July 30-August  5, 2018

Sunday night in South Carolina, Gma and Gpa Seitz, Tom, Scott and I had dinner on the beach at Coconut Joes. We had to wait a bit, but it was nice to eat on the deck overlooking the beach. The weather in Charleston was a bit rainy and stormy all week, but we managed to find lots of activities to keep us busy in between the rain drops. It seems like most of the heavy rain came in the mornings.

On Monday we all drove into downtown Charleston to walk through the covered, open air market checking out local artwork like Gullah sweetgrass baskets and local food items. We then met up for a BBQ lunch in a local restaurant. Later that night we all had a seafood dinner at a local Marina restaurant. Shrimping is big along the southern coast, along with fish and of course, BBQ!  Needless to say we were not lacking for wonderful food choices! And my favorite, Hush Puppies!

On Tuesday. Tom, Scott and I visited the Charleston Aquarium. Lots of sea turtles and the facility functions as a sea life rescue, especially for injured turtles that nest along the coast.  Nearby, a new museum is planned to describe the life of the slaves brought into Charleston although they had a display we walked through on a local pier before heading to the movies. We stopped into a Movie Tavern and caught the Mission Impossible film while enjoying a very tasty dinner!

On Weds the Seitz Family returned to downtown Charleston for a carriage ride through the city complete with an historical tour. It was incredibly hot and the tour guides mentioned how wonderful it must have been living there when our country was just getting started, with the heavy rain storms, humidity and tons of mosquitoes!  Seems like nothing has changed! Except thank goodness for air conditioning!  (Sorry Allison!)  We also learned that Charleston had a rough history with lots of fires and even earthquakes that left one church tower leaning!  The tour was very interesting and Tom even reported it was his most favorite activity! What?! Tom and horses usually do not mix!

We bought a combo ticket that allowed us to have both a carriage tour and a harbor boat tour, so on Thursday we took the ride around the large harbor and Ft Sumter. We opted out of the tour to Ft Sumter-not a whole lot to see there anymore, but it is on an island. So you have to take a boat to access it. I think we had a better tour from the boat, and walking through Ft Moultrie. The movie, Glory really highlights Ft Sumter's role in the Civil War. But as we learned, Ft Moultrie had an even bigger impact in protecting the city. And the location of Ft Sumter was not always on an island but a peninsula. The tour boat took us along the city's coastline, around Ft Sumter, and off of the Mt Pleasant peninsula and the large vacation homes and shrimping boats. We also saw lots of dolphins! And then we cruised past Patriots Point and the USS Yorktown Aircraft carrier parked in the harbor before stopping under the bridge. The captain gave us a special treat by blowing the horn under the Ravenel bridge that seemed to echo on forever for the entire length which connects the mainland to the peninsulas. We were happy that we managed to get our boat tour in between rain showers!  Tom and Scott opted out of the boat tour and decided to go on a bike tour on their own around the Mount Pleasant peninsula while stopping into a local coffee shop to avoid any big rainfalls. It warmed up enough in the afternoon for Scott and I to take swim in the ocean. The waves though were very rough and we spent most of our time getting knocked down and trying to remain standing! Scott even attempted surfing on a small board left at the house, but it wasn't sturdy enough to stand on, so he used it as a boogie board instead. At least the water temp was very comfortable!  That evening we visited with the son of the Seitz family nephew/cousin, Bryan Blanchard who lives in Charleston. He stopped over to the house to help us drink some beer before we headed out to dinner.

On our last day, Tom and Scott took Gma Seitz in town to walk through a large mall while Mark, Gpa and I toured the USS Yorktown. The history is amazing onboard the carrier, and it was full of historical planes, including several from Northrop Grumman. I even bought Allison one of the historical plane models, The Tomcat,  for her new work desk. (Tom already has plenty of knick knacks for his desk like the B2 model). It was just a bit challenging climbing up and down the narrow stairwells on board, plus a bit slippery with all the rain. We opted out of climbing around the smaller Destroyer and submarine. The rest of the group visited the aquarium. In the evening we stopped in for some souvenir shopping and then we took one last long walk along the beach and out for a BBQ dinner.

Saturday we drove back home through the DC area.  Alex could only stay for a few days as she was heading to Wisconsin for a Cross Fit Event to cheer on friends in the middle of the week. She enjoyed shopping at the outlet malls and visiting a Plantation as well as joining many family activities. We also had the added challenge of keeping Gma Seitz engaged as she is struggling with ongoing dementia. We would like to thank Gpa and Gma Seitz for making this trip possible! It was wonderful spending time with all the family members and having the opportunity to discover another part of the country as well as meeting baby Claire!

On Sunday I was busy unpacking the van and doing laundry. In a very hot house!  Allison had survived her first week of her new job at Northrop at the Sykesville facility, near my previous job at the

nursing home. She spent the evenings holed up in our basement with our portable AC, but Tom did not think it was running very efficiently. We couldn't wait for the AC repairman scheduled on Tuesday!