Day 135: Beaufort to Charleston, SC

This morning we flexed our musical muscles at the Kazoobie Kazoo factory in Beaufort. We learned about the history of the kazoo and its famous uses, for example for the penguins’ song in the Mary Poppins movie. We saw how kazoos are assembled, including meeting Miss Betsy the finicky packaging machine that allegedly bites and burns unwittingly employees. We also met Mr. Coffee the feisty engraving machine. We then made our own kazoos and got a music lesson in how to play them. We are now kazoo playing experts!

This afternoon we practiced being fancy at the Bennett Hotel in Charleston. We enjoyed a delightful afternoon tea at Camellia’s Champagne Lounge. Our favourite treats included the roast beef on rye, the raspberry macaron (the best macaron we have ever tasted - it was like biting into a cloud), and the pistachio crème tart. We loved the Mad Hatter tea blend and the very cinnamony masala chai. Yum!

There was a dress code for tea. The boys look so handsome in their collared shirts and neckties.

I love tea. Very excited.

We then did some window shopping at the coolest Blue Bicycle Book Shop and visited the historic Charleston City Market. We saw the famous woven baskets that smelled amazing - of sweet clean hay. We also saw some great art - we liked the blue crab painting and the preserved butterflies artistically arranged. The ceramic mushrooms also caught my eye but they said “made in China” on the underside so I might look those up online.

Our evening consisted of snacking on “country caviar” (we’re so fancy, lol), which is also known as boiled green peanuts. This a popular Southern food which I absolutely love. I will need to figure out how to source green peanuts once we return home.

Dinner was roasted red fish and green salad with left over olive salad (from our homemade muffalettas a few weeks ago) on top. Our campsite #9 at James Island County Park is lovely, though it is still very humid here. We have our trailer hooked up to electricity and the air conditioning is pumping. We are looking forward to sleeping in an ice box of a trailer tonight!