In the meantime we and our friends from Lady Royal went for a guided walk around Charleston with Sue Bennet who is a certified guide. The walk took 3 hours all around the old part of Charleston and we learned that this City is a older than Savannah. Many many old houses dating from he 1700's still in existence and they are doing everything they can to preserve and restore them. It was a great talk and walk. Some of the houses are really magnificent with beautiful gardens. There are also a number of ladies who maintain the art of basket weaving from grass. Apparently, once these ladies pass away, the art will be lost because no one is learning it now.
Lady making baskets and that is Sue and Ed (another walking guide) in front - both are excellent guides if you get to CharlestonOne of the things I learned is there a Middleton that was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and also a Middleton was a signer of the secession document. South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union.
After our walk we caught a cab out to the Customs office (a ways out) and had a meeting where we got a new cruising permit with a real number. We were told we only had to phone in with our number at each new state along the route. We were also told the boat had to leave the US by August 31 for 15 days, after which we could get another cruising permit. The customs officer was very nice and helpful but the system could be improved and coordinated a little better with some consistency of information among the various offices.
We then caught a cab back into town and had lunch at an Italian restaurant. Very good. We went for another walk around town in the shopping district. By 4:30 pm we were walked out and we phoned the marina for the shuttle back to the marina. We were dead tired after all the walking we did and we had a little nap before dinner on the boat.
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