Our Honeymoon, Part 2: Fripp Island, Beaufort and Savannah

After leaving Charleston we headed south to Fripp Island for 10 days at a beach house!

Fripp Island

Fripp Island is about 95 miles southwest of Charleston and 65 miles east of Savannah. 

Fripp is one in a chain of barrier islands off the southern coast of South Carolina.  Some readers of this blog are familiar with other barrier islands like Kiawah, Edisto, and Hilton Head Islands (thank you for your emails!). 

It is a private gated vacation community (members only) - there are many beautiful permanent homes on the island and some condos and townhouses.  

After reaching the lovely town of Beaufort SC on Port Royal Island (more on Beaufort later!), you must cross three more islands to get to Fripp - Lady's Island, St. Helena Island, Hunting Island, and then you arrive at Fripp.

So Fripp feels remote and very special.  It was lovely and quiet when we arrived in October (but apparently it's a zoo in the summer!)

David researched and rented an amazing two-story townhouse condo with 270 degree ocean views, right at the most seaward tip of the island:

Wow.  We stayed in the most seaward location possible on Fripp Island!

Here is me dancing after we arrived on the beach late in the evening:

(One in a series of dance moves I will spare you viewing more of...)

Our Home on Fripp

Views from our townhouse were amazing, with ocean views from almost every room in the house (just not the bathrooms)!  

This was the view from our kitchen and dining room window, facing west (high tide):

This is our cute little kitchen with a vast 180 degree ocean view from the breakfast table:

This is the living room with its eastern ocean view:

And from the living room balcony - more ocean:

And from the upstairs master bedroom - unlimited ocean:

Fripp was a dream - so peaceful and relaxing.

I quickly grew very well-adapted to oceanfront retirement living:

Sleep late, walk on the beach, make lunch, have a nap, take the golf cart to get ice cream, walk again, read your novel, make supper, drink wine, sit and talk, take an evening swim, sleep.  

Ahhh...heaven. 

Each day we went for a long walk on the beach at low tide. This photo, taken at low tide, shows our place, the very last most seaward building on the right:

We walked and walked every day.

It was so hot, high 80's to mid-90's most days (25-35C) and I needed a lot of sunscreen.  And it was so bright, it was quite hard to take good photos!

There was plenty to do on Fripp, including countless swimming pools, boating, tennis, bike and golf cart rentals.  We had a blast just hanging out and got up to lots of fun.

Beaufort, SC

Every second day we left Fripp and went to Beaufort for some civilization (i.e. a proper latte), shopping and some groceries.  

Beaufort (pronounced Beu-fert, i.e. not the French way) is a charming, old town of 12,000 people.  It has many charming shops, lovely art galleries and restaurants and seems to be a going concern.  The houses are stunning.

Here is the garden of a private home in Beaufort:  

Spanish moss hanging from the Live Oaks

Another Beaufort home with Spanish moss hanging from the trees, a very common sight in these parts:

Another Beaufort home, a common design with upper and lower verandas:

Shrimp Festival!

On one of our first days in Beaufort, there was a shrimp festival, if you can believe our luck.  We ate a lot of shrimp and tried varied southern fare.

Here is David testing a hush puppy:

The shops in Beaufort were also charming. 

Scout Southern Market was the main decor shop in town, so I'm sharing some photos for my fellow decor junkies:

This pretty blue and white vignette suits Beaufort's traditional elegance and its waterfront location:

Love this settee and coffee table and the bamboo chairs.  Love it all...

I loved this great State of South Carolina wooden wall hanging.  Beaufort's location is marked with the star!

While in Beaufort, David and I enjoyed walking around the old town centre admiring the great homes:

And we visited some local historical sites, including the Baptist Church of Beaufort, where we got a wonderful tour from a retired local fellow who regaled us with tales of the olden days. 

The church was built in the 1840's in the Greek Revival style and was very similar to the First Baptist Church of Charleston (ca 1822) that we'd just visited on the Charleston Fall Tour of Homes, so it was quite a coincidence to stumble across the one in Beaufort:

Floors are "heart pine" (also called heart of pine) and are original.

We also really enjoyed the Beaufort art galleries.

In particular we loved the I. Pinckney Simons Gallery, where we talked to the friendly and interesting owner, Irene, who shared a wealth of local information.  She told us the history of many of the artists and places displayed in her wonderful collection of (mainly local) paintings:

This wall of paintings really capture the local lush "Lowcountry" landscapes.

I took this photo while driving, to try to capture the beautiful local landscape, made up of these ubiquitous low tidal marshes.  The entire land mass is very low, essentially at sea level, and it makes such a unique and lovely landscape (particularly if you don't mind snakes and alligators): 

Low tidal marshes leading to the ocean, an ever-changing and beautiful landscape.


Civil War & Colonial Relics

Speaking of the countryside, David decided to do a little relic hunting after making a connection through his Civil War community (he loves American Civil War history). They toured an old Civil War battleground near a long-gone plantation.  It was a hot and laborious day of metal detecting and digging but he found some very interesting old things which I would like to frame and display.

Some are Colonial and some are Civil War era:

From left to right: a small button, a shoe buckle, an old Colonial coin, the top from a gunpowder horn, and a beautiful sterling silver belt buckle(!!!) that I really want to clean up.  All these things were dug from very hard ground over the course of several hours of relic hunting. 


From left to right: a piece of tile, a plug of lead for making bullets, part of the reed from a harmonica, a bullet casing, and a bullet. 

Savannah & Its 22 Squares

Towards the end of our trip, David and I took a day trip to Savannah and I regret that we didn't spend longer there.  We loved Savannah!

I didn't take many photos as we arrived late morning and the day was blazing hot with not a cloud in the sky.  And the heavy tree cover in many of Savannah's beautiful squares made for some tough lighting for iPhone photography:

Savannah's downtown has 22 heavily treed "squares", each with a historic monument and park benches for resting in the shade.

Historic Savannah feels somehow more run-down than historic Charleston (which feels rather posh and aristocratic) as it has some abandoned historic homes (that are slowly being renovated).  But I would say Savannah downtown somehow feels more relaxed.  It is very leafy with its lovely shaded squares, so there's a relaxed feeling created by having a place to sit and watch the world go by.  Historic Charleston, to me, is much more aesthetically beautiful but there are few parks and places to sit and really enjoy it (other than a busy restaurant)!  Savannah seems to have more character and openness, if that makes any sense.  

Savannah Architecture

I didn't take many photos of Savannah architecture, but it has a totally different look and feel than Charleston.  Ironwork is heavily used for decoration and the historic homes often have more elevated entrances: 

This is the Wm Kehoe house (a famous and famously haunted house), now a charming inn.  It was built by a famous industrialist who owned the Ironworks in Savannah.  

All the white detail on this house is actually iron, painted white!

Photo courtesy Ghost city tours Savannah

Shopping on Whitaker Street

I had a long list of shops to visit but there was so much to see in Savannah that we only hit a few on my list.

I also had an impatient husband on my hands, so that curbed my shop time considerably.  To maximize my ratio of shops per minute, we hit Whitaker Street which had some neat shops I'd researched in advance.

I had 10 hurried minutes inside One Fish Two Fish:

Like a stealthy hunter, I saw my prey at once: I bought a small starburst mirror from the wall but should have come home with a whole lot more.

Also on Whitaker Street, we visited NumberFourEleven (a monogram shop), which I really loved:

I am still kicking myself for not buying a John Robshaw duvet cover I saw on sale there.

Next was LaPaperie, which had a beautiful selection of cards and stationary:

And of course, I hit Circa Lighting.  The Savannah store is larger than the one in Charleston!  And fortunately they have a "husband station" at the back (sofa and TV), so I had a little more time to look here:

The staff at both Circa Lighting stores I visited were so friendly!  I was impressed.  And I do regret that I didn't buy another fixture.  I do love my Dauphine lamp that I bought in Charleston and blogged about here.  I will have to post about it soon, as it's now sitting on my sideboard at home and I totally love it!

We also visited ShopSCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design shop downtown:

SCAD has purchased and renovated many historic buildings in Savannah and has a very large and positive presence in the city!

Lunch at Collins Quarter

It sounds crazy, but our favorite part of Savannah was eating an amazing late lunch at Collins Quarter, a very busy local spot with a fabulous simple menu.

We had an awesome meal and my first ever almond milk latte, which was divine!

And then we just sat and people-watched for a while!

Hilton Head Island

The day after Savannah we went on a short country drive and ended up on Hilton Head Island.  We drove around and saw a lot of trees and gated communities (called "Plantations") and not much else.  

So it is not for the casual traveller who arrives unannounced!  There seemed to be nothing to do!  

We didn't do our research to realize that you can't visit the charming Harbour Town on Hilton Head without parking your car and taking a bus.  We were too late in the day for that, so instead we visited the public beach, which was lovely!




Naturally we took some selfies:

On the way home we got some groceries and noticed this cake:

Happy Fall Y'All.  Everyone calls you "y'all" in the south!

Hunting Island Lighthouse

On our last day, we visited Hunting Island State Park (which we'd been driving by every day as it's right near Fripp) and toured the lovely lighthouse:

Fabulous views after a long walk up:

I really, really hate heights.

And that, my friends, is the end.

Sunrise on Fripp Island, early in the morning as we were leaving for the airport:

All in all it was a wonderful, relaxing and interesting honeymoon!

We can't wait to go back!

Our Honeymoon - Part One: Charleston, South Carolina

I can't believe it's the week before Christmas and I'm just blogging about our (Sept/October) honeymoon.  My sincere apologies for the delay. I have so much to share with you, but without further ado...the honeymoon:

Charleston, late September

Our honeymoon started with a fire at the Chicago airport, which almost grounded us.  We arrived in Charleston much later than we planned (but at least it was the same day!) 

We had four days in downtown Charleston.   Unfortunately for us the weather was uncooperative, so didn't initially show Charleston at its best.   The first two days were as hot as Dante's inferno (we thought October would be a little cooler), with each day in the high nineties and extremely humid.  Definitely not ideal for walking and sightseeing.  I felt sweaty, steamy and grouchy most of the time, but we put on a happy face!  

When we weren't experiencing heat stroke, it POURED rain - I mean torrential rain, with gale-force winds.  It rained for hours and hours until the streets were flooded (Charleston is only a dozen feet above sea level, so it doesn't take much to flood the storm sewers and then the streets).  

Luckily it cleared a little each day (though it remained gray and gloomy).  So I grabbed a few photos when I could (my apologies for the rather bland lighting in many of these shots).

Where We Stayed

We stayed in a lovely carriage house (researched and selected by David!), tucked into a closed courtyard behind a larger (main) house.  It was nice and quiet, away from the hustle and bustle of our busy downtown Charleston neighborhood:

The perfect home-away-from-home!  And thankfully...very well air conditioned. 

The house was tastefully decorated, quiet and peaceful, and had a lovely airiness due to the high ceilings and abundant natural light.  The kitchen was lovely and classic, with honed marble countertops, white subway tile and gray cabinets.  I couldn't have designed it better myself:

There was also a little living room on the main floor, with vintage furniture pieces and a a few nautical elements:

The house had a handsome tall stairwell, leading to the two second floor bedrooms and bathroom:

Tall vintage doors lead to a little patio where we had our breakfast:

On the second floor, one bedroom was more quiet and peaceful:

With a pretty gallery wall of personal art:

While the other bedroom was more cheery and bright (I took these photos the day we left, when it was ironically sunny with a blue sky):

The owner painted many of the colourful paintings herself

So our little house was a lovely oasis.  David made a great choice!

We started our adventure with breakfast at the nearby, and very famous, Hominy Grill:

Fried green tomatoes, in progress...gooood.

The first day, since it wasn't raining (only 100 degF), we walked around downtown and visited the historic district.  

Downtown Charleston & The Historic District

Downtown Charleston consists of many blocks of old homes and streets lined with interesting shops.  King Street (running north-south) is the main shopping street.  As you travel south through downtown, you eventually find yourself in the "historic" district, which occupies the southern part of the peninsula, south of Broad Street all the way to The Battery (waterfront). 

Map graciously provided by travelerofcharleston

Charleston is a small city, with a population of only 128,000 (the wider Charleston district has about 700,000), but its downtown historic district is dense with beautiful architecture, and a very rich history as a merchant colony of Great Britain (it was named Charles Towne in 1670, after King Charles II of England).

I took about a billion photos.  Here are a few...

A blue painted ceiling on the veranda, a common detail we observed in old Charleston homes:

Elegant entryways are de rigeur:

Everywhere you look, there is a lush secret garden:

Or an inviting veranda: 

I fell in love with the greenery and immediately chose a favorite tree, the exquisite Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstroemia) (also spelled Crape Myrtle), which has fine curling branches and tiny pink flowers, delicately positioned on the branches:

The trunk of the crepe myrtle is very unusual as it sheds its bark throughout the year

I had a wonderful conversation with a gardener at the historic Nathaniel Russell house, where I photographed this crepe myrtle tree.  He helped me identify many of the trees I had seen that day and was admiring!

Everything is inviting about the architecture.  Many of the homes are very old and elegant, dating back to the 1700's, as Charleston was a very wealthy merchant colony:

Notice the periwinkle blue painted ceiling of the portico.  No detail is missed!

Many of the homes were brightly but tastefully painted:

Notice the shutters of the neighboring house, which are a matching green!  Another crepe myrtle makes its way into my shot.

Each house is unique and eye-catching.  I love this olive green door with the pale sage green facade:

Striking blue-green shutters:

And overflowing window boxes:

A perfect small front parterre garden:

Very green thanks to lots of rain!

There were lots of secluded gardens behind red brick walls:

And lots of secluded homes behind iron gates, making for a very enticing and mysterious aura:

And vines grow like weeds, making their home everywhere:

The photo below shows a famous local architectural style, exclusive to Charleston, called the "Single House".  The single house is a "single width" (one room wide) house with a side door facing the street.  The street door enters onto a long side veranda, which they call a "piazza".  The actual door/entrance to the house is from the center of the piazza.  The side veranda takes advantage of the shade, as it creates a shaded wall of side windows, but its history is a little unclear (someone told us the narrow, deep houses were designed to minimize taxes by minimizing street frontage but I could not confirm that):  

There is also a "Double House", which looks like this, sitting with its "wide" side to the street and featuring a double entrance stairwell:

This circular iron medallion (below) was prominent throughout Charleston, but I was unable to determine its provenance:

A walk along The Battery (Charleston Harbor) on a very rainy afternoon.  As you can see, these waterfront homes are basically below sea level!  

These homes face Fort Sumter, which sits about a mile out in the harbor.  In 1861, Confederate forces in Charleston fired on Union forces stationed at Fort Sumter (below), starting the American Civil War:

David toured Fort Sumter: 

Fort Sumter.  Flags and a lot of stone walls, from what I can tell.  David enjoyed his visit anyway.

Shopping on King Street

David toured Fort Sumter while I focussed on more pressing needs, like shopping on King Street.  I didn't take that many photos in stores as I only had a few hours to cover a lot of miles.

Inside Alexandra French Antiques:

Inside Vieuxtemps, which sells a beautiful selection of fine china.  This was a creative display of registry china, selected by brides for their upcoming weddings.  Each card in front of the set gave the name of the bride and groom and their wedding date.  It was so fun looking over the sets to see what each young lady had chosen: 

The owner told me that some young southern brides still delight in selecting fine china, while others are dragged in kicking and screaming by their (more traditional) mothers.

For me, the highlight of King Street was my visit to Circa Lighting, where I must have spent two hours.  I was so very smitten!

The very large but lovely Cannes table lamps by Aerin Lauder:

A smaller scale bedside lamp (Marseille), also by Aerin:

A very pretty sconce, smaller scale:

The lovely and restrained Dauphine small table lamp, which came home with me (I went in specifically looking for it!):

This was one of only three things (yes three) that I bought for our house while on our honeymoon.

An Historic Home Tour

The next day, I visited the historic Nathaniel Russell house, which was a dream.  I adored this elegant Federal home, built in 1809.  Sadly I could not take photographs on the tour, so a look at the facade is all you get (my second home decor purchase was a gold Christmas ornament of this facade)!

The huge tree to the left is a Magnolia, which I had never seen in person before!  The gardener told me these trees are a mess to have in your garden, as they dump massive carpets of huge leaves when winter comes.

The original homeowner, Nathaniel Russell, was a wealthy merchant, but wasn't yet a member of the elite upper class - that honor was saved for wealthy plantation owners who owned vast country plantations out of town, as well as stunning "town" houses.  This was Mr. Russell's "nouveau riche" attempt at fitting in with society. 

The famous cantilevered stairwell inside the house, first designed in England and copied here in America.  This design was cutting edge:

We also learned a lot above slaves on this tour, and I did a lot of reading on the subject before, during and after my visit. All the owners of these historic homes owned slaves, who lived in separate quarters in the back yards of these homes.

Charleston Fall Tour of Homes

After leaving Charleston a week earlier, David and I returned to Charleston on a beautiful, cool, sunny day (I am forever grateful) for the Charleston Fall Tour of Homes, organized by the Preservation Society of Charleston.  The lovely weather allowed us a second chance to savour historic Charleston.

On the tour, we visited six private homes, dating from 1746 to 1890, including Georgian (my favorite), Greek Revival, Colonial Revival, and Victorian styles.  I was thrilled with the tour and wish I could have seen a hundred more homes.

Photography was prohibited, since these are private homes.  But I asked and was kindly granted permission to take one photo.  This photo shows an old slave kitchen (where all food was prepared for the main house).  This kitchen was originally a separate building, detached from the main house (due to fire risk) that was later renovated and attached to the main house. Above the kitchen, there would have been a second level (you can see the ledge for the second floor) where slaves would have slept (hence the second story hearths and window openings:

Once a slave kitchen and second-storey sleeping quarters.  This is a private home, so please don't pin this image.

Although I'd read a lot on the subject, I never saw any physical evidence of slavery except inside this home.  So it seemed especially poignant and important to share.  This is a beautiful renovation and a striking room, but what a dark history it represents.

Continuing on the tour, this is a shot of the exterior of another Adamesque (Federal c.1804) house.  I shot this photo as it shows the original brick construction peeking out from underneath chipped stucco, which would have been added later.

Another example of Single House architecture on our home tour.  Built before 1800.

While touring our last home, the Victorian Carrington-Carr House (c. 1890), now a popular inn, we came across the answer to a Charleston riddle that had been plaguing us for days!  Throughout our walks (when it wasn't raining), we'd noticed the most beautiful scent in the air but could not identify the source.  That is until we discovered this, the gracious Tea Olive shrub (Osmanthus Fragrans), which emanates the most lovely scent.

Thanks to a tour guide at the Carrington-Carr House, who identified the fragrant Tea Olive for us!  We were told it blooms only briefly, so we felt blessed that we got to experience its lovely scent.

Other Sights around Charleston

David and I did a bus tour on a rainy day.  This photo show the Citadel, a military college, in the distance:

David visited an aircraft carrier, the USS Norfolk:

And went inside a submarine:

David made a new friend at the harbor.  This white bird with bright yellow feet casts a mean silhouette against that black submarine (do you know what this bird is?):

Wentworth Mansion

One evening we toured historic Wentworth Mansion (now an upscale inn) after eating dinner at its posh restaurant, Circa 1886 (ranked in the Top 3 of restaurants in Charleston):

We had an exquisite honeymoon dinner at the very posh Circa 1886 at Wentworth Mansion, on a very rainy night

The mansion was once a private residence.  

It has a famous, very ornate stairwell:

And it's chock full of inviting details, like this elaborate door knob.

Anyone fancy a glass of Port before bed (guests only)?:

Relaxing

On our last day in Charleston we walked in the rain, discovering many gardens, churches and mysterious pathways:

I'd also like to make a shout out to Black Tap Coffee (70 1/2 Beaufain Street), an airy and chic gourmet coffee shop, for making me a wicked iced decaf latte on more than one occasion!

David catches up on his reading, while fake smiling for the camera, at Black Tap Coffee in Charleston. Besides amazing coffee, the cookies were great too.

After four days, we said goodbye to our little house:

Good-bye Charleston house.  We loved you and your air conditioning.

Final Thoughts & Recommendations

Charleston is an inviting city!  The people were lovely and polite and we were made to feel very welcome. I hope you will get to visit one day!  It is, however, a smaller city than I realized.  There were far fewer (affordable) antiques than I'd hoped and a lot less home decor shops in general.  But the city itself is full of grace, charm and history and there are many amazing restaurants (it's a real foodie paradise).  We also heard there are lots of cool things to do in Mount Pleasant, across the bridge from the Charleston peninsula.

I'd suggest if you go (and you like houses), you should plan your trip around the Fall Tour of Homes (which occurs for 3 weeks in October!), organized by the Preservation Society of Charleston.  If you can't make the tour, at least stop by their shop (Lower King Street) as they have a wealth of knowledge about historic Charleston and tons of great books.  I'd become a member of their society in a hot second if I lived there!  The tour I attended, though only one day, was a highlight of the trip for me.

In my next installment, I will report the second leg of our honeymoon - Savannah and Fripp Island!  I hope you've enjoyed this post!

(And I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas as I likely won't get a chance to post again before that)