Life on Paws and Wheels

Simba and I visited the Giant's Causeway Pillar in Charleston, South Carolina , an unusual piece of Northern Ireland hiding in plain sight along Meeting Street. Sitting outside historic Hibernian Hall at 105 Meeting Street , this strange chunk of polygonal volcanic rock would be incredibly easy to walk past without realizing what it is. This isn't simply an Irish-themed sculpture or a modern replica. The pillar is identified as an actual section of basalt from the famous Giant's Causeway in County Antrim, Northern Ireland — one of the world's most extraordinary natural geological formations. That means a physical piece of the rugged Northern Irish coastline somehow traveled thousands of miles across the Atlantic before arriving in Charleston during the 19th century. And, of course, Simba and I had to check it out! 🐾 🪨 A Piece of the Giant's Causeway in Charleston Charleston is filled with grand historic homes, churches, monuments, gardens, and other landmarks tha...

Simba and I visited the Old Slave Mart at 6 Chalmers Street in Charleston, South Carolina , a surviving physical connection to one of the darkest chapters in Charleston and American history. Behind its distinctive arched entrance is a building believed to be the only known surviving structure in South Carolina that was actually used as a slave-auction gallery . The relatively small building is easy to pass while exploring Charleston's historic streets, but its appearance today doesn't convey the scale of what once surrounded it. During the years immediately preceding the Civil War, it formed part of Ryan's Mart , a much larger slave-trading complex containing an enclosed yard, jail, kitchen, infirmary, and other facilities used to confine enslaved people before their sale. Most of that complex disappeared long ago. The Chalmers Street auction gallery survived, leaving an extraordinarily important reminder of a system in which men, women, and children were bought and sold as...

Simba and I visited the Stede Bonnet Hanging Site in Charleston, South Carolina , the area where the infamous “Gentleman Pirate” met his end at the gallows more than 300 years ago. Today, a stone memorial inside White Point Garden commemorates Bonnet and the dozens of pirates executed in Charleston during an extraordinary crackdown on piracy in 1718. Stede Bonnet was anything but a typical pirate. He was a wealthy Barbados landowner with a wife, children, and seemingly comfortable life when he abruptly abandoned it all and became a pirate captain despite having little maritime experience. Less than two years later, after crossing paths with Blackbeard, accepting a pardon, returning to piracy, fighting a six-hour battle, escaping custody, and being captured again, Bonnet found himself standing beneath a Charleston gallows. His strange rise and spectacular fall make him one of the most fascinating characters from the Golden Age of Piracy . And Simba got to explore the place where his s...