A Trip to Charleston, South Carolina
In late September I took a trip to visit a friend in Charleston, South Carolina. I was fortunate enough to return home right before Hurricane Mathew shut down most of the airports on the East Coast. The weather was lovely while I was there, the food was delicious and much time was spent appreciating the pastel coloured houses downtown and visiting plantations. But one of the things I was most excited to investigate was Charleston's antique and vintage scene. We visited a number of thrift shops, a few antique stores and even dropped by a couple of estate sales; which is something we don't have here in the UK. American thrift shops are so very different from British charity shops. We visited three Goodwill branches as well as Animal Helpers Retail and the Children’s Cancer Society Thrift Store over in West Ashley. While there were fewer than I expected, they were all much bigger than the average British Red Cross branch. Big enough to provide shopping trolleys or baskets. I did find a few bits and pieces to bring home, but strangely enough, the Goodwills write the prices on the items themselves rather than on stickers. While the prices scrubbed off glass, I wasn't able to remove them from the wooden and ceramic pieces I bought. Fortunately, the prices had been written in discreet places where they wouldn't be seen. The Goodwills were impressive in size, but I found the bric-a-brac sections to be lacking. There was a lot of empty shelf space, but I daresay this is down to a lack of donations. However, the Children's Cancer Society store was easily the largest that we visited and the shelves were piled high. Animal Helpers Retail, which was a little smaller than the others, also had a lovely selection of stuff. A baby blue 1960s Singer sewing machine caught my eye, but alas, anything I bought had to fit in my suitcase. Aside from treasure hunting, we combed Sullivan's Island beach for shells, drank many a mango black tea lemonade and ate wonderful, usually cheesy, food. I've shared some of my favourite holiday snaps below.
