Charleston SC

We are spending a whole week in Charleston as there is so much to do and see here; especially for Civil War buffs.  The day we arrived, the weather changed for the better; and so did our spirits.  First order of business was to find a place to park the boat (and ultimately the car), as this is the last town on this "leg" of our tour.  We also wanted to stay in the historical downtown, and didn't want to live on the boat in a marina... so we needed to find Freedom a new home.  We found an excellent covered parking space for the boat, and an indoor garage for our car (filled with our "stuff").  They will live here while we are back home for a few months, and then again for another month or two while we take the boat up the ICW.

Once our "business" was accomplished, we headed to Mt Pleasant and Sullivans Island over the beautiful Ravenal Bridge:

While we thought this bridge was beautiful, we were shocked to discover that it rates as the #1 attraction to see on Trip Advisor!

Charleston is a peninsula between two rivers: the Ashley on the west, and the Cooper on the right.  This bridge is over the Cooper; and is very high because it accommodates a lot of ship traffic.  Charleston is the 10th busiest port in the US; and also host to cruise ships.

Since we are staying here for so long;  I'll probably post several separate blogs about specific areas we found interesting, but here is our itinerary while we are here.  I'll put an * next to any that were deemed interesting enough to post about.

Day 1: arrived and took care of the car and boat parking; stayed at a motel in Mt Pleasant.
*Day 2: saw Ft Moultrie, The Hunley and then headed to our B&B "apartment" in the historic center.
*Day 3: did a city tour and took the boat to Ft Sumter
Day 4: did the Gullah tour; took our bikes all around the city.
Day 5 &6: Moved over to West Ashley (across the Ashley river from Charleston) and stayed at the Inn on the Middleton Plantation; toured the plantation and readied the boat for our departure.
Day 7: HOME!

We will have been gone 5 weeks and 2 days; and I think we both agree that we'd like to ensure that our further adventures are shorter legs.  It's partly the weather and the long days of driving, but we will be glad to get back to our own beds!