For us cruising with our favorite cruise company, Celebrity, is currently not an option. But we hope to be back on the open seas later this year. Since we arrived back in Florida in November we have had to cancel two land cruises but were able to get to Key West twice in January. Since both Andrew and I had Covid-19 and are doing fine we decided to plan a road trip north. North for us meant North Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
Our first stop was the Daytona Beach area. At the recommendation of our friend, Bob, we went to Ponce Inlet which is the most southern end of the hard sand beach of Daytona Beach. Our destination was not the Ponce Inlet lighthouse but the famous area fish shack – Hidden Treasurer. Finding the place was a challenge but climbing the 209 steps to the top of the restored lighthouse and village was a highlight.
After we left the lighthouse the weather turned blustery and cold. While we explored the Daytona Beach village it was quiet as they prepared for Biker Week. We saw and heard plenty of evidence that the bikers were coming. The next day we headed to Savannah, GA.
On the way we stopped for a picnic lunch at a small park under the spectacular Dana Point Bridge. We liked the park so much we stopped on our return trip to Florida.
When traveling in Georgia it is impossible not encounter evidence of the Civil War. On our first day we ventured to Ft. Pulaski and its light house that exist at the mouth of the Savannah River. The fort was the site of a fierce battle between Confederate and Union soliders. The fort existed to protect Savannah from invasion and it succeeded. Even thought the Union Army captured the fort, which still shows the signs of the battle that took place in 1863, Savannah was never captured .
On our second day we planned a hike out of Savannah at Magnolia Springs State Park. The springs in the park gush between seven and nine million gallons of fresh water every day. However, when we arrived in the park we found that it was the site of Fort Layton and the largest Confederate prisoner of war camp. Over 10,000 Union soldiers were housed there shortly before the end of the war primarily because of the source of clean drinking water. They had been marched 160 miles from the notorious Andersonville camp.
Our next destination was Augusta, GA. Our first long hike took place in Augusta proper at a small botanical garden before finding the extensive hiking trails on the Savanna River and canal. The canal was used to transport raw cotton in and finished cotton out of the largest cotton mills in the USA at one time.
Augusta is known as the hometown of the singer-performer James Brown and the boyhood home of President Woodrow Wilson. There is little else to distinguish the downtown. That was not our experience at our next stop Columbia, SC. On the way we stopped at Lake Murray which is a large manmade lake that feeds into Saluda River which flows through downtown Columbia. We spent an absolutely wonderful afternoon at the Botanical Garden and Columbia Zoo. We have visited zoos before on our travels but I have to compliment the citizens of Columbia. The quality of the gardens and zoo we usually find in a much larger city. There was a variety of plants and animals but the habitat was inventive and engaging.
Next stop was Charleston, SC for five days. On our drive from Columbia we hiked seven miles in the Congaree National Park home to hundreds of cypress and live oak trees that have been there for hundreds of years. Our walk took us through swamps on well maintained trails.
We had hoped for sunny weather to enjoy the lush colors of spring in Charleston. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen so we had to view the vegetation on cloudy, cool, sometimes rainy days. That didn’t dampen our spirits. On the first day we took the ferry to the National Park at Ft. Sumter. The site is where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. We learned that the first shot was actually fired from Ft. Johnson toward Ft. Sumter. The remains are not as well preserved as Ft. Pulaski. The National Park Service officers were extremely friendly and knowledgeable both in the fort and on the ferry back to Charleston.
When the siege of Ft. Sumter started there were only a few hundred Union soldiers in the fort. The siege lasted 31 hours before Colonel Andreson surrendered. Miraculously, the Union soldiers did not sustain any injuries or deaths. The commander decided with supplies and ammunition running he felt he had to surrender.
When we returned to Charleston we ate at a fabulous restaurant called Delaney’s not far from the port. We had raw oysters, brussel sprouts, ceviche and shrimp fried rice. The ceviche was the best I have ever tasted.
The following day we went across the river to Mt. Pleasant which is a commercial fishing port. It was also the site of Fort Moultrie another significant Civil War fort. Only a marker suggests where the fort once stood. We went there for a long walk along the board walk before having dinner at one of the any seafood restaurants along Shem Creek. The best part of the meal was watching the dolphins swim up and down the creek. We learned they are residents of the creek because of the abundance of sea food.
Friday, was exciting for me in that I got to take a walking tour given by one of the Two Sisters who lead tours of the historic district. Mary Helen is a seventh generation Charlestonian. She was excellent. She was engaging and got our fairly large tour group completely involved as she told us about the revitalization process that was the vision of Charleston’s forty year mayor. I was excited to think I have been coming to Charleston for the last thirty years. Charleston is special in that it is where my life choices began to change.
You can’t go to Charleston without commenting on the food as I did when I mentioned Delaney’s but we had an equally good meal at T-Bonz where we had delicious she crab soup. We shopped in the historic Charleston market which is a bustling place for tourists. Mary Helen said when she was growing up its where the kids came to neck. One more comment about our tour guide she knew many people personally and spoke to them as we wandered the streets of the historic district.
On our last day we found a street fair in North Charleston where St. Patrick’s Day was being celebrated. We went to very windy river front park which was the site of the old Charleston Navy Base. It is a beautiful park where many of the old, stately officers quarters still exist for special events. It was a great conclusion to our stay in Charleston.
After leaving Charleston we stopped in Beaufort, SC on the way to Brunswick, GA. In Beaufort we finally saw the sun even though the temperature was cold. Beaufort is a lovely small Southern town with plenty of history but remarkably well preserved. It avoided Sherman’s destruction because it was occupied by Union troops at the end of the Civil War. It was place I would love to visit in the summer. We leisurely drove through the giant live oaks to see the many Antibellum homes before driving off toward Brunswick.
Brunswick was where we were going to stay but our real objective was to visit St. Simon Island and Jekyll Island two of many coastal islands on the Georgia-Florida border. St. Simons was a quaint little town but quite different from Jeckyll Island which has a much more illustrious history. According to history Jeckyll Island started as a private hunting club in 1880’s only reachable by boat until 1940’s. It had not only an exclusive hotel but enormous beach homes for the wealthy. Luckly the Island became a controlled state park so most of the mansions were saved and restored over the last fifty years. Visiting the historic district was a real pleasure.
Our final stop was on St. Augustine Beach, not to be confused with St. Augustine. Like so many places we walked board walks and beaches when the weather was cool and windy and on our last morning when we found a sunny warm beach. We lunched at A1A Burrito Works before driving back to Pompano Beach. While we didn’t have the best weather for much of our trip apparently it was about the same weather experienced in South Florida. We will be on the road again in about five weeks.
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