I woke feeling a little discouraged this morning with the kids. We have continually talked to them about picking up their stuff right when they get up, but morning after morning they continue to dawdle, and don’t get themselves organized. It’s hard enough at home but when we are in such small quarters, it’s exaggerated. I’m trying really hard to be patient but I’ve hit my boiling point. We had to have a pow-wow about working together and serving everyone with good attitudes. We are having a great time, but we are all tired and because we are tired everyone’s patience is short. We all prayed together and talked about being thankful always: I Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Rejoice always, pray continually, five thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” This was for me today too!! J Praying is the key!
Today we are going to Fort Sumpter and downtown Charleston. We drove to the Patriot’s Point Marina about 20 minutes away from Mount Pleasant to catch the boat to the Island of Fort Sumpter. We boarded the boat and there was the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier right next to us.
We cruised out of the marina towards the fort which is in the mouth of Charleston bay, about 6 miles out. As we cruised we were informed of the entire history of the Fort and surrounding Charleston areas.
Charleston was the biggest port during that time in history. The fort began construction in 1829 as a coastal fortification by the United States after the War of 1812. Many slaves helped build the fort and it was built entirely of South Carolina made bricks from local plantations – one of them was the Boone Plantation that we are going to tomorrow. Major Robert Anderson moved his 85-man garrison into the fort the day after Christmas 1860. The fort was still unfinished, but the 13 star American flag flew proud over the fort.
After Lincoln was elected in 1960, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union with 6 states immediately following. Fort Sumpter remained in federal hands until on April 11th , 1861 when Brig. General Pierre Beauregard who commanded the Confederate forces at Charleston, demanded that Anderson surrender Sumpter. He gave him 2 hours to surrender and when Anderson refused after actually giving him 3 and a half hours, the Confederates took the first shots of the Civil War. Only 6 out of Anderson’s 60 cannons were able to be used, but because the fort was built out of brick the Confederate cannons were hardly making a dent. The next morning a “hot shot”, which is a hot cannon ball, was fired from the Confederates from Fort Moultrie straight at the officers quarters which was built out of wood. It set the whole quarter on fire end entirely burned, and then the flagstaff what shot away. That evening Anderson agreed to surrender his garrison and miraculously no one on either side was hurt. But the Civil war had begun!!
When we arrived at the Fort, we had a docent inform us of all these details of the history, and then we walked around looking at the cannons, walls, flags, and remains of the actual fort.
We walked up to the main shopping street which was beautiful.
It had many upscale and unique gift shops. We just had to stop in this one extremely pink and girly store. It had every kind of headband, clip, pin, earring, necklace or sunglasses a girl could want.
The main had an old historic square park with a landmark of the American Revolution, which was the siege of Charleston in 1780.
Then we walked to the visitor center and the whole way there the kids kept saying “I’m hungry”! Since it was raining we asked at the visitor center where is a good place to get some South Carolina tasting food. She recommended a restaurant called “Sticky Fingers” and gave us a coupon. We walked back towards the old historic district and found Sticky Fingers, the famous Carolina barbeque. Since we had to get back to our water taxi in an hour and a half, we asked if we could get it to go. They were extremely willing to let us get it to go and the waitress told us all about the great foods to try. We ended up ordering smoked pulled chicken & ribs with coleslaw and fried corn, and a chicken cheesy & bacon sandwich with seasoned French fries. She preceded to ask us what kind of barbeque sauce we wanted and I choose the sweet honey. As we were sitting there waiting for our food we noticed that they sold their barbeque sauce and we went to ask the price. $2.99 a bottle, what a bargain. The cashier asked if we wanted some corn muffins to try all the barbeque sauce’s on the table and of course we said “yes”!! They had 4 different flavors: sweet honey, mustard, whiskey, and classic. YUMMY!! My favorite was the sweet honey and mustard. As we were tasting them, Shelley asked the waitress about the history of the building, so the manager came over to our table to tell us all about it.
The building was first built in 1816 as offices for a cotton mill. Then it was sold as a private residence, then it became a saddler, then a barber shop and hair salon, and then a bar. In 1987 Sticky Fingers bought it and they have many restaurants throughout the south and North Carolina and Virginia. She was incredibly sweet with a great southern accent and just loved the fact that we stopped in on our travels. When we went to pay for our food, I wanted to buy the sweet honey & the mustard barbeque sauce, and the manager said, “Oh, ya’ll that’s on the house.” I said, “No really???” And she insisted!! That was so amazing. Then as we left the restaurant she walked us outside and told us where to go on Market Street in the historic district. This southern hospitality is amazing! We thanked her profusely and hurried to Market Street because we didn’t have much time left.
Arriving at Market Street, the Daughters of the Confederacy building was at the beginning of the street. It is a historical society to help preserve the historic parts of old Charleston. It was a beautiful building attached to the old market center where they sold all kinds of meats, vegetables, and “other provisions” (probably slaves).
As we walked down Market Street there was a old brick building in the center with many stalls type openings and there was a flee market type market now in the middle.
We were hurrying down the street because we had to get to the taxi but we quickly stopped in the South Carolina Christmas Shoppe, and the Sweet Carolina Candy Shoppe where we tried sugared pralines and hot buttered pralines. YUM, YUM!!
We made it even early to the water taxi and we were the only ones on the boat to ride back to Patriots Point. As we left the harbor, we dug right in to our yummy food!! It was delicious, especiallly the fried corn!!
The drivers were cruising slowly and pointed out a dolphin straight ahead. We all got excited and jumped up to see it. As I stood looking it appeared to be gone, but after about 5minutes, it all of a sudden it popped up right in front of us! I yelled “Oh, there it is!!!! “ loudly as everyone else was excitedly yelling too!! It was amazing that it came that close to us. We felt like we had our own private dolphin tour.
We arrived at the pier right before dusk and the sunset was beautiful!!
We drove back to our camp sight at Mount Pleasant and when we arrived, we set up the blocks and I drove right up onto them perfectly the first time! Right on . . . we were so excited!! What a great day after a challenging morning!
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