At the Battery

Yesterday, March 18th, was a long day in charming Charleston. We started our morning by moving to a new campsite in James Island County Park. Happily, we were able to secure another site so we can stay in Charleston for a few more days.

Then, Mark called to bring us up to date about Isabelle Elizabeth. He sounded so happy and rested after their first long week together. It tickled me to hear his take on raising baby. Too cute!

We spent some time driving (getting lost) and ended up going over a bridge to Patriot's Point when we wanted to be downtown. Once we got our bearings we stopped at the Visitors Center at the old train station that has been beautifully restored. We boarded a mini-bus for a tour around the downtown and the historic area. Our tour guide was a history teacher so we got a thorough background of Charleston's long history and saw architectural styles from the 1700's 1800's and early 1900's-one beautiful building after another. The photo is of one of the many mansions along Battery Park.

Then we attended an orientation film, Forever Charleston at the Visitors Center. Afterwards, we walked to the Charleston History Museum to look at the H. L Hunley, the first submarine in combat action to sink a Union ship, Housatonic on February 17, 1864. Unfortunately, the eight submariners died on their return from their mission. The sub was recovered in 1995. We stopped in the Tea Shop for pasteries and tea for me. The tea was from the only operating tea plantation on the U. S. mainland. Yummy!

After tea, we drove the streets of Charleston, retracing many of the streets covered on our tour. There was so much to see that we couldn't take it all in on the tour. We walked some of the Battery, just to see the houses more closely. By dusk, we returned to our campsite.

Then, we drove to North Charleston to Woodlands Mall to have dinner at Olive Garden. Mel was craving spaghetti. We had to wait for a while since it was Saturday night but dinner was quite yummy.

On our return, the National Geographic channel had the story of Blackbeard, the pirate who terrorized Charleston and other coastal towns from North Carolina to Florida way back when. We were tickled since he is mentioned on our of our tours so everyone claims him. I think he would have loved the attention.

Today, we found a lovely Greek restaurant on the island. It was a nice change from our usual fare. Then, we went to see The Libertine with Johnny Depp, John Malkovich, Rosamund Pike and Samantha Morton. This is definitely an art house movie-two hours Mel won't be getting back. However, this is a true Johnny Depp role, quirky and interesting but terrible.

Good News! We finally have our local channels on DirecTV. We had to send paperwork so we could be qualified to receive it in our package for the RV. This satellite TV thing has been an adventure in itself, but Mel tried today and he found the channels available to us so we happily watched The West Wing, The Sopranos and Grey's Anatomy. Desperate Housewives was a rerun. No more snowy TV-won't be missed.