On the Move, Part 1

SEASONS has been on the move lately. On May 1st we were in Savannah, GA and by June 1st we had moved 1062 miles up the east coast to Staten Island, NY. That’s an average of 35 miles a day. There were a few stops of more than one night, but otherwise a pretty aggressive schedule. The reason is we wanted to spend some time in the New York area with friends and my son Greg who works in Oyster Bay, NY. Then the plan is to spend most of July in the North Channel.

So this blog, will just be some of the highlights we enjoyed along the way.

Beaufort, SC is a beautiful city with a small town feel. There was a food festival and art night in the downtown area on the week end we arrived. Each little studio and shop stayed open later than normal and served wine, beer and appetizers to visitors. We stopped at one artist co-op and found a gentleman who worked in Glass.

Dorothy is into Sea Turtles ever since our visit to the Turtle Hospital in Marathon. We really liked a piece in progress, Marty Nash ( Pinto Bean Studio) was creating. The serving tray is of a Sea Turtle and is Green on White.   We bought the piece before it was finished and asked him to ship the tray to us along the way. He wanted to adjust the head a little, so before and after pictures of the tray.

We rode our bikes over this bridge a few times to get to from the marina to the other side to downtown Beaufort.

Sunset at Lady of Isle Marina- Beaufort, SC

We did a lot of walking in Charleston, SC and to many sites and historic spots to list that we visited.

Dorothy’s friend Sophie came to visit and we were able to spend some time on the boat and out for a great dinner at High Cotton.

Fort Sumter: The first Shot, April 12, 1861 started the Civil War.  I have enjoyed learning all the history about the Civil War as we travel. So when we arrived in Charleston, SC, a trip to Fort Sumter was on the list. The best part of the visit was the National Park Service Ranger. He was a great story teller and took us back to the political atmosphere before the war started.

The fort is fairly well preserved and was modernized during World War II.

The Fort Sumter Flag is a historic United States flag with a distinctive, diamond-shaped pattern of 33 stars. When the main flagpole was felled by a shot during the bombardment of Fort Sumter by Confederate forces, Second Lieutenant Norman Hall rushed to retrieve the flag and remount it on a makeshift pole. The flag was lowered by Major Robert Anderson on April 14, 1861 when he surrendered Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, at the outset of the American Civil War.

Anderson brought the flag to New York City for an April 20, 1861, patriotic rally, where it was flown from the equestrian statue of George Washington in Union Square. More than 100,000 people thronged Manhattan‘s Union Square in what was, by some accounts, the largest public gathering in the country up to that time. The flag was then taken from town to town, city to city throughout the North, where it was frequently “auctioned” to raise funds for the war effort. Any patriotic citizen who won the flag at auction was expected to immediately donate it back to the nation, and it would promptly be taken to the next rally to repeat its fundraising magic. The flag was a widely known patriotic symbol for the North during the war.

On April 14, 1865, four years to the day after the surrender and as part of a celebration of the Union victory, Anderson (by then a major general), raised the flag in triumph over the battered remains of the fort.

We visited the Angel Oak Tree on St. John’s Island. The Angel Oak Tree is estimated to be in excess of 400-500 years old, stands 66.5 ft (20 m) tall, measures 28 ft (8.5 m) in circumference, and produces shade that covers 17,200 square feet (1,600 m2). From tip to tip Its longest branch distance is 187 ft.  There is considerable debate about the age of the Angel Oak.  Some contend that it is 1,500 years old.  Most believe that the more conservative estimates are more accurate.

Sunset dinner at the Crabshack

Santee River Anchorage

Floating Swing Bridge, very unusual

Quick overnight stop in Southport, NC

Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune is a 246-square-mile United States military training facility in Jacksonville, North Carolina. The base’s 14 miles of beaches make it a major area for amphibious assault training, and its location between two deep-water ports allows for fast deployments.

This sign makes you look around with concern as you pass the area. I mean what if the lights burnt out one day?

Beaufort, NC is a beautiful small town which has history based on the waterways. One of the Highlights was the Maritime history museum. Th featured exhibit was the wreck of Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard’s pirate ship. They have many artifacts from the ship wreck site.

 

Sunset