Mike and I had an occasion to be in Charleston the 6th through the 8th of June for a business meeting and got to enjoy our first visit in this wonderful city. (Despite the miserable humidity - worse than Charlotte). Tons of pictures and lots of pictures of houses with space between just wide enough for a horse and buggy (or today a small car)

Preservation is a way of life in Charleston. From stately antebellum houses to the more utilitarian single houses that shoulder the narrow streets, this 300-year-old city is renowned for its splendid architecture. Embellished with fanciful wrought-iron work as intricate as window frost. and painted sparkling whites. pastels or whimsical rainbow hues. Charleston's houses delight the eye. Imagine not only having a home owners association to answer to but a City Association as well. Even to paint the exterior you have to put up 3 swatches and then after 3-6 months the City will come along and select the swatch they want.

Once a cradle of Southern gentility. Charleston is now one of its last bastions. The Pineapple has long been the symbol of hospitality. In Colonial days sea captains would bring a pineapple home from distant shores and place it on the front gate as an invitation for the community to share in his hospitality. The sea captains would put out the pineapple after 24 hours and then taken it down again 5 days later and they were off again to distant lands. Ancestral pride runs deeper than the Ashley and Cooper rivers that shape the slender peninsula on which the city is built. A story that many locals tell illustrates the Charlestonian spirit. It concerns a wealthy matron who was asked repeatedly why she didn't spend some of her money on travel. "But my dear," she was said to reply. "why should I travel when I'm already here"' Charleston epitomizes the gracious air of the Old South, where life moves at the leisurely pace of a stroll along The Battery.

Though easygoing and elegant. Charleston gave America its first decisive victory in the Revolutionary War and the first defiant shots of the Civil War. A pioneer in civic affairs. the city established the country's first municipal chamber of commerce. municipal college and public museum. In 1931 it passed the first historic district zoning ordinance to preserve its architectural heritage.

Named for King Charles Il. Charles Towne was founded in 1670 by English settlers along the marshy shores of nearby Albemarle Point. The settlement relocated to its present site 10 years later. Despite American Indian uprisings, a threat by the French. epidemics and privateers. Charles Towne had developed into a vigorous port and a prosperous and fashionable Colonial city by the mid-1700s.

Though drawn reluctantly into the Revolution. Charles Towne stubbornly repulsed a British attack by sea in 1776 and a second offensive by land 2 years later before it finally was captured in 1780. The British left in 1782, and the city was incorporated as Charleston the following year.

In 1860 South Carolina passed the first Ordinance of Secession at Charleston. and in April 1861 the Confederates occupied Fort Sumter. For 3 years Union ships blockaded the city. battering Fort Sumter with artillery fire, but the defenders refused to yield. Submarine warfare was introduced in Charleston when the Confederate vessel Hunter sank the USS Hou.saronic. The Confederate Army finally abandoned the city° late in the war.

Charleston's historic district encompasses more than 2.000 buildings: 73 predate the Revolutionary War. 136 date from the late 1700s and more than 600 others were built in the early 1800s. So many church spires poke at the sky that Charleston once was nicknamed The Holy City. Hurricane Hugo's assault in 1989 resulted in massive damages in Charleston as well as statewide but 95 percent of the city's structures survived and the historic district remained intact. The Battery. the waterfront along the edge of the historic district, offers fine views of the harbor. North of The Battery along E Buy Street is a particularly colorful collection of houses known as Rainbow Row. A distinctive tinctive residential style is the single house. a narrow structure one room wide and two rooms deep with its gabled end, rather than its front, facing the street. (Known in other areas as a "shotgun" house ... ) Often a single house includes a piazza-the city's version of a veranda-and the pride of any Charleston home: a garden.

• Nowhere does Charleston flaunt its beauty more than in its gardens. >From the magnificent scale of the nearby plantation gardens to the more modest but equally enchanting walled gardens in the city. the area's lavish floral displays are known throughout the world. Charlestonians proudly show many of their private residences and gardens during the spring and fall tours of houses.

We took one of these Monday morning before our meeting

Another Bubba Gump - I think it's the second time we passed one up.

The Atrium At Our Andrew Pinkney Inn