GMA Brandtalk
Tracking
Archives
A sunny day in South Carolina
We were in Beaufort, South Carolina one bright morning, ready to explore this southern American city known for its waterfront views and antebellum houses.
The three of us—my husband Alex, my cousin Ángel, and I—drove over from Hilton Head, also in South Carolina, where we were staying for a few days. Beaufort was only a 45-minute drive away.
Reaching the commercial center, we parked in one of the side streets and walked around Bay Street. A popular shop called the Bay Outfitters had an interesting life-size wooden replica of a First Nation Indian in colorful native costume, including a feathered headdress. Many beautiful plantation houses caught our attention too, along the way. At Charles St. a craft shop offered a two-hour tour of the city with a local guide. It looked promising, so we signed up.
While waiting for the tour to start we walked around and reached the Harry C. Chambers Waterfront Park, a leafy and grassy area overlooking the bay. It had interesting-looking cafés, shops, and restaurants, and along the trail were joggers and strollers enjoying the soft cool breeze. It had a marina, where freshly-painted yachts were tidily moored. It was a postcard-pretty scene, and very tranquil.
We met our guide Ashley at the appointed time. An energetic and cheerful girl, she welcomed us to the city that she obviously loved. Her southern drawl too, was endearing. She drove a large air-conditioned van that could sit six comfortably.
Beaufort is in Port Royal Island, she said, and the waterfront park is very popular. Seafood abound, and the annual Beaufort Shrimp Festival, held in the park during the first weekend of October, was a big annual festival excitedly awaited by locals and visitors alike.
The first place she showed us was the Parish Church of St. Helena, built in 1724 and witness to many historical events of the American South. We noted the intricate brick fence and reached the churchyard, where old tombstones stood beneath tall oak trees.
As we drove through the Beaufort Historic District, we gasped at several beautiful antebellum (pre-war) period houses, each one more fascinating than the other.
They were large mansions, some with river views. Most had gabled roofs, symmetrical façades, evenly-spaced windows, Greek pillars or columns, balconies, covered porches, and central entryways.
As we continued, we noticed tall, eerie-looking trees, their boughs reaching out horizontally, the branches covered with gray, cobweb-like “hairs.” They had an aura of the supernatural, and looked like something out of a good horror movie.
Ashley pointed these out as old oaks covered in Spanish moss. But they were neither Spanish nor moss, she added. The growths were epiphytes (plants that do not have roots but get their nutrition from the air) that love to cover the oak trees. These “beards” sometimes grow as long as 6 meters! From afar, they looked like soft cotton-y overhangs. When processed properly they could be used as pillow stuffing.
Ashley said that there is a Spanish Moss Trail in the city that we could follow, a 13.6-mile recreation trail for joggers and bikers. The Spanish moss certainly made the trees look ghostly, we commented. Ashley laughed and said that since we were in the south, ghost stories abound, not only about these trees, but about the old houses as well.
As if to change the topic, she suddenly asked if we knew she could also do a mean Irish brogue. We laughed delightedly, and encouraged her to demonstrate. She started off by singing a ditty called “Goobers,” or peanuts, and requested us to sing the refrain, and the queries on the supernatural were set aside.
After thanking Ashley for her time, we got into Ángel’s car and followed the Spanish Moss Trail for a while. Indeed, the oak trees looked spooky, especially when they grew so close to each other that only weak and dappled sunlight could pass through the branches. The hairs at the nape of my neck stood up when I got close to one huge tree, and the air suddenly turned very cold. And this was at noon time!
“And what’s for lunch?” Ángel asked. A day before the trip, I read up on Beaufort and saw a good review of a local restaurant, Moondoggies Café & Grill at 925 10th St. in Battery Creek. We punched the address into the car’s GPS and voila, we reached the place easily: a wooden southern-style building, painted white, and set back against tall…yes, oak trees with Spanish moss.
We enjoyed their seafood house specialties: spicy shrimp burgers with asparagus, pan-fried lump crab cakes with remoulade, and surprisingly tasty crispy fried pickle chips. The thinly-sliced pickles were coated in a light tempura batter and then deep-fried, coming out very crispy and delicate. All these were served by Maude, who had technicolored, spiky hair and an infectious laugh.
Finally, we visited The Chocolate Tree, a famous chocolate shop at 507 Carteret St., in the center of town, made popular by Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates. When we told them the shop was recommended by Ashley, they gave us free dark chocolate silver dollar treats—a most delicious introduction to the temptation around us.
All the chocolates were handmade, and through a large glass we could see the ladies in the kitchen making the sweet treats. We bought some boxes for friends and family, but couldn’t resist getting some for ourselves too.
En route home we passed by the Woods Memorial Bridge, a swing bridge also featured in the Tom Hanks movie. We drove home happily, munching on dark chocolate creams and truffles, and felt that life was indeed a sweet “box of chocolates.” — BM, GMA News
