Charleston, South Carolina - Part 2

Sunday, November 25 - Today Mom and Dad went to the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, which is the Plantation owned by the Pinckney family and is just north of Charleston.  There they learned that Charles Pinckney was influential on the Constitution of the United States.  At the Constitutional Convention in May, 1787, the delegates were given two proposals - The Virginia Plan and the Pinckney Draft.  Our Constitution is a blend of the two and contains many provisions that were proposed by Pinckney.  One of the surprising facts was the per capatia income of South Carolina was 6 times that of NYC during the late 1700's.  At the time of the revolutionary war, the agricultural south controlled the money.

After visiting the Historic Site, they drove to Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island.  It sounds funny to say that they drove to Islands, but there are a lot of Islands around Charleston that are linked to the mainland, and sometimes each other, via bridges.  Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island are like that.

Isle of Palms is separated from the main land by the Intracoastal Waterway.  

Many of the large homes have docks over the marsh out to the Waterway.  

Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island.  Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter were 

responsible for protecting Charleston Harbor during the Revolutionary War.  

They also had batteries that were added for World War I and World War II.

Despite what it looks like, this is NOT a prison tower.  It's actually a 

lighthouse on Sullivan's Island, built in the 1960's.  It's 140' tall, so hard to miss.  I 

guess by the 1960's they were just interested in function.  It isn't even open for tours.   

We did have a beautiful sunset tonight.

Monday, November 26 - Today Mom and Dad went a little south of Charleston and visited a Tea Plantation.  They learned a little about how tea is made and saw tea bushes growing in the field.

Then, they went to see something called the Angel Oak.

A few fun facts about the Angel Oak - it is believed to be 400-500 years old.  It's 66.5 feet tall, the trunk is 28 feet in circumference and it's 187 feet from branch tip to branch tip.  It provides shade for 17,200 sq ft. 

This is Mom with a BRANCH of the tree!

You can see the branch that Mom was hugging on the left in this photo.  

This time, Mom is in front of the main trunk.

Every year, there is a Christmas light display in the County Park where we are staying.  There are supposed to be two MILLION lights!  Coastal Living rates it as one of the Top 10 attractions in the country.  Mom and Dad drove through to see it tonight.  This is the display next to the campground.  It's next to the back of our motor home.  Wish I could get some of those hotdogs and marshmellows that Santa and Rudolph have.

Tuesday, November 27 - Today Mom and Dad drove to Beaufort, South Carolina.  Beaufort is a very picturesque town south of Charleston.  

Their first stop was the Sheldon Church.  It was built in 1757.  It was burned by the British in 1779 and rebuilt in 1825-1826.  It is thought to be one of the first churches in America to be built in the style of a Greek Temple.  Of course, being the old south, it was surrounded by big beautiful oaks, dripping with Spanish Moss.

From there, they went on to Beaufort.  Here are just a few photos from Beaufort.

Might be hard to see, but this oak is over a street and has a yellow sign 

that says "Low Clearance - 10 Feet."  We won't be driving the 

motor home in THIS neighborhood!

Many of the homes had wide porches on both floors.  Often with 

outdoor ceiling fans.  Mom particularly liked the sky blue 

ceiling on the second floor of this one.

We had another beautiful sunset.

Current Location - We are currently in Tallahassee, Florida.  We plan to leave here tomorrow and be in Fort Walton Beach, Florida by Saturday night, December 8.  Next time, more on our travels in the south.

Love,

Doolin