Tag: GA

Amy has been putting our mirror space to good use; it became her whiteboard for the family schedule while we were in Charleston this week:

The weather toggled between sunny and cloudy, but on Wednesday it rained and rained and rained all day and all night long.

On Wednesday night we had gen-u-ine lowcountry frogmore stew: fresh, local boiled shrimp, smoked sausage, corn and potatoes:

On Friday afternoon, we drove into downtown Charleston to visit a former slave mart. This was the first of many stops where I would struggle to fully comprehend that the buying and selling of human inventory actually happened.

After the slave museum, we visited the Fort Sumter National Monument. For you Civil War newbs, Ft. Sumter was where the first shots of the Civil War were fired in 1861.

We didn’t actually go see Ft. Sumter, as this required a pricey boat ride across the water, and there’s not much remaining of the original fort. But we could see it from afar, and the museum we visited was enough to rekindle my interest in Civil War history.

We spent Friday evening walking around downtown Charleston:

It was pretty cool seeing all of the old uppity houses, many of which date from the 1700’s (and a few from the 1600’s):

It had been a full day already, but that night Natalie and I did about 2 hours of Christmas shopping at a nearby mall:

On Saturday we visited Boone Hall Plantation, one of the oldest and longest-working (still working, in fact) plantations in the US. Check out the long driveway that leads to the house…sort of Forest Gump-ish, no?

Nine of the original slave houses (built in 1790) are still standing:

We learned that these were the “nicer” slave houses, reserved for those with more valued skills.

Natalie was freaked out by the manequins and preferred to stay outside:

There were lots of artifacts like this from the slave era that are simply hard to understand, hard to accept:

The main house was nice and certainly interesting, but it was the 4th house to occupy this site and built in 1937.  I was hoping to see an antebellum house of the pre-Civil War era.

We left Charleston and drove a couple hours to Hunting Island State Park. Along the way, we made one stop that Amy rarely passes up:

Carrie and Amy decorating a real wreath (picked up from the local farmer’s market) the closest thing we have to a Christmas tree in the RV. It smells wonderful!

Last night was our annual Christmas viewing of Elf:

Amy and I took an early morning walk on the beach this morning, just a short distance from our campsite. This gets my vote for the absolute best sign of the trip:

I rescued a crab out of a washed up crab trap on the beach. He did not seem very grateful.

Our campsite this morning, amidst the tall pine and palm trees:

The sun started to burn through the mist and created some really cool lighting. This looks almost like a video game to me:

After breakfast, it was time for our weekly Sunday morning hike. This type of terrain and foliage is known as a “maritime forrest.” It felt very jungle-y.

We came upon this cool lighthouse, but we didn’t have any money to go up in it (yet).

Our trail continued toward the ocean…

…and off came the shoes:

Good thing, because it was high tide — very high tide — and we had to find our own path through the water:

We eventually made it to the beach and had great time walking along the water:

Before leaving the park, we drove back to the lighthouse with our $2/person entrance fees:

As one would expect from a lighthouse, it was a nice view!

We drove to Savannah GA today and made it to our campground just before dark:

Tomorrow will be a normal work/school day, but on Tuesday we’ll explore downtown Savannah and then leave town on Wednesday. We want to be in Florida by Friday!