Up early again today as we were making the 100-miles trip to Charleston - an historic city where the first shots of the American Civil War were fired. It was a straight forward journey down Highway 17 from Myrtle Beach passing my alligator-laden golf course on the way. We stopped off for breakfast (yes, MacDonald's again - by majority request) arriving in Charleston at around midday. I dropped Sara, Tom and Mary off by the beautiful Customs House and Slave Market in a searing temperature of 89 degrees F (31 degrees C) and then drove back across the beautiful Highway 17 cable-stayed bridge to Patriots' Point on the other side of the bay to the main city. We had agreed in advance that we would split into two - I was going to Patriots' Point Naval and Maritime Museum and Sara was going to look around the shops in downtown Charleston. Both children decided that they didn't want to look around a boring museum albeit one contained in a massive aircraft carrier -
USS Yorktown. I parked the car, was given a museum guide, paid my 18 dollars and walked along the long pier to the
Yorktown. She is massive. It was at this point that I discovered that I had no charge in my camcorder battery and therefore will have to rely on my own memories of the visit - I had given the stills camera to Sara! The Yorktown is awesome. I went all over the ship - from the depths of the massive engine room up to the captains seat on the bridge. The flight deck was like a hot griddle and I felt like a piece of meat broiling in the sun! There was far too much to see and take in on one four-hour visit. The detailed history of every US carrier was there, together with a giant model of Pearl Harbor in December 1941; even a section of models of famous transatlantic liners -
Lusitania, Titanic, Normandie, Queen Elizabeth,Queen Mary. I also found time to have a very quick look on board the US submarine
Clamagore. I drove back over the cable stay bridge for the third time and picked up the family at just before 5 p.m. at the same spot as I had dropped them off. They had spent much of the time trying to keep cool - eating ice creams, visiting gift shops and having a ride on one of the horse drawn buggies which patrol the streets. Having filled up with gas near the railroad depot (see I am getting the lingo!) we drove back up north along Highway 17 at a good speed. A massive truck, however, pushed me off onto an exit near Murrell's Inlet and I found myself on Highway 17 (Business) rather than Highway 17 by-pass. It did afford us a good view of the neon-lit highway and all the hundreds of eating places. We chose to eat at an Italian restaurant just around the corner from our time-share resort. I had an excellent claim linguine, Tom a massive pizza, Sara a grilled chicken pasta dish and Mary spaghetti with a giant meatball. Lovely meal. The day ended with watching the first game of the World Series - Texas at San Francisco with the SF Giants winning by a comfortable 11 to 7. Second game is tomorrow night at San Francisco.
Up early again today as we were making the 100-miles trip to Charleston - an historic city where the first shots of the American Civil War were fired. It was a straight forward journey down Highway 17 from Myrtle Beach passing my alligator-laden golf course on the way. We stopped off for breakfast (yes, MacDonald's again - by majority request) arriving in Charleston at around midday. I dropped Sara, Tom and Mary off by the beautiful Customs House and Slave Market in a searing temperature of 89 degrees F (31 degrees C) and then drove back across the beautiful Highway 17 cable-stayed bridge to Patriots' Point on the other side of the bay to the main city. We had agreed in advance that we would split into two - I was going to Patriots' Point Naval and Maritime Museum and Sara was going to look around the shops in downtown Charleston. Both children decided that they didn't want to look around a boring museum albeit one contained in a massive aircraft carrier - USS Yorktown. I parked the car, was given a museum guide, paid my 18 dollars and walked along the long pier to the Yorktown. She is massive. It was at this point that I discovered that I had no charge in my camcorder battery and therefore will have to rely on my own memories of the visit - I had given the stills camera to Sara! The Yorktown is awesome. I went all over the ship - from the depths of the massive engine room up to the captains seat on the bridge. The flight deck was like a hot griddle and I felt like a piece of meat broiling in the sun! There was far too much to see and take in on one four-hour visit. The detailed history of every US carrier was there, together with a giant model of Pearl Harbor in December 1941; even a section of models of famous transatlantic liners - Lusitania, Titanic, Normandie, Queen Elizabeth,Queen Mary. I also found time to have a very quick look on board the US submarine Clamagore. I drove back over the cable stay bridge for the third time and picked up the family at just before 5 p.m. at the same spot as I had dropped them off. They had spent much of the time trying to keep cool - eating ice creams, visiting gift shops and having a ride on one of the horse drawn buggies which patrol the streets. Having filled up with gas near the railroad depot (see I am getting the lingo!) we drove back up north along Highway 17 at a good speed. A massive truck, however, pushed me off onto an exit near Murrell's Inlet and I found myself on Highway 17 (Business) rather than Highway 17 by-pass. It did afford us a good view of the neon-lit highway and all the hundreds of eating places. We chose to eat at an Italian restaurant just around the corner from our time-share resort. I had an excellent claim linguine, Tom a massive pizza, Sara a grilled chicken pasta dish and Mary spaghetti with a giant meatball. Lovely meal. The day ended with watching the first game of the World Series - Texas at San Francisco with the SF Giants winning by a comfortable 11 to 7. Second game is tomorrow night at San Francisco.
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