Beaufort and Charleston, South Carolina

We are now in South Carolina and enjoying the beautiful continued scenery, friendly people and new sights to see.  However, this entire week has been thunderstorms and raining. Luckily the wind has stayed quite mild, but our fearless captain has persevered through it all and we made our way to some fun ports.  We figured it was a good time to travel when you couldn't do much outside. We had a few moments of intense rain, lightning and thunder, but once into port we were able to enjoy the towns.

Hilton Head was our first stop in South Carolina.  We docked at the harbor marina where they had a really nice RV park, pool, etc. We walked around a bit, but also tended to inside projects.

 Morgan set up her sewing machine and everything she has with it!

 She worked really hard to make the big peace sign and cut/sew the letters onto the shirt, but by the time she finished she learned from her errors and made an even better one (photo next time).

 The girls found shells on the beach that resembled long finger nails.

 Beaufort was a quaint town that we enjoyed very much.  This is the visitors center that use to serve as a Battery years ago.  The kids got a coupon for a free sand dollar chocolate at The Chocolate Tree that's been in business for over 30 years and they make their own candies.  We took the bikes through the downtown village and over to see the many historic homes in the area. 

 The waterfront had beautiful landscaping covering the entire riverwalk area.

 A stop for art..

 This particular horse was supposedly in the upcoming movie, Pirates of the Caribbean 4. It now pulls a carriage through town.

 The park was picture worthy and the kids met other children and enjoyed running around before it rained again.

 It was a long 9 hour day of travel from Beaufort to Charleston.  The trawler "Rachel J" followed us the entire way and it was rather nice to have some company through the storms.  In this picture we are crossing the only "sound" that we had all day and you can see the storms coming closer. 

 Through Elliot Cut there was a windmill that reminded me of my childhood.  We had a rather tall one that was used as a playhouse in our front yard for many years.

 Pictured here is The Maritime Center in the downtown Charleston harbor where we stayed for two nights.  The bridge off to the left will be used this weekend for a huge 40,000 person Cooper Bridge Walk.  There were other loopers and cruisers in the harbor and we enjoyed our stay here.  The far upper left trawler vessel is that of Active Captain (a very popular website for boating information).  You can see the aircraft carrier in the distance that we toured through two years ago in our RV trip. It was one of our favorites and you could even sit inside one of the planes. It also had an MG Midget on board. My parents collect MG's and my first car at age 16 was an MG Midget that was same year and color as the one of the aircraft carrier here.

We are such a close family that we even bike together! As you know this is our only means of ground transportation and we use our two tandem bikes often.  This picture is for my dad as he sent me one this week of a family loaded on a motorcycle going down the the road. We were inspired to see if we could do it and there was actually room for more!

 A bike ride through downtown Charleston was full of historic homes and beautiful paver brick roads. We had spent a long time here on our RV trip, but it was still fun to see again. 

 The Bi-Lo Supermarket 'peach' greeted us at the door through a convention center full of sponsors and exhibits all preparing for the bridge walk this weekend. 

 Chik-fil-a is popular down south.

 Jaxon really enjoyed the long bike ride.

The kids were able to get ALL of this at the convention. They handed out samples of beer, wine, juices, food, coupons, frisbees, bags and on and on and on...it was amazing and fun!

This harbor was constantly busy with cruise ships, cargo and container vessels, ferrys to shuttles. It never seemed to stop!

 We met a family who is starting the loop this weekend. On board 'Inconceivable' are parents, Elizabeth and Andrew with their children Sebastian 10 and Paisley who is 9. 

The kids really hit it off and had a fun night. We went to their boat with mexican food and all made a great feast.  Jaxon was super excited that Sebastian collected Bakugan and Paisley loves doing crafts like the girls.  Later that evening on 'Negotiator' they made a scary haunted house for the adults to go through. 

After dinner we went a few slips down to Lynn and Jack Robinsons sailing vessel catamaran, 'Felix' for ice cream and cookies.  We met them at the very beginning of our journey in the Illinois Waterway and have seen them many times along the way.  They've become good friends and we always enjoy their company.  Our first night of arrival we enjoyed great conversation on our aft deck.  They will be heading north for Jacks class reunion so we hope to travel with them again. 

Time for a celebration as they have completed the Great Loop and are raising their gold burgee with pride!  It is a great accomplishment that we look forward to achieving one day.

They even had champagne for a toast and we reminisced about some of their many adventures.

After a few loads of FREE laundry (unheard of), a grocery run and some more bike riding, we left Charleston with sunny skis and 20+ knot winds.  By Saturday the winds will be gusting to over 30 mph and we hope to make it to Myrtle Beach for the evening.