Retired and Lovin' It

Saturday, April 2, 2016

FORT SUMTER near CHARLESTON SC

Wednesday, March 30th -
Our month is about over and we only have two days left here in Charleston, SC.
We drove to the Ferry in Charleston to go to Fort Sumter for the afternoon. While waiting for the Ferry, we watched the traffic on the water.
I sure need a sun filter on the camera!!

Here comes the Ferry that we will take over to the Fort. Wow, is it loaded!! We had fun meeting people from different places. One group of young people were from California. Ft. Sumter was not the first stop on their itinerary.

Leaving the shoreline behind -

Heading off to Fort Sumter -

Standing along the upper walls of the Fort.

Walls uncovered for restoration.

Cannon in place inside the Fort wall.

Park Ranger on the right giving history tour.

The building in the background of this picture was built to reinforce the walls. It houses the museum.
Myself, I would say that most forts look the same. But the history is always different. Fort Sumter was the location of the beginning of the Civil War. And of course, Gary enjoyed all of that history!!

We left the Ferry when back on the mainland and tried to go to the street Market. But we could not find parking, garages all had signs out that they were full. So we decided that it was not worth the struggle and went home and put out feet up!!
Laundry the next day and what a rip off!! I've never paid those kind of washer prices in eight years!!
Gary loaded up the scooter for the trip on Friday to go to Lexington SC. We are looking forward to connecting with friends there. Stay tuned.

Friday, April 1, 2016

BUS TOUR of CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

Our home at the ELKS has been a nice place, however, too much traffic noise at night. We noticed it more because we were boon docking and had no air conditioners to camouflage the noise. But the weather was nice and breezy and we enjoyed having all of the windows open. We even had to take the plexiglas off of the door. I think that we will be sweeping out sand and dust for the next six months!

View from our doorway looking toward the streets.

Looking from the opposite side from the large window.

During the evenings we were entertained with a variety of ball games. Gary could not figure out what some of the games were. Quite often there were two or three groups playing at one time. But we were completely surrounded with cars and they even had a traffic guard so that they did not park over in the ELKS parking lot. Gary picked up the discarded pop and beer cans the next morning. It was a good thing that the ELKS have a can bin to benefit Alzheimer's.

Tuesday, March 29th -
We took an all morning bus tour of the city and the afternoon the tour went to Magnolia/Drayton Plantation.
(We are now under storm warnings for this area. So we are thinking that we might have to turtle up)
In the mean time, I will continue to write.
Most of the homes were three floor, single family dwellings. And they still remain that way. I found the style of main entry interesting. The door looks like any other front door, but all that is behind and above is porch/balconies. Usually the home next door had very few windows facing that direction to respect the privacy of the home as you see here.

He took us on to the Battery where we could look over the water to Fort Sumter. (That tour will be the next day). The next pictures were things to our backs while looking out over the water.

I loved the cobblestone street. But we hated the width of the streets! So narrow, sure not like Savannah!
On to the plantation -

Would you believe that I forgot to take a picture of the house??

But the plant and animal life was very interesting. Many bushes and trees were in full bloom and some yet to burst. We went by train through much of that.