July 2021 Part 9: Charleston Trip Day 5: Fleet Landing Restaurant and Powder Magazine

Saturday, July 31, 2021 was our last day with Jen's crew before they flew home, and we had a few more things to hit up together. First, we ate at the Fleet Landing Restaurant, located right on the harbor in Downtown Charleston. This place came highly recommended to Jen, and this was the first day that a reservation worked with our schedule. The atmosphere was really fun, and we gave a lot of those traditional Charleston dishes a try, including real hush puppies stuffed with veggies, sea food, and yummy creamy gravy sauce. 

We made everyone try part of one. Despite having seafood inside, they were pretty good. 

We also tried She-crab soup, which our carriage driver told us about. It was okay. 

I got swordfish and Charleston Red Rice. I wonder how many times I'l need to try fish before I like it, and the same with rice. Still, I felt like we needed to taste the flavors of the area, and they weren't terrible. I'm just a steak and potatoes kind of girl.  

We had a good time. 

After lunch, we walked over to the Powder Magazine, after watching crabs on the shore of the harbor. 

The Powder Magazine was completed in 1713 and is South Carolina's oldest government building. It was used for gunpowder storage, so all the nails in the building are made of wood to avoid sparks and potential explosions. The roof was designed to collapse on itself and extinguish itself in the event of an explosion, but thankfully the design was never tested. In addition to small exhibits about the Revolutionary War and pirates, the kids got to hold old muskets

practice writing with a quill and ink,  

experience life in the stocks, 

enlist in the colonial army, 

and play colonial games. 

I think after this, there was a big storm that rolled in, so we headed back to the hotel and hung out in one of our rooms, let the kids go nuts on screens, and just zoned out for a bit. We ordered dinner, which kept getting delayed the the point that Brian just went and picked it up. Jen and the kids packed their bags, we bid them farewell, and went to bed.