. We die without it! Mealtimes shouldn't just be a time to keep oneself from dying, they should be a time to enjoy the senses of taste, smell and sight and to focus on how lucky we are as humans to be able to enjoy food. It should be a time to sit down, take a rest and be kind to your body. Eating should be a time to talk to your family and friends and bond. Eating should be a time to focus on making our bodies and souls healthy and happy. 

Look at some of the European countries. In some places, everyday in the afternoon the people still close businesses spend hours bonding and eating beautiful, fresh, healthy food. They make food a priority. They've been doing it for hundreds of years and look how healthy and happy they seem to be. I think that is so beautiful and important.

There are foods all throughout history that are only made specifically for particular events. In Greece they make a beautiful braided bread on Easter called Tsoureki and in Crete, they make a gorgeous decorated bread that is given to a new couple on their wedding day (don't get me started on the importance of bread; I'll save that for another time). Also, in some places in Greece, when you have a guest over you offer them what's called Spoon Sweets. It's a spoonful of some kind of fruit preserve or sometimes a vanilla nougat that you serve with black coffee and a glass of water. (I have a really awesome Greek cookbook that I read a while back that really inspired me on this subject in particular.)

  There are special traditional dishes all over the world. And to think about how cool it is that people in these traditional cultures have been making these specialties for hundreds of years! When I find a recipe from long ago and recreate it, all of the sudden I can taste, smell and experience what people ate years ago in the past! What a way to connect to history!

 But look how we eat in America, in our modern western culture. We have poisoned our food. We fry stuff to the point of no return, we scarf it down with no ceremony or thought for our poor bodies, we consume individually instead of eating communally as a tribe.  And look how unhappy, sick and lonely we are. Mostly people of my generation don't even know how to cook the most basic meals. It's not their fault; they were never taught by their parents as children.  But where along the way did we, as a society, lose such a valuable and basic skill, left helpless in the knowledge of how to care for our most basic needs?

You go Mom!

Both of my parents know how to cook (and are really good at it!) so I've grown up watching and learning from them my whole life. They've always included me in the kitchen: Mom making homemade spanakopita while nursing me with one arm, Dad telling me the secret ingredient to his Special Sauce when I was little, baking chocolate chip cookies with the recipe off the back of the chocolate chip bag with my Dad and my brother when Mom was out for the day.

I started making dinner once a week when I was around 9 with Thane (aged 4-ish helping me). It was just super basic tacos (cook the meat, heat up a can of beans, eat the whole can of black olives before dinner, grate the cheese) but I think that was really important in helping along my love of food. I now make dinners most days of the week and do a majority of the cooking/baking and I love it. Being able to feed my family with a hot meal from scratch makes me feel really powerful and fulfilled. Feeding people is how I show my love for them.

Ironically, much of the cultural richness I just described is not available to me at all, which maybe adds to the allure of it all. We want most what we can't have, right? I have a plethora of food allergies and auto-immune issues (along with most of my family) so we now can only eat what we've prepared ourselves. We can't ever eat out or buy pre-made packaged foods without a high risk of us getting sick or having some reaction. It can be pretty annoying sometimes, especially when it comes to socializing with people. I can't just go out and eat lunch or get coffee and pastries with a friend. I have to bring my own food, which for some reason makes things uncomfortable, even though it really shouldn't.

Which leads to my last installment of Why I Like To Cook So Much.

Since I have such a hard time eating out and actually loving what I love so much about sharing food, it's inspired me to want to fix it. I want to create a place where people who have the same problem as me can have a safe place to bring their friends and have food to eat and not have to worry about getting sick. I want to create a place where people who have new allergies and are drowning in trying to suddenly learn how to cook so they don't become sick can come and get help and be taught how to cook and how to take care of themselves in a warm, loving environment. I want to create a community based on bonding over allergy-friendly food where everyone is invited, not just people who can eat food without worrying over allergic reactions. I want to run my own Teahouse/coffeehouse/bakery that will be full of foods and treats safe for every possible combination of allergies, and delicious enough for people without allergies to enjoy, too. I want to make it more than just a place to eat though, I want to create a space where new mamas can come and nurse their babies and feel like the ones being pampered for a change. I want to create a space where young people can hang out and meet over a cup of tea and cookies, play music, read poetry or share other artsy skills. I want to create a place where you can come in groups and knit and book-club or plan a flash mob or anything. I want to be the owner of the store who knows everybody's name and what their daily order is before they even get there. I want to be the aunt-like owner who can help anyone with any problem whether it be with food, or your garden, or a lost stitch, or a fussy baby (I'll have little bowls of soft treats for the baby to play with while you talk to your friend!) I like to imagine being surrounded by a lot of babies, I can't help it. :) I want to have random acts of kindness start in my community that spread to a nation-wide act of kindness. I want to run it with my whole family and teach my children how to cook and be kind to people and bring them up in that kind of safe, generous, beautiful community where they have lots of grandparents and aunts and uncles and friends always there to support them. I want to create a really cool, safe, magical community.

 My only problem is I want to give everything away for free, and what I have planned is going to cost a lot of money. What I need to do is win the lottery!

The bright side of having so many allergies and food issues myself is that i has given me (and my mom) a lot of experience and practice for helping other people someday. We're becoming quite the experts in food allergies and how to deal with them!

It felt so good to write that all out! I hope to be able to cook for YOU one day!

Me, age 3, cookie decorating practice.