Today is the annual holiday here called Carolina Day. Much like "Evacuation Day" in South Boston, it is a day celebrated every year to remember a Revolutionary War victory. That event happened 250 years ago today, and it's the reason why we came this far south.
The British decided to try to take the rich city of Charleston, South Carolina, and they sent a naval force with infantry to try to take the city. The Americans had prepared defenses around the city, including a fort on Sullivan's Island built of palmetto logs and sand. When the bombardment from the British navy finally began, the soft palmetto logs absorbed much of the impact of the cannon balls. The British forces vastly outgunned the Patriots in the fort, and the Patriots were running low of gunpowder. The Americans fired slowly and deliberately, though, and caused great harm to the British ships. Eventually, the British gave up and sailed away. The American victory here came about a week before independence was declared in Philadelphia, and it is the reason that the palmetto tree is pictured on South Carolina's flag today.
After we had breakfast at the hotel, we made our way towards Fort Moultrie, the site of the battle and the ceremonies this morning. In front of the fort sits a portion of Sullivan's Island Beach, an Julie figured that would be a great place to take Abby while Scott went to see the ceremony. Julie had planned ahead and put a swimsuit under Abby's dress to make it easy to change. Abby played in a tidal pool with two friends that she made, and together they were looking for crabs. They showed Abby how to use a boogie board, and she had a great time playing with that. They had a great time, but they were in the direct sun and the temperatures were starting to approach 100°. Julie put sunscreen on Abby with roll-on and it left blotches of minor sunburns on her.
Scott dropped the girls off at the beach and headed to the Visitors Center at Fort Moultrie. The fort is currently named "Moultrie" after the commander who was there 250 years ago. At the time of the Revolutionary War battle, it was known as Fort Sullivan. Scott went to the theater and watched the new movie that they had about the battle, then made his way to the large tent that had been set up behind the fort. Hosted by the National Park Service, many of the dignitaries there were associated with the Department of the Interior. South Carolina State Historic Preservation Officer, Dr. Eric Emerson, gave a brief overview of the battle to complement what Scott had seen in the movie in the Visitors Center. The highest ranking person there might have been U.S. Congresswoman, Nancy Mace, a Republican, though His Majesty's Consul General Rachel Galloway represented the United Kingdom. There was a flyover of big cargo planes from the Joint Base Charleston
(We later found out that they were dual C-17 Globemaster IIIs. At other times in the day, we saw the Royal Air Force Red Arrows flying their jets in formation too.) The ceremony and speeches lasted for about an hour.
Scott had found a seat near the back, but at the edge of the tent. At about 11:00, a very weary looking Julie and Abby tapped him on the shoulder to see if he was ready to go. There were a few more things that Scott hadn't seen, though. He took them back to the Visitors Center and let them sit in the dark air-conditioned theater to watch the movie several times through. Meanwhile, he bought some pins, a book, and an America 250 baseball hat to help cover up with. After an alert from the rangers, he went up to the observation deck on the roof of the Visitors Center just in time to see a "British sailing ship" fire two cannon shots at the fort, a fitting site for the day. Scott had not yet seen the inside of the fort itself, so he went quickly through it. Much of Fort Moultrie today is representing eras stretching from before the Civil War to World War II. The temperature was in the high 90s and he didn't mind going quickly through the fort in order to catch up with Julie and Abby, who by then were waiting at the car. Abby was watching a praying mantis that had landed on her window.
It was getting close to noon and we needed lunch and air conditioning, so we drove away from the fort to get away from the crowds there. We found a place called the Come Back Shack, which seems to be a Carolina burger place. It was a great choice. Julie got the Come Back sliders that had cucumbers on them Scott got the "Porky Burger" which had bacon and barbecue on it. We all had their excellent fries. Abby got the chocolate shake she had been wanting. We loved the food and thought it was a great choice for a lunch break.
The heat had taken a lot out of Abby, and she was asleep almost before we started driving. We crossed over the Cooper River into Charleston on the impressive looking 2.5 mile long Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, but Abby missed the sights from it. We found our way to the parking ramp for the city visitors center, and Scott went in while Julie let Abby sleep.
Scott returned with tickets for the Old Town Trolley tour of the city. We had taken a tour from this company back in February in St. Augustine, so we were looking forward to seeing Charleston the same way. We thought the tour guide was good, but the vehicle was lacking. Rather than an open air "trolley" like they used in St. Augustine, it was a small enclosed bus. The bus didn't offer the same views that the trolley did, and it was difficult to see some things. Julie thought he drove a little fast for a sight-seeing tour, and wasn't able to get as many pictures as she did before because we were already past things before she was ready. The air conditioning could have been better, Also, this tour wasn't a hop-on/hop-off tour like the ones in other cities because apparently the city of Charleston doesn't allow it, but we were ok with that.
The tour took us through several Charleston neighborhoods, including some of the most ritzy. We heard a number of stories and bad jokes. We saw typical "Charleston single" architecture, where the homes are only built one-room wide. Charleston doesn't have a skyline full of skyscrapers because city ordinances keep buildings shorter than the highest church steeples. There was an opportunity for people to get off at Hampton Park (named for Confederate General Wade Hampton), but nobody wanted to. There is a marker there for the beginning of Memorial Day. Scott has lost count of the number of towns that claim to be the place where Memorial Day began, including Petersburg, VA, and Waterloo, NY. We went through the campus of the Citadel, the military school that was founded to have an army to put down possible slave uprisings, and which continues today like VMI. At one point we drove by "Hootie's" house-- Darius Rucker formerly of Hootie and the Blowfish. We went through neighborhoods "South of Broad". where houses go for $3 million and up, We stopped at the "Battery" where Scott and many others took the opportunity to look around. This is the pretty point at the tip of Charleston, with a view across to Fort Sumter, over three miles away. There was a pretty good breeze blowing here, which made the outside temperatures more bearable. We passed the City Market area, which looked like it would be fun to look around in on a cooler day. Shortly after that we returned to the Visitors Center. It was a pretty good introduction to the city overall.
After the tour, there were two spots that Scott still wanted to see. The first was George Hazard's family home from the North and South series. George and his family were the Northerners in the title and their home was supposed to be in Lehigh Station, Pennsylvania. In fact, the home used in the show was here in Charleston, and only a short distance away from where we were on the bus tour. Instead of "Bellvidere," which it was called on the show, a sign in front of the home says it is known as the Williams Mansion, and is Charleston's largest private residence. (We have also seen that it is sometimes called the Calhoun Mansion.) The scene that Scott knows best, where Orry meets George's family and his abolitionist sister, Virgilia, took place in the front of the house where we were, but there have been some big changes to the spot. The drive through the gate has changed, and there have been some large hedges added, along with a large statue of Hermes or Mercury that wasn't there in the show. Not to far away, we also went to the home that was used as the home of Madeline Fabray, Orry's love interest, but it wasn't as recognizable and didn't stand out the way that Orry's home and George's home did. Scott spent sometime in the park at the Battery where the bus had stopped earlier. He was able to get some nice better pictures of the impressive monuments to William Moultrie and the 2nd South Carolina who were both at the Battle of Sullivan's Island, 250 years ago. He looked for a monument to the black Union soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts that was on our bus tour map, but he couldn't find it. After that, we left Charleston and went back across the long scenic bridge, but Abby was awake this time to see the huge cargo ships and other things below us.
When we arrived back at the hotel, Abby could barely be contained. She was rested and ready for the pool! We ordered a pizza, and she went in with Mom while Dad waited for the food to arrive. The pizza was from a local place called Marcos. It broke the tradition of eating lousy "beach pizza" because it was actually pretty good. After eating by the pool, Scott joined the other two in the water. The water was very warm, but still felt good after the heat today. Abby was practicing swimming with out her vest on and was very excited to demonstrate how she could put her face in the water now. We had the pool to ourselves most of the time and Abby loved jumping on top of Dad whenever he tried to relax in the water by floating on his back.
