11/24/25
This is the first of two posts I will make about the Charleston area. This one will cover my first week in this area, which I spent mostly in the suburb of Mount Pleasant. The second will cover my amazing trip to a beautiful place called Charles Towne Landing. (And a lot of cats!) Right now, I’m in a hotel near the train station, preparing to embark in the morning for points north, visiting my aunt and uncle near Raleigh, North Carolina.
First things first.
I arrived from Washington, DC to the Amtrak station in North Charleston in the late evening of Friday, November 14th. I had a rather harrowing bike ride to my hotel in the dark, crossing a few freeways and major roads with very minimal bicycle infrastructure.
When I arrived at the hotel, though, it was much swankier than my usual fleabag-type cheapest-place-in-town motels. This was because I had found a good deal on Google Maps for the Crowne Plaza. When I rolled into the lobby, I felt woefully underdressed in my travel-ragamuffin attire and mile-worn rig. But the woman at the front desk—with her meticulously manicured nails and hair—was very friendly and welcoming, which I appreciated. I was excited when I arrived to my “fancy” room, and decided to continue the splurge by getting a cocktail at the hotel bar downstairs. I was also hoping to find some locals there to chat with.
Over my Frangelico on the rocks, I did find one very chatty woman, and she recommended that during my cat sit in Mount Pleasant I visit a local bar called Red’s Ice House, right on the canal near Shem Creek. She told me that around Happy Hour each day, you could often see dolphins! Never having seen a dolphin in my life, I filed away this information.
The next morning, I took my time to bicycle to Mount Pleasant, which would have taken about an hour if I had done it all in one stretch. I moseyed about some of the parks in North Charleston first, knowing I probably wouldn’t have another chance to do so during my stay.
At one such pretty place, called Riverside Park, imagine my surprise when a man walked by me and my rig, seeming to take in the Brompton, and sat down on the next bench. Soon after, as I started to put on my helmet to leave, he struck up a conversation, commenting on the bike… and that is when I found out that he is also a traveling pet sitter (mostly dogs) and had also recently taken the train across the country from Oregon(!!)
What are the odds? More travel magic. (Shoutout to Aaron, if you’re reading this!)
We exchanged contact info, and the following evening, we met up at Red’s to see if we could see any dolphins. Almost as soon as we sat down, I did see one for a brief splash, although unfortunately that was to be my only sighting. But there were also many pelicans, and we watched them skim majestically across the water as the sun began to set.
I had walked along the boardwalk across the canal at Shem Creek earlier that afternoon, when I had taken a few photos of the pelicans.
Jumping backwards in time, though, after I met Aaron in the park, I did pedal south to meet my soon-to-be Servas host, Stacy, in downtown Charleston. I got to chat with her and meet some of her 11 cats(!) and then just before sunset, I headed across the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, which is a very long span to bike across! The crossing took me about twenty minutes. Fortunately, it has a nice bike and pedestrian path on the south side, which reminded me of the one on the Golden Gate Bridge. And I was there just in time to get a nice shot of the sun going down.
Then I arrived at my cat sit, and met the two cuties who would keep me company for the next week, Marie and Sophie.
Despite their young ages (both roughly a year old) these two were very mature, and stayed both calm and snuggly for my whole time there. They were a delight. Sophie even slept right up near my head each night, and never awakened me before I woke up naturally.
One day during that sit, I trekked back across the bridge to check out downtown Charleston, which was very picturesque. I visited “Rainbow Row” and the French Quarter, including Waterfront Park.
There is a pineapple fountain in that park!
On my last day in Mount Pleasant, I biked down to the beach at Sullivan’s Island, passing some more classic Lowcountry scenery, including an extra beautiful dusk scene across the canal for one last time.
Next up: stunning scenery from my time with Stacy and her daughter at Charles Towne Landing.
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