TRJF's 4,000-Mile Road Trip!!!

[TheRealJoeFish]

Day 2: Charleston, West Virginia (Part 2: Downtown)
The Capitol is on the east side of Charleston; there's about a 2 mile mostly residential stretch separating the historic area from the commercial centers. Downtown Charleston was rather empty for the decent number of stores and restaurants (it looked to me like the sort of city that would be brilliantly vibrant if it could just convince about 10,000 millennials to move in).

Pictures:

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This is where many of the people were. The Town Center Mall was the largest downtown mall east of the Mississippi when it opened in the early 1980s. It was nearly a quarter-mile long and has just under a million square feet of shopping space. I took some interior pictures but they don't really get the size across, so this will have to do.

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There was a cute little concert going on at a riverfront amphitheater! I think it was actually the sound check for a bigger concert later, but they were playing for the couple dozen people who had gathered.

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Bridge and river. South Charleston's on that side of the river.

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The end of the planet's good old days: when people started drilling for gas instead of salt.

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A thirty-some foot tall sculpture of (I think) a microscope in front of the Clay Center for Arts and Sciences!

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And, to close out my Charleston day, I took in a ball game at Appalachian Power Park, home of the West Virginia Power (the Pittsburgh Pirates' Single-A affiliate).

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I sat in the third row to watch the Power play the Greensville Drive (Red Sox Affiliate).

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Enjoy!!! Cincinnati tomorrow!