National Park Celebration Night

The National Parks all across the USA had a Celebration this last weekend.  To Celebrate the new 6 week special on your local PBS channel on Sunday nights.  A Film by Ken Burns. Manuel and I went back to Congree National Park. they took us through the years of the Park.

The Indians were there first and they showed the cleansing of the ground.

This was a beatiful collection of butterflies that was found in the Park (swamp) they now have a training center at the park, for young and old.  The scene on the right was how hard the people in the area fought to get the Congree to be protected land.  Congaree became a National Park in 2003.

Hunters and fishermen use the rivers in the swamp to provide for their famlies through the ages..

Slaves used the Swamp to get away from the South and slavery.


Well you can tell the swamp would be a good place to have a still, hide it from the revenuers.


Loggers used the swamp to make a living.  

The swamp was used during the wars to hide their men from the enemy.


We had a tour guide that took us through the many stages of the Park through the years.....
It was dark before we finished.  Was really a fun night......

The rivers in the swamp were a popular place for the churches to baptism their followers.

FORT MOULTRIE--Charleston, SC

Charleston is a beautiful town with huge old houses that are beautiful today. So much to see and do and the Atlantic Ocean is gorgeous here. But we gave up way to early, it was so hot and the humidity was 100%.... so in the South that is bad, we had another day of wet clothes...... glad we bought the washer and dryer and have a good shower. Ha Ha......

Ft. Moultrie was built on Sullivan's Island in 1776 to protect the Charleston Harbor from British Naval incursions into Charleston Harbor. The first fort burned and in 1798 the second Ft. Moultrie was built. Originally there was 40 guns, and 500 men.

In 1860 just six days after South Carolina left the Union, (SC was the first state) the Federal garrison abandoned the fort and moved to Ft. Sumter.. Ft. Moultrie remained in Confederate hands till February 1865.

On August 15, 1947 the army lowered Fort Moultrie's flag for the last time, ending 171 years of service.

This was the Confederate flag that flew at Ft. Moultrie. The tree on the flag is the Palmetto, which is now South Carolina's state tree.

Ft. Sumter was were the Civil War began...

Fort Sumter, Charleston, SC

Just a picture of us on the Cruise, Charleston, SC harbor in the background.

This Bridge was going from downtown Charleston, SC to Mt. Pleasant and Sullivan's Island where Ft. Moultrie is located.

This is one of the cannon windows looking out on the Atlantic Ocean.

This old Cannon was huge.
Ft. Sumter is a man made island and the only way to the Island to tour the fort is by private boat or SpiritLine Cruises.

cotton in the Museum and Ole Glory behind..

cotton in a bale, hook and lift, in the Museum.

The SpiritLine Cruise Ship that takes passengers to the Island for Fort Sumter Tours. Very Nice and fun to ride and cooled us off on the way home. We were there for the first tour of the day at 9:30 and it was 98 before we returned to Charleston, SC. The humidity was in the high 90's also...... HOT

Manuel and one of the cannons.... huge

The flags that fly at Ft. Sumter.

Ft. Sumter and the huge cannons, across the water you will see sister Fort Moultrie.

THE STARS AND STRIPES Fort Sumter's Battle Flag, 10x20 foot tattered storm flag flew over Fort Sumter during the bombardment of 1861. On the second day the flagstaff was shattered by Confederate fire. The federal garrison rushed onto the flag ground amid exploding shells and burning timbers, to retrieve the fallen flag. They carried it to the ramparts where it was nailed to a wooden pole and re-raised.

OOPS.....

Well I put that Beech tree in twice guess I meant to get this one........and I haven't figured out how to take the other one out...... OOPS......

CONGAREE NATIONAL PARK...SOUTH CAROLINA

The park had a really nice boardwalk, which was almost 3 miles long, nice walk. The temp was in high eighties on Thursday when we went but the humidity was 100%, we came out of the (swamp) wet........
One of the parks pretties, Can't see the blue tail in this one.. The first one we saw was way down under the boardwalk and I asked Manuel why would they have wire going into that tree? His reply was someone threw it down there, then it moved......

Another Big tree in the forest, swamp.

CONGAREE NATIONAL PARK...SOUTH CAROLINA

Congaree National Park is actually a swamp, consisting of many varieties of tree, beech, Tupelo, Bald Cypress, American Beech,HUGE Loblolly pine, Pawpaw,Palmetto, which is the state tree, and many many more.

This hallow tree was one of many in the swamp. Bats normally live inside its trunk, one bat can consume 600 mosquitoes per hour.

American Beech tree, Native Americans and early settlers ground the beech nuts up into a flour for bread and meal cakes.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

The reason we went out on the Eastern shore was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, it is 20 miles long, it connects North Fork,Virginia Beach, Hampton area to the Eastern Shore which is a Peninsula that hangs down from Maryland but is part of Virginia.

There are several tunnels a few miles long each and the rest is bridge, it was Awesome. It is selected as one of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World. It is considered the largest bridge-tunnel complex in the world. The hwy has a few places you can get off, the first was Sea Gull Island, it is a man made island and has a restaurant, gift shop, 625 foot fishing pier. I wanted to go fish there, but that will have to be next time too......
this was a picture of the bridge tunnel coming back in and we had a beautiful sun set to watch..

We had dinner in Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore. We were a little early for dinner and so we sat out on their deck and had ice tea. The Restaurant was the Aqua the the food was superb.

The sunset was beautiful, the Atlantic Ocean was on one side and this was the Chesapeake Bay side .

This picture was taken on East Virginia shore, at one of our other camps in Quinby, Virginia. We will stay there another time. We like the camp here at Chesapeake Bay. We have rode our bikes a lot as the park is falter than most of the Thousand Trails camps were we have stayed.

On Monday morning we took the ferry from Jamestown to Stockton, across the James River. We enjoyed the ride and the seagulls were little.... must have been another breed of seagull. We didn't know it at the time but this is where Manuel's family is originally from.

On Sunday we stayed home and I painted an floral painting and cut out quilt squares....tore up three sheets to work into a rug, which I finished Sunday and Monday. Who knows what Manuel did??????? oh I know he put a new fan on the Nissan.... ran to the auto parts store three times..... that did it ..... yah.....

Touring Yorktown Battlefield

While we were standing in the yard at Moore House we were lucky enough to see the scooner traveling down the York River.
Moore House: On October 18, 1781, officers from both sides met at this home to negotiate the surrender terms for Cornwallis's army. Terms were successful. The house and land was purchased in the 1930's by the National Parks and fix up.

This small tree was on the Battlefield road, I just thought it was pretty, I have no idea what it is but liked it. There are a lot of Magnolia's here would be wonderful to see them in bloom. We were told by a park ranger that they bloom twice a year, and wouldn't you know it the last of the season was a couple of weeks ago......

YORKTOWN, VA

This picture was taken on the Colonial Parkway that goes from Yorktown to Jamestown.

The French Artillery Park, where the cannons that needed repair was parked to get fixed. The Battlefield is part of Colonial National Historical Park. The driving tour is 8 miles and it takes you by all the camps, cemetery, battlegrounds of the American Revolution War.

The flags of the 13 colonies. Awesome to been in the middle of American History......

JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA

Jamestown Settlement, Jamestown Virginia.... The beautiful plaza is the Quadricentennial Plaza to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of Jamestown. 1607 to 2007
a flag for each of our 50 states with a plaque telling about the state and when it became a state.

Jamestown settlement was about a two hours walking tour.
Very interesting and so many things from that time.

The full size replicas of the three ships that brought the settlers to the new world.
The anchol was really large but would need to be with the size of the ships. One of the men working the ships had just returned from working on the Lady Washington that was built in Aberdeen. (tall ship)

This is the Tercentennial Monument, built in 1907 to celebrate the 300 anniversary of the Settlement of Jamestown... Jamestown was the first settlement in America. It now has been 402 years. This Monument is made out of marble, not concrete.....

Inscription on the Tercentenary Monument:

I was standing in a hut or house inside the fort where the settlers lived, furs, tobacco for trading and their tools of trade and everything was kept in their houses. We took a walking tour of the 1607 James Fort, the Memorial Church, the blacksmiths, brick makers, tavern, and many other ways of life in first settlement. Jamestown sets on the James River. We walked through this part of the Historic Jamestown, after we had walked for two hours through the Jamestown settlement, they are both very interesting. Historic Jamestown is a National Park and the settlement is a run by the State of Virginia.