This vacation was taken at a time when Missy was in Michigan visiting family and friends.

We left Cary around 9:30 and arrived in Charleston around 2:00. The

Eric took this picture of our tent in the morning light

290 miles can be driven in 4˝ hours because the speed limit is 65 or 70 all the way. By the time we found a campsite in James Island County Park and pitched our tent it was after 4:00. Before leaving for Charleston, we hemmed and hawed about camping or staying in a hotel. There are a lot of inexpensive hotels around Charleston but we chose to camp. We didn't do any cooking at our campsite (so we lost that benefit of camping) and the bugs were plentiful and biting (we didn't protect ourselves or our tent well the first night and as a result received over 100 gnat and mosquito bites between us) but sleeping outdoors helped us to retire and rise early.

The closest beach to our campground was on Folly Island so we headed to the Folly Island County Park and hit the sand and saltwater. The waves were small so the boogie boarding wasn't good but the water was surprisingly warm (76^o) so playing in it was fun. Eric loves the beach. We stayed on it until the parking lot was closing (7:00). Back at camp we showered, dined, then slept (providing a feast for hungry gnats).

We hit Folly Island Beach our first day

We drove across Charleston then over the Cooper River bridge to Mount Pleasant

The Yorktown down the barrel of a Civil War cannon

and spent the day at "The World's Largest Naval & Maritime Museum," Patriots Point. Patriots Point includes four ships, 20 aircraft, a Medal of Honor Museum, and a true-to-scale Vietnam Naval Support Base. We spent seven hours at Patriots Point, about half that time touring the Aircraft Carrier Yorktown "The Fighting Lady." The Yorktown was commissioned in April 1943 and decommissioned in 1970 after having served in wars from WWII to Vietnam. The island superstructure wasn't open (the structure on a carrier that rises above the flight deck) and that was about the only part of the ship open to the public we didn't visit. There are seven well marked tours. On them we saw the:

• Crew's living and working spaces (a carrier is a floating city of 3,500 people so nearly every type of good or service you can find in a small town can be found on board)
• Flight deck with a dozen aircraft including an F-14 Tomcat and F4 Phantom (Eric sat in a flight deck gunner's seat and raised and lowered the antiaircraft guns)

Eric on the Yorktown's flight deck

He was kept from running off by the same cable used to snag planes

• Gallery deck which had many rooms and displays set up to honor other aircraft carriers, WWII battleships and cruisers, and the Japanese Imperial Navy. These exhibits included photographs, artifacts (e.g., debris from kamikaze planes some of which were converted into jewelry), models (some twenty feet long), and stories about the ships, battles, and crew. We could have spent a lot more time perusing these items but then we would not have had time to see the rest of the museum.
• Pilots' briefing room
• Bomb fusing and rocket assembly area
• Brig (jail cells had bunks to sleep three and nothing else in them; no toilet or sink)
• Hangar bay which includes several more aircraft and a Mercury capsule

While on board the Yorktown, we rode in a flight simulator. This was one of Eric's most and least favorite things we did. The quick turns of the simulator were intimidating to him but he was also drawn to the "flying" and accomplishment of having done the ride.

From the Yorktown we boarded the Destroyer Laffey (which was also named for a ship sunk earlier in WWII). Commissioned in February 1944, the Laffey participated in the Normandy invasion then cruised to the Pacific to contribute to the liberation of the Philippines, the first carrier strikes on Tokyo, and the Iwo Jima and Okinawa landing operations. While escorting carriers (including the Yorktown) off Okinawa on April 16, 1945, Laffey was attacked by 22 Japanese bombers and kamikazes. Five kamikazes and three bombs hit her killing or wounding nearly a third of her 336 man crew. Still, her crew managed to keep her afloat (earning her the nickname, "the ship that wouldn't sink") and shoot down eleven attackers. Laffey participated in the Korean War and operated in the Atlantic and Mediterranean until decommissioned in 1975.

After touring Laffey, we toured the adjacent Coast Guard Cutter Ingham. We didn't realize the Coast Guard sent ships into foreign waters to participate in wars but that is what the Ingham did. She sank a U-boat during WWII and was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for duty off Vietnam.

The last vessel we toured was the diesel-powered submarine Clamagore.

By the torpedoes and their tubes in the Clamagore

Commissioned a few months before the end of WWII she served until 1975 apparently participating only in defense of the US east coast. Eric enjoyed this "walk straight through it" tour so much that he did it three times (including once in the wrong direction).

As we headed across a pier to the Vietnam Naval Support Base, we spied a blue heron (or other similarly shaped and colored bird) crabbing along the water's edge. It snagged a ghost crab and shook and squeezed it until the shell cracked and the crab stopped flailing its claws and legs. Then the bird swallowed the crab whole.

The Vietnam exhibit includes a River Patrol Boat, ammunition bunker, jeep, gun and observation tower, helicopters, and weaponry (including homemade Viet Cong weapons). We chatted with a veteran whose brother lost a leg while serving on a River Patrol Boat. His boat was blown up killing all others aboard.

At the souvenir store we bought a toy aircraft carrier as well as a small piece of the flight deck of the Yorktown. We admired the Yorktown one more time from the parking lot, viewing it over the barrels of Civil War cannon aimed at it, then headed to a beach on the Isle of Palms. While lathering up with sunscreen, we noticed the many bug bites on our bodies. (We would get some bug repellent before the day was done). The water was again temperate and the waves small. On the beach we built a sandcastle incorporating some driftwood into our design, then bombed it with sandballs. With no public bathrooms nearby, Eric took a dump in a rather large pool of standing saltwater. We thought it rather disgusting and funny.

We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant. This established a trend we followed throughout our Charleston vacation. During the day we'd have quick (from our cooler), cold, small meals of some combination of cereal (dry or with soy milk), bagels, soy cheese sandwiches, hummus, bread, fruit, and peanuts; then in the evening we'd have a large Chinese restaurant meal.

Back at the campground we took our evening shower (freeing up the morning for a quicker start) sprayed our tent with bug repellent, than settled down for a bite-free(?) sleep.
 

From the Charleston City Marina, we left for a boat ride to Fort Sumter. The ride is very scenic as it cruises along the Charleston waterfront, passing within sight of Patriots Point and the Cooper River bridges.

Construction of Fort Sumter (named in honor of Thomas Sumter, a South Carolina general during the Revolutionary War) included building an island on which to place the fort. Over 70,000 tons of rock were placed on a shoal to provide a pentagonal foundation. Fort Sumter wasn't yet ready for battle when, in December 1860, six days after South Carolina announced it had seceded from the Union, Federal troops occupied it (seeing it as more defensible than their previous station at nearby Fort Moultrie). Enraged Charlestonians saw this as an act of aggression and refused to let the fort be re-supplied by Federal ships (for two months they had allowed the Union forces to be provided with fresh meats and vegetables from the city). With supply ships again in route to Sumter, Confederate forces fired the first shots of the Civil War. Severely outgunned and outmanned, Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort after 34 hours of battle.

Fort Sumter became a Confederate stronghold and symbol for the rest of the Civil War. It withstood 22 months of Federal siege and bombardment which hurled seven million pounds of metal at it. Its rubble became part of its defense along with projectile absorbing sand and cotton continually replaced by slaves and Southern workers. Looking no more than a mound, Fort Sumter was stronger than ever when, on February 17, 1865, it was evacuated as Gen. William Sherman's troops advanced north from Savannah towards Charleston.

"What's that round thing in there?"

This projectile in Sumter's wall was fired into it during the Civil War

Unfortunately, sightseeing time on Fort Sumter is limited to one hour--which is inadequate to tour the fort, appreciate the museum, and visit the gift shop. We were the last ones in the gift shop and on the boat, running down the pier while the tour boat waited for us.

Back in Charleston, we drove from the Marina to the old part of town and had a picnic lunch in beautiful Waterfront Park; with Fort Sumter before us on the right, the aircraft carrier Yorktown on our left. We walked through the park, got some Italian ice then headed to the Old Exchange Building and Provost Dungeon. This history rich building is called "The Independence Hall of South Carolina." It was built in 1771 on the site of a building that once held pirate Stede Bonner. The history of this building also includes:

• It was the place from which South Carolina declared independence from Great Britain in March of 1776
• Its basement served as a dungeon for local American Patriots during English occupation of Charleston from 1780-82 (during that time 5 tons of gunpowder, hidden by colonial General William Moultrie behind a false wall in the dungeon, went undiscovered)
• It was the building in which South Carolina ratified the US Constitution in 1788
• It was where George Washington partied for a week in 1791.

For many people, one of the best things to do in Charleston is to take a walking tour through the charming old part of town. There are many historic mansions available to tour. Preferring to spend our time and energy elsewhere, we only walked a few blocks (around rainbow row--a dozen row homes in different shades of pastel colors) before heading to the Charleston Visitor Center and nearby Museum.

The visitor center had something we hadn't seen before: an aquarium of about 30 jellyfish. The Charleston Museum is the oldest museum in the

A lifesize replica of the Confederate submarine Hunley

US (1773). It was currently hosting the Queens & Commoners of Egypt's New Kingdom exhibit on loan from the British Museum. We went through that exhibit rather quickly but moved more slowly through the history part of the museum (much of that was old weaponry including Revolutionary War cannons and a variety of unique swords and guns). We watched a one hour video about the CSS Hunley, the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel. There is a full-scale replica of the Civil War era Hunley outside the museum and in 1995, the actual wreck of the Hunley was found in Charleston's harbor. Work is underway to bring it to the surface; a long and difficult task.

As the museum closed we left for Folly Island beach. We stayed there until we were kicked out due to the parking lot closing. We ate Chinese, showered, and bedded down in a campground that was now crawling with boy and girl scouts (it was a little loud but that didn't stop us from falling asleep).
 

Entering Fort Moultrie
(the flag is halfmast for Memorial Day)

Though only a few years old, the visitor center at Fort Moultrie was closed for renovations. A nearby mobile home was used as a souvenir stand and ticket office. This site was free the previous times we visited it, but National Parks Services are in general charging the public more for visiting the sites they preserve. We fully endorse that direction.

Fort Moultrie is on Sullivan's Island not far from Patriot's Point. A military post for more than 170 years, the fort was first used during the Revolutionary War and is the site where colonists scored one of their first victories over the British. After fighting off nine British warships, the fort was named in honor of its commander William Moultrie. Three years later the British again attacked Charleston, this time circumventing Fort Moultrie and capturing the city and the fort (after many of its defenders left to fight the British in the city). Moultrie was rebuilt twice during the early 19th century and it participated in the shelling of Fort Sumter that ignited the American Civil War. It was last used as a military base during WWII when it served as a lookout post for enemy vessels (particularly U-boats) that might seek to sink ships near Charleston's port. An additional structure, Battery Jasper, was built to aid in this purpose. (The battery is painted black to minimize glare).

We toured the fort visiting its underground powder rooms and latter day control center. Our favorite part was "working" the cannons. There are early Civil War era cannon (unbanded and smooth bore), later Civil War cannon (banded and rifled to enable projectiles to be fired with greater distance and accuracy), and WWII cannon along its walls and paths and we would imagine responsibility for manning the fort while under attack. One of the cannons on the fort is aimed at a neighbor's house 150 feet away. We wondered what it's like to look out your window and see a cannon on a fort pointed directly at you? Curt's favorite field piece was a 9 ton mortar.

Eric by a WWII era cannon

Curt by his favorite mortar

While touring Battery Jasper, Eric was bombed--by a bird (probably a seagull). The poop landed on his head with a thump! War is hell.

We had mess on a grass hill along the parking lot at Moultrie, not far from where William Moultrie is buried. As we ate cereal with soy milk out of metal camper's cups, we drew smiles from passersby.

After lunch, we headed to Isle of Palms County Park and the beach. The place had a huge Memorial Day crowd. The beach is long and gently sloping and the waves were high. We had a great time in the water and on the sand. Eric would catch some waves on his boogie board that carried him 100 feet before depositing him on the sand. Eric made friends with a girl who boogie boarded alongside him and a boy who was building elaborate sandcastle dikes.

We spent five hours on the beach until it was nearly closing time for the park. The weather, this day as every day on our vacation, was wonderful. Bright, sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-80's. The downside of this day was we got sunburned. Sunburn is especially nasty on top of itchy insect bites. We occasionally donned baseball caps and T-shirts when not in the water for added protection from the sun after having lathered up (for the second time that day) with SPF 50 lotion that "lasts 8 hours" and bills itself as waterproof and sweatproof. That night Curt noticed on the back of the lotion tube, "apply frequently." Why?!? If it "lasts 8 hours" and doesn't come off, why keep applying it? Shabby product and shabbier labeling
 

Our last day in Charleston was to be an outdoors water one.  (So it was especially unfortunate that we got sunburned the previous day). We drove 15 miles to Beachwalker Park on Kiawah Island. The Kiawah beach is, according to the local tourist information, the nicest beach in the Charleston area. We didn't see much difference between the beaches. The waves here were good for boogie boarding (Eric had more rides of 100 feet).

On the beach we found a live spider crab and a dead jellyfish. The crab's body was golf-ball sized and prickly. The lifeguard said he hadn't seen any live ones before. That these crabs stay on the ocean's bottom and only hit the beach when the fishing/crabbing boats drag them up. This one survived the dragging. Curt took the crab back out to sea.

The jellyfish became King Jelly, ruler of Jellyfish Castle. We built

Jellyfish Castle. Note King Jelly perched atop it and Eric standing ready with a slew of sandballs

the sandcastle and lined its wall with "cannons" made of seaweed straws that had washed up on the beach. King Jelly was perched atop the castle. Then we made cannonballs out of sand and bombed the fort into rubble. (Sandball bombs that landed on King Jelly bounced off his royal head like a rubberball).

During our last boogie boarding of the vacation, Curt had taken Eric more than 100 feet out to sea (though the water was still only chest high). Suddenly, Curt felt an undercurrent pulling him out further. He struggled to walk against it. As we were some of the very few people in the water on this non-holiday weekday and were consciously staying in front of the lifeguard, we figured we could get help if needed. As it turned out we didn't need the help. Curt took the recommended action and walked on an angle toward the beach (not directly against the undertow).

Around 1:00 we headed towards Splash Zone, the small water park located near our campground. We spent about four hours there. Splash Zone has two inner tube slides, a lazy river, a pool, and a children's play area. The latter was the most impressive children's area we've seen at a waterpark. It had three slides and was loaded with contraptions that shoot water; all of which are controllable by the "kids" playing there ("kids" includes adults too). The enclosed inner tube ride was the first one Eric had ever gone on alone. He was nervous at first but enjoyed it after his first time down. As this was a weekday in early June, the place was rather empty. There were no lines. For the tube and lazy river rides all you do is bring your tube to the water and get in (though at the tube you might have a 30 second wait or so until the previous rider moved away from the bottom of the slide).

Eric rippin' down a slide

The kids' zone at Splash Zone

We left just before the park closed at 6:00 and packed up our campsite. On the drive to Charleston, we had talked about buying fireworks in South Carolina. On the drive home, Eric--while trying to fall asleep-- remembered that when he saw a billboard advertising fireworks. We stopped at South of the Border and bought some. We arrived home shortly before midnight but Curt didn't go to bed until he pitched the tent and laid out the tarp to dry. Somehow they had maintained moisture through the hot, dry 90^o day.

Our wonderful vacation, wonderful even without Missy, had come to an end.

© 1999 frantzml@juno.com