Let's face it. We all want to be the best we can be. But do you really know what you need to do to make your body run properly? To make it function as God intended? To make yourself look and feel younger? To feel good and to have great energy so you can focus on living the life you dreamed? Well, what you need in your life is balance. 

A small word with big meaning that permeates almost every aspect of our lives. Most of us try to find this balance, especially when it comes to food and drink...

106 Tradd is a single house -- but one with a difference. Yes, it's still one room wide, but it is one of the few early residences built with a side hall. As you can see, the front door is not a false door leading to a piazza. This front door opens into the side hall. The typical single house built before 1800 had its main doorway on the side, usually in the center.

The house at 106 Tradd Street was built around 1772 by Colonel John Stuart. Stuart, originally from Scotland, became an important man in Charles Town before the American Revolution; in 1762, he was appointed the King's superintendent...

As we continue exploring Tradd Street, we’ll visit number 126 (next door to the Humphrey Sommers House we visited last week), which was built around 1732 by Alexander Smith. In 1790, Dr. Peter Fayssoux and his wife Ann became owners of the property. Dr. Fayssoux, born in Charles Town, was of French Huguenot heritage; he was one of many Huguenots in Charles Town who rose to prominence and served his city and community well.

A fun thing for photography enthusiasts to try is long exposure photography, which is a cool technique that allows you to capture contrast in motion. For instance, if you’re shooting the pier at Folly Beach with this technique, the waves will appear milky and smooth, which looks really cool against the static pier. Most people just think of the contrast between colors or between light and shadow when creating a composition, but the contrast between something in motion and something still can also be really beautiful.

Tradd Street spans the width of the peninsula; if there weren't any houses, you could probably stand in the center and see the Ashley River at one end and the Cooper River at the other end. Seeing 128 Tradd and the surrounding area today, it is difficult to imagine that when the house was built in 1765, it would have overlooked a creek and the marshes of the Ashley River.

4 Logan Street is the grand antebellum house between Tradd and Broad Streets. (The Latin "ante bellum" means "before the war"; in Charleston and throughout the South, the word antebellum specifically refers to the period before the Civil War.) Built in 1852, 4 Logan survived the last great Charleston fire in December 1861, which ravaged Charleston almost a year to the date of South Carolina's secession from the Union on December 20, 1860.

If you have a love for dirt on your shoes, crinkled maps in your pockets, and facing the wild, then we may have found your haven! (This is assuming, of course, that all these attributes are because you are enjoying the outdoors and not, let’s say, a hobo map hoarder).  The Charleston Hiking, Travel, and Adventure Club has done everything from swimming with manatees to moonlit walks on the beach. 

David Loveland is the current leader of the group, founded in 2009, that focuses on seeking exploring the world, and having a group to share the experience with.

69 Meeting Street is one of my favorite houses in Charleston. Dr. John Poyas built this rather grand single house (one room wide, two rooms deep) on a large double lot around 1800.

The house commands our attention for several reasons. First, it stands alone with no close neighbor to the north except...

The Latin American Festival will be going on this Sunday, Oct. 15 and it’s the perfect event to take your friends, family, or even that one lame cousin that insists on hanging out with you all the time but only wants to talk about his model plane collection. Now you have something to take them to where you can “lose them” in the crowd! 

Aside from being an excuse to ditch your cousin, the Latin American Festival will be hopping with flavor, sassy trumpets, salsa sways, and a rich cultural history you can experience and learn about, all in one event.

Built in 1712, the Powder Magazine located at 21 Cumberland Street is the oldest public building still surviving in Charleston. It is also, in my opinion, the most medieval-looking building in Charleston -- a relatively small, thick, stuccoed building with a vaulted roof of pan tiles.

One look at the Powder Magazine and I am transported to an earlier age when Charles Town was one of three walled cities in North America...