Tuesday, 22 August, Greenville, SC: City parks and a ball park

Written 24 October 2017

On Tuesday, the South Carolina contingent of Sinnetts undertook to show us more of downtown Greenville, especially its lovely streetscapes and the beautiful chain of parks that winds through it.

We started in Falls Park on the Reedy River. From this vantage-point on the bridge, we made our way down to the broad sidewalk you see below and continued in the direction of the three pedestrians in the photo.

As we approached the tall buildings in the distance, we came to this wonderful feature—a railroad track painted on the sidewalk and leading to a metal sculpture of a locomotive emerging from a tunnel. The little girl in pink is playing in a series of tiny fountains that spout up from the tracks for the delight of children.

Here's a closer view of the metal locomotive.

At the right is a plaque I spotted elsewhere in town, set in a sidewalk, relating the history of railroad service to Greenville and indicating the location of the Greenville & Columbia Passenger Depot, where the first passenger train pulled into town in December of 1853. I think the painted tracks trace part of the line's route.

For lunch, our party divided between two adjacent lunch places on the terrace above the waterfall and painted railroad tracks: O-Cha Tea Bar and Papi's tacos.

We were in the tea bar party, where the food wasn't bad but the service was so erratic that Rachel had finished her Caprese salad (right) before my sandwich (left) even arrived. In the meantime, I enjoyed a mango milk bubble tea and explained it to David, who had never seen a bubble tea before.

Another quirk of the place was that they made all their breads and pastries from scratch on the premises, so the croissant sandwiches were served on breads that were undeniably crescent-shaped but otherwise bore no resemblance to the French vinnoiserie version.

After lunch, we walked back the other way, downstream, at the terrace level, admiring the ornamental plantings. I got these views of the Liberty Bridge, a spectacular curved suspension footbridge across the river bed. At the left, you can see it curving across the stream at tree-top level.

As we passed under the bridge on the near bank (right-hand photo), we could see more of the structure that supports it. A single huge pylon stands beside the bridge, on the outside side of the curve and leans sharply away from the bridge, guyed by huge cables. Other cables from the top of the pylon pull the bridge toward it, to maintain the curve.

On our right as we passed below the bridge was this hillside amphitheater with a round stage.

From there, we made our way up a garden path to the end of the bridge and out to the middle, where I got this view of another cascade of the river, with children playing on the rocks.

We then returned to the same end of the bridge and continued our downstream walk. Where the path curved away from the main channel to follow a smaller branch, we followed it along Furman College Way. On a bank below the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Sciences, we passed this amazing beech tree clinging by its teeth and toenails, as it were, to the eroding soil. The sign at its foot says essentially, "Don't even think about carving your initials or anything else on these roots!"

Near the end of the park, we pass this column of purple lumps of glass, made by famous glass blower Dale Chihuly. It is apparently called the "Chihuly Statue." I found it less to my taste than most of his other work.

At this point, the South Carolina contingent had other commitments, so the group was down to Rachel and Ev, David, and me. Ev (die-hard Red Sox fan) especially wanted to see the local ball park. The Greenville Drive is a Red Sox affiliate, and their stadium, Fluor Field, is a scaled-down replica of Fenway Park (the Red Sox home field in Boston), complete with short left field and huge green wall (nicknamed "the green monster") designed to discourage hitters from taking advantage of it to hit "cheap" home runs. Rachel, on the other hand, wanted to shop for eclipse-souvenir t-shirts, so after pausing for a much needed cold drink in a local eatery, we parted ways, and Rachel started back toward downtown along a shopping street. Agreeing to meet us later at the fountain outside the Poinsett Hotel (which the Sinnetts remembered well from a previous visit; Julia's wedding reception was held there).

After a considerable hike away from the center of town (during which I encountered the red-framed tile railroad marker shown above), we indeed arrived at the stadium. The bollards preventing vehicles from drive onto the plaza in front of it were shaped like giant baseballs, four of them, evenly spaced across the front.

Between the two center ones was this statue of favorite son Shoeless Joe Jackson.

We couldn't really see into the stadium itself; it was locked up, and it was not designed to let people outside the gates (i.e., who had not bought tickets) watch anything very interesting. I could see that the snack bar inside was called "Sweet Caroline's."

The map at the left shows the layout. The green trapezoid above the word "Fluor" on the north edge of the field is the Green Monster.

Once we'd seen everything we could there, we walked back along Main Street toward downtown and our rendezvous.

Within sight of the fountain that was our destination, we came upon a guided segway tour at its last stop and paused to listen to the guide's spiel. Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice chat with him about the local area.

Other statues in the area included the one at the left of Dr. Charles Hard Townes, Templeton Prize Winner 2005 and designated one of the world's most influential 1,000 men of the past 1,000 years. He is shown in the act of revealing his equation for the laser and maser principle, which forever changed the world.

At the right is Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779–1851), statesman, diplomat, naturalist (for whom the Poinsett hotel was named). He founded the institution that became the forerunner of the Smithsonian, served as Secretary of War, and while serving as the first United States Minister to Mexico, collected a nice plant with red flowers and brought it home to the U.S. It was named Poinsettia pulcherrima in his honor and is the common Christmas poinsettia.

For dinner, Jay and Pam, Ev and Rachel, David, and I gathered at Soby's, a locally popular upscale restaurant in the center of Greenville. At the left is the view of the restaurant from the hostess stand at the entrance. To reach our table, we walked down a few steps to the area where you can see all the diners' heads.

We were in South Carolina, so of course I started with she-crab soup, which was one of the best renditions I'd ever had.

Ev ordered the regional southern cheese board, which held three cheeses, a yellowish, hard dry one; slices of a camembert-like one; and a blue. It came garnished with toasted baguette slices, a comet of strawberry jam, thinly sliced pickled vegetables and whole pickled okra, and a handful of Marcona almonds.

My main course was one of the daily specials: rare grilled venison steak over faro with greens and roasted vegetables. Excellent.

Pam ordered the southern vegetable plate, which consisted of herb polenta surrounded by roasted Brussels sprouts, stewed Sea Island red peas, roasted butternut squash, and "upcountry succotash" (baby limas, tomatoes, carrots, and corn. She didn't think much of the red peas but said the rest was delicious.

Again, because we were in South Carolina, Rachel ordered shrimp and grits and declared them delicious.

Jay's choice was the seared mountain trout with Carolina Gold rice, snap peas, baby carrots, and orange fennel emulsion.

David had the bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin, with mashed potatoes, broccolini, and habañero cream sauce, also excellent.

We were happy enough with the meal, and intrigued enough by other menu items that we didn't get to order, that Rachel and I jointly bought the restaurant's cookbook. I'm reading it now, and I'll take it up to Rockville when we go in December.

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