Another beautiful day in Charleston

Another great day!  Perfectly clear and 70 degrees.  We began the day at a small restaurant called the Early Bird.  The Early Bird has actually been featured on the Food Network for the dish we tried today... chicken and waffles.  Yep, you read right.

Chicken & Waffles.  Breakfast of Champions!

The combination didn't really make it, as far as we are concerned.  The chicken was, however, out of this world delicious.

After breakfast, we traveled back to the historic district to take a carriage tour.

The company we used, Old South Carriage Tours, was highly rated and rightfully so.  We learned a lot on our one-hour tour.  For example, in the Old South, the kitchen was separated from the main house due to fire hazard.  This picture is a good example:

Brick building in lower left was the kitchen for the main house on the right

Well, the slaves who carried the food from the detached kitchen to the main house were known to occasionally help themselves to a sample.  To remedy this practice, the owners required the slaves to whistle while bringing food in... you can't eat if your whistling!  This lead to the phrase "whistle while you work."  I looked it up and it's actually true.  Though less certain, one explanation for the word "hushpuppy" is that these corn treats were used to silence the dogs that naturally came running when the slaves were whistling while carrying tasty delights.

Many other interesting stories and photos, but they'll have to wait.  Below is a photo of Janice saying goodbye to our carriage horse, Amos.  Why use draft horses?  The law requires the weight of the animal(s) pulling the carriage to be at least 1,800 pounds.  The weight isn't really needed to pull the carriage... it's needed to stop it!  That's why you see only one draft horse pulling some carriages, while it takes two mules or quarter horses to make the weight limit.

You oughta see Amos parallel park!  He's awesome!