Saturday June 11, 2016
I was ready for a day off from traveling! Neither of us had ever been on an aircraft carrier or a destroyer. We’d never been to Ft. Sumpter either.
Our Marina was in the perfect location for what we wanted to do. We walked at 9am along the marina’s board walk to the ticket office for the carrier Yorktown. We would tour the massive ship until 10:15, then walk a short distance to the ferry that would take us out to Fort Sumpter. Later we would return to finish seeing the carrier, plus the destroyer and diesel submarine that they have on display.
It was a great day! Beautiful weather, hot, but there was a breeze.
We loved exploring the aircraft carrier. There was a flag ceremony going on at the aft end of the flight deck. Lots of feathered hats and capes. I wish I had found out more about their outfits!
On our short walk to the ferry, I saw a woman wearing a hat and sunglasses walking toward me, lugging a duffel bag. Clearly she was part of the Boy Scout group that was arriving to spend the night on the Yorktown. I was thinking that she should have gotten a ride in the golf cart shuttle that was passing us. She broke the silence, calling out my name, as she took off her sunglasses. Julie! We’d last seen her in Miami at the Dinner Key Marina. Julie lives in Miami, but we know her from Maine. She is the Scoutmaster for the troop her twin sons were in, and now her grandson is in. Fun to see her and her son and grandson!
I am really glad that we made the trip to see Fort Sumpter. Shots fired over the fort were the first of the civil war. I liked the fort because it reminded me of Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas!
We returned to the Carrier Yorktown around 1:30, ran into Julie again immediately, and had a great lunch on the ship. After lunch we ran into Julie again by one of the aircraft elevators! Fun!
If you ever go to Charleston, you must tour the WWII destroyer Laffey. We climbed into the aft gun mount, and watched a video reenacting the kamakazee attacks in the Pacific. Amazingly, the destroyer was hit by 6 Japanese suicide planes and 4 bombs. In another part of the ship, they run a History channel video on the sequence of events of the attack. Wonderful video! Great ship! We also went to see an old diesel WWII submarine. I climbed down into the submarine, and decided that I had seen enough. It is a one way route, but I bucked “traffic” and squeezed by everyone. Loved the fresh air on a bench while Jim finished seeing the sub.
We were hot and tired by that time.. The greatest part of the day was the resort pool! Yeah!
Dinner of leftovers and night at Charleston Harbor Marina.