Day 21: A Fort and Several Churches

The drive from Savannah, Georgia to Charleston, South Carolina was pleasant after getting through the port area of Savannah.  We have never seen so many containers piled on top of each other.  And at one intersection there were about 20 long haul trucks coming out of the docks both ways ever stop light.  Thankfully they were going a different direction than us.  There are disadvantages to avoiding freeways!

We arrived in Charleston at 11am which was an awkward time for what we wanted to do.  We had tickets to take a boat and land tour of Fort Sumpter for 1pm.  This didn't give us enough time to do anything else (the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier was right there) and there weren't any places to eat.  This did not deter us though--we ate out of our stash in the car, straightened up the car some, and looked at static displays of different big war guns.

The tour of Fort Sumpter was interesting, but the boat ride-which was 45 minutes each way-didn't give much information.  The fort itself was also interesting and we were thankful that a park ranger gave a very thorough history upon arrival and before we wandered around.  It was good to know that what the fort looks like today is not at all what it was like during the Civil War.  It was pretty much destroyed at the beginning of the war when the Confederates took it from the Union in 1861.  It was rebuilt only to be destroyed by the Union when they recaptured it in May 1865. So thankful for the history lesson.

After arriving back at the car, Karen wanted to go into Old Charleston.  The streets are incredibly narrow in the old part of town, but we found a parking spot and started walking in the "shopping" section.  Karen spied a church steeple and off we went to see it up close and personal.  We had put 38 minutes in our parking meter so we walked and looked at, and took pictures of 5 churches in that 38 minutes.  We also walked 1 1/4 miles in that time.  We treated ourselves to some wonderful Freddo gelato when we got back to the car--there was a little shop adjacent to where we parked.  We would recommend Freddos if there is one near you.

Found a laundromat less than a mile away (on a very narrow street) and now we have clean clothes again!  Then off to a grocery store for the second time in two days to get deli-dinner to take back to the room.  Aren't we the fancy eaters?  Didn't get to our hotel until almost 7:30--late for us and we were very tired.  

Fun day--got sun burned.