Arriving Oriental, NC

February 29 Leaving Charleston

I have missed a few days of our adventure that I will post later.  It is hard to be a tourist, entertain company and blog!  Not enough fingers and brain cells.
Tuesday morning our friends stopped in to say goodbye as they were headed back to Oklahoma.  We were also getting the iHome stowed away to leave.  Steve and Kathi were doing the same, as they were trying to get back to KC by Thursday.  Al and Steve's mom has been in the hospital in KC for a few days and Steve and Kathi are going to check her out today, hopefully, and take her to their house.  She is 92, and seems to be declining and needing a little more looking after than we all thought.  They do a great job of taking her to dr.'s appts, getting her to stores, and checking on her.  She wants to live independently but that may be coming to an end. 
We all said our goodbyes, and headed out.

Linus and Sue telling us good-bye.

 We stopped at the propane tank and filled our tank.  We only needed about 4 lbs or gallons or whatever it is you get.  I stay as far away as possible when all this is happening. 
Had a very uneventful drive to Oriental and arrived about 3:30.  My brother, Bub, was there to show us where the iHome would be parked.  Not exactly a campground, just a spot where someone has put in water, sewer and elec and the lots are owned by people who use them in the summer, mostly.  No shower, bath house, etc.  Just a nice place to call home for a few days.   Also, no internet.  This is the land of Verizon, so we have limited coverage with at&t, but do have some so I can use my iPad and iPhone at the RV.  I have not been blogging as when I come to Bub's or Ginny's (my other brother's wife) we are too busy drinking, eating and talking.

Bub has been baking breads, so every evening we have a nice bread to go along with our wine.  The first evening we had a tyme, tarragon, marjoram, olive salad topping Focaccia.
Gail fixed a shrimp casserole and Ginny mad the Raamen Noodle salad.

Bub and Gail

Ginny and Al

 We have been enjoying just doing nothing.  There is a nice big field by the iHome that we can walk the dogs in.  Oriental does not have a leash law (our worst nightmare with the Cujos), so we don't walk in the neighborhoods.   Yesterday we went to one of the little shops and contributed to Oriental's economy.  Al got a new pair of Keen sandals, a hat and a warm fuzzy shirt/jacket.    Also walked over to Oriental Marina & Motel to make reservations for for several family members for our family reunion in July. 

Wednesday evening we had happy hour at Ginny's house.  Silly me, I thought happy hour was at 5pm, but around here it is 4pm, as they all seem to go to bed early.  Which is fine with us.  We can't stay up past 10pm.  Bub had made bagettes, brought the leftover Focaccia bread, artichoke dip, the olive salad and I had bought some habanero garlics in oil.

Al will swear that I ate 3/4 of the garlics that are gone.  He thinks he slept with one big garlic that night.

This, and wine was our dinner.  Some of Ginny's friends also stopped by to enjoy. 

Me and our Ginny!

Digging in.

Being silly!  Can't imagine why.

Gail had made us a coffee cake and a banana bread to take to our iHome.  We sure have enjoyed having that for breakfast.  It sure did wreck my diet.  I will blame it all on the coffee cake, not the beer, wine, breads, french fries, fried green tomatoes, chips, etc.

We have not broken into the banana bread yet.  One temptation at a time.

A Walk About Town

Sunday, February 19

Steve and Kathi's daughter and SIL came to visit.  Mark is in the Navy and stationed in Norfolk, VA.   They took a trip to downtown and we stayed around the iHome.   We rode bikes, did laundry, messed with the computers, and before we knew it, the day was gone.   Steve cooked steaks and we had a nice meal there.  I did contribute a salad, our baked potato and our steaks.  We aren't complete moochers!

Monday they headed for Fort Sumter.  As we were planning to go see that when our friends come, we drove with them into town and spent a couple of hours walking around town while they rode the ferry out and toured the fort.  A free trolly stops right outside the Fort Sumter National Park building.  We hopped on and rode to the visitor's center to get some maps, as we did not manage to bring any with us.  We took a nice walk to the City Market and walked through this again so see if we needed anything.  There were a lot more venders here on Sunday than during the week.
On the way there we passed a fire station.  Around the side of the building were two statues of firemen for the firemen lost while on duty.

We noticed that 9 firemen were killed in 2007.  I googled it and found they were killed in the Charleston Sofa Super Store fire, in which a flashover and structural collapse occured.  Super Sofa Fire 
This must have been a terrible loss for the Fire Department and Charleston.

It was the Noisy Oyster for lunch.  My brother had suggested it.  It is right at the far end of the City Market.

Those big "windows" are on garage door rails and while we were there they opened them all.  So basically, you are sitting "outside" inside with people on the sidewalks passing by.

Good beers.  Mine (right) is getting darker every time. 

crab cakes and fried green tomatoes!  This was an appetizer.

Al had some kind of a shrimp gumbo

This was our delicious dessert.  Coconut cake.  It was amazing.  Wish you all could taste it.

If the cake wasn't enough, we had to have a free sample of warm pralines.  OMG!  They are amazing.

Some of the houses

The Apple Store.

 We just looked at it from afar!  Knew we could get in trouble if we went in.

Al getting some artistic shots.

 Charleston has a very nice trolly system that gets tourists around the historic parts of Charleston.   We rode it a couple of times.

Then it was time to get back to the harbor to wait for Steve's family to get off the ferry and head home.

A Walk on the Beach

Saturday February 18

No major plans for this day so we decided to drive out to the beach and walk around.  This day we decided to go to the Isle of Palm.  Though after reading all the do's and don'ts, we didn't know!

 Parked the car and did some:

Shell seeking

 Saw some:

Sand Castles

Dog walkers

Kites flying

Tide at it's lowest

Sun worshipers?

Beach bums?

After a nice trek on the beach, we walked back to the car by way of the road and had fun looking at all the beach houses.  Then we drove down to the harbor and decided to have lunch at a restaurant on the water.  On the way, Al found a fisherman and had a chat.

I had the shrimp and grits.  Had never had it and it was delicious.

 

Al had the scallops.  A big helping of them!

We wanted to take a bike ride before the rain that was predicted came in, so got back to the iHome and rolled out the bikes.  There is a really nice fishing pier that we have stopped at before.  A woman and her son have been there both times fishing and crabbing.  They had one huge blue crab.  I had never seen a real live one.  The blue is amazing.

These pictures were taken on another ride, but the people, bikes, and trail were the same!

Pier boardwalk

My guy on the dock

Fishing Pier

The blue crab.  Sorry the pic is not great.  It was in a cooler and I was using my phone.

Old Charles Towne Landing

Friday February 17

If you ever visit Charleston, don't miss this gem.  We almost didn't go, as there was not much written up about it, and it was very inexpensive.  We figured how good could it be if it only cost $7. 50.   But, we had a nice day and thought we would give it a try.  It was also only about 5 miles from where we were.  Old Charles Towne Landing

Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site sits on a marshy point, located off of the Ashley River, where a group of English settlers landed in 1670 and established what would become the birthplace of the Carolinas colony.

The interactive  museum in the visitor's center is one of the best I have seen.  Just enough info and hands on displays to keep you interested.  It did not overload us with too much info.

The audio tour was $5 with a special of buy one get one free.  What a deal.  We were very glad that we did spring for the audio tour, as it was very interesting and we were not just wandering around reading the signs.

Al leading us in the right direction.

Beautiful old live oak.

Replica of a 17th century trading vessel called a ketch.

cannons to protect the colony

Tempting Fate

We strolled through the beautiful grounds where a private home had been built.
The Legare-Waring House

this tree is 700 years old!  Imagine that!

They also have a little animal compound with the animals that would have been found there in the 1700's.  It was a nice little natural habitat.

One of the main things we learned today:

 Oysters live in these little clumps!  I thought they just crawled around on the bottom of the ocean and dug into the sand.  We had no idea!   Land Locked Okies!