Spring Break 2015 - Day 7 - Charleston/Family

Thursday, April 2, 2015

We were up bright and early this morning... much earlier than any other day on this vacation! John showered and the rest of us got ready so we could get our last breakfast. We headed up about 7:30 and were back in the room about 8:15. Our assigned debarkation time was 8:40, so we headed out to the hallway at that time. There was a line in the hall to get on the elevators. Didn't take long. No problem clearing customs, though apparently you're only supposed to have one bottle of alcohol per person in your traveling party (regardless of their age, apparently, because the lady told us we should've had a maximum of four). We had six, but she said she would let us through. Woo hoo! We had gotten a four-pack of Crown Royal (good for gift giving at Christmas time) and two bottles of coconut rum.

After we got out of the parking lot, we drove to Liberty Square and parked. We had 12pm tickets for the ferry to Fort Sumpter. Unfortunately, it was only about 10:15. So we looked at the exhibits and then sat for an hour and waited. We caught up on social media. :) When it came in, we got on the ferry for a 30 minute ride over to Fort Sumpter. It was windy... we were sitting on the top deck of the ferry and Hubby and I were actually chilly, even with sweatshirts on! Once we got there, we had a little over an hour at the fort and then another 30 minute ferry ride back over to Liberty Square. We agreed that we could've used some more time at the fort because we felt like we didn't get to read everything. But it was interesting and the boys liked it. Both of them just studied the Civil War in History class, so that was cool.

Approaching Fort Sumpter

Inside Fort Sumpter

Flags above Fort Sumpter

The Carnival Fantasy from the ferry to Fort Sumpter

After Fort Sumpter, we drove around Charleston a little bit and Hubby and I pointed out some stuff that we'd learned about/seen when we were there over the summer. We drove down Battery Row, pointed out the Four Corners of Justice, drove past the Customs House, and pointed out some cool houses and features of those houses. Then we took off to Uncle Hooter and Jenrie's house to see Jenrie and the kids. (Uncle Hooter is still deployed.) Stopped for dinner at a Chili's (I guess they aren't ALL closed... just the ones around here) as we hadn't eaten since breakfast, and got here around 8. The kids were waiting for us on the porch as I had texted Jenrie when we were at the gate getting our pass. They were excited!!