Charleston

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We had looked at suitable apartments over the net and contacted a co0uple by e-mail through apartmentguide.com. Only one had replied in about a week so we talked to them before we left. They sent an application form via fax, Sweetie filled it out and returned it. We went to the complex as soon as we arrived, saw the apartment, likd it, rented it on the spot. Theur management is even there until 4 on Saturdays. (We found many complexes require an appointment to see an apartment on Sat or Sun.)

There were photos of a large ginger cat on the fridge in the clubhouse. "That's Toby. He belongs to a tenant but visits the office twice a day." Well, upon hearing that we KNEW Sweetie had the right place.

Sweetie show3ed me the company he's going to be working for. It's on a marsh island and looks to have been specially engineered to withstand hurricanes. I can't say the same for the hundreds of brand-new houses ($200k to over 500k) that had been and were being built. It's quite beautiful and the landscaping has been carefully planned around the natural flora and there are no glaring bare spots. Most of the houses are of the raised variety common in coastal areas but, even so, a 20' tidal surge would wipe them all out. Hell, a 10' surge would do tremendous damage. Looking at the blurb for these houses, you read about the delights of living on a tidal marsh. In Louisiana, it's called a swamp. It may not technically be a swamp because of its tidal nature, but it still LOOKS like one. However, the numerous herons about the place are something to see.

We checked out the Isle of Palms and found it unbearable. Houses, most of them quite new, are crowded into every available space, cheek by jowl, Visitors park where they can, usually in someone's bit of front yard, which seems to be tolerated, and then walk to the beach between the houses. I'd hate that, people walking down the side of my house at any time, day or night. Ugh! Some of the houses we saw are listed at up to a million or more. None were under a few hundred thousand. It's an effing barrier island. This is nuts. Although many are rentals, a large number are obviously permanent homes.

I hated teh bridge back into Charleston proper. It's old and narrow. The folks in front of us were very nervous, riding on the center line almost all the way. And it's a long way.

Charleston itself, as expected, was very comfortable and familiar. It's human in scale, like much of the French Quarter and some of the downtown area of New Orleans. It was horribly hot, of course (close to 90), not walking weather for me, but we did do a bit of exploring in the early evening after we had had a nap at the extortionately expensive Hampton Inn downtown. Because of the heavy British influence, the streets seemed closer to an English high street than the French Quarter, although there was a lot of the subtropical architecture of balconies, verandahs and little courtyards. There is a French Quarter in Charleston but we didn't get to it. I was surprised to realize there are no skyscrapers to speak of. Could be they're there but on such a small scale they just didn't register.

The major difference between Charleston and New Orleans is the smell. NO can be unpleasant after the tourists have thrown up on the streets and the morning sun has hit those spots, even though the water trucks have washed everything down. In Charleston you can smell salt air and a faint hint of a paper plant when the wind is just right. Charleston seems to be more spread out so a lot more walking is involved--traffic is a bit choked and parking isn't cheap. However, we did luck into a lot which permits free parking for the handicapped :)

Were it not for the hurricane danger, I would love to live in the city itself. The place we're zeroing in on is about 20 miles north of Charleston and there's easy access to a "back roads" hurricane evac route which ought to be a lot faster and less crowded than the interstate, which virtually all the tourists will use. We came back that way, not hitting the interstate until Florence. I believe evacuees are told to head for Columbia so we should be a little better off on the road less traveled.

It was wonderful to get back to my leg pillow! That kind of travel is Not A Good Thing, even though I kept changing position in my seat. The cats? One of the nurses from my vet's office and her daughter stayed overnight with them. They wre VERY put out. Two of them were fine, but the sitters only saw glimpses of some of the others; two of them they never saw. It was a while before they all came out and "talked" to us and Ginger (who actually came out immediately) was very pissed off and told us both so in no uncertain terms. Gawd, I thought he would never quit haranguing us.

The only other thing I noticed about Charleston is it seems the recession hasn't affected it. There were very few store fronts for lease and the buildings were generally in tip-top condition (except for a low income are we passed through). There were plenty of tourists and people seemed to be spending money. We were both surprised by the incredible amount of new construction, contracts for which must have been signed well after the economy started to go wobbly. Confidence in the area is very high, apaprently.

As here, I shall love the place in the fall, winter and spring. I shall just have to hibernate in the summer months. I'm even more convinced that a pool is essential, both for exercise and cooling off for those 3-4 months. I heard the electricity was out for two months after Hugo. . . Sure, electricity is needed to keep a pool clean and filtered but maybe we can find some solar stuff for that.

All in all, there were no big surprises and I think we can live with the natural disasters risks with the usual prudent planning. Well, we pretty much have to, don't we? :)

-- Anonymous, August 11, 2002

Answers

Wow! Great descriptions. When you have to hole up in the summer, you really should work on an autobiography.

I'm sure that you'll find just the right house. You're aware of the dangers and know how you want to prepare. One suggestion: consider having all the cats micro-chipped. This is because you're moving many adult cats into another state, and if any of them get lost, having those chips increases their chances of getting back to you, esp. if you say they are chipped and offer a reward.

Glad to hear Sweetie found a good place to live! That's half the battle right there.

Hang in there and don't try to do too much this week: it's still August.

-- Anonymous, August 12, 2002


"It was horribly hot, of course (close to 90)"

That's great news! That means sweetie got lost and you're really settling in Boston! Yippee!

-- Anonymous, August 12, 2002


I doubt we could afford to have eight cats microchipped! On previous moves we've kept the cats tranquilized so all they want to do is lay back and contemplate their navels and say, "Oh look at the pretty cat chow." When we reach the new place we put them in a room, still in their cages, and lock the door. We also put a sign on it that says "DO NOT OPEN UNDER ANY CIRUMSTANCES. CATS WILL ESCAPE!" When the stuff is all moved in, we let them out. One of them still tries to get out occasionally so we're used to checking the area before we open an outside door. Water guns will be in strategic places in case any of them get too curious. Long as they have their familiar furniture around them and their little beds in convenient places, they'll be fine.

Yeah, I know, 90 is not that hot for most people. It used to be that anything over 85 was a problem for me, now it's anything over 80! Did I tell you The Hungarian lived in Boston for a while? She was at MassGen. She and her mother couldn't afford to buy a house there so they moved down here.

-- Anonymous, August 12, 2002


I'm happy to be conveying the flavor of the place, despite the typos. I should have written a bit more about the old bridge from the Isle of Palms/Sullivans Island into Charleston proper.

The Atlantic is to the left and the mouth of the Cooper River with its considerable marshes is underneath and to the right. There's a good view from being so high up in the sky. It's quite pretty if you don't think about the height; emerald green marsh grass with natural canals snaking through and numerous jetties from which people fish or keep their boats. The water is blue-gray and there are eerie little eddies of white foam indicating treacherous currents. I don't know how long the twin bridges are but it seems they're longer than the Mississippi River bridges from New Orleans to the West Bank. It's been a long time since I drove over great stretches of water and I'm not used to it any more.

By the way, the bridge over the Cooper River higher up, which connects the northern part of Charleston to Daniel Island and Mt, Pleasant is a bit terrifying. It's a fairly new bridge and the sides are just concrete barriers, similar in shape and size to those separating most interstate highways, no fencing of any kind. It wouldn't take much for a vehicle to go over the side if it was pushed hard enough by another car going out of control. Very disconcerting. Unfortunately, it's the only way Sweetie can reach his office.

-- Anonymous, August 12, 2002


I used to have a t-shirt from Lion Country Safari (a gift). It read, "No Trespassing, Violators Will Be Eaten". My first cat despised construction workers of any kind. If anyone was doing any work in the unit, I would toss her in a spare room and tack the t- shirt to the door. The smart workers figured out what that meant.

-- Anonymous, August 12, 2002


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