Hey Look, Another Huge Bunch of Travel Photos!
So I went into this thinking I'd just pick a few of my favorite photos from last week's trip to share. But ha! Do you even know me at all? Like I can ever do that. So here's a crapload of photos, as per usual. :)
We decided to do the drive to Myrtle Beach (and back) in one day this time, instead of stopping overnight like we did last year. But a few stops to stretch our legs were in order, so our first stop was at Exit 1 in Georgia, and this submarine memorial outside of the King's Bay US Naval Station. The sail is real, from the decomissioned USS Bancroft (SSBN-643), but the "submarine" it sits on is concrete. Still a neat effect, the girls had fun climbing on it.
Next stop, the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens near Savannah. Not a huge place, and it seemed pretty new so some bits were still just taking shape. Very nice, though!
This is the makings of a huge bamboo maze, which should be pretty awesome in a few years. We may have to come back!
In South Carolina (I think), we stopped at another little park for a short walk. I've completely spaced on the name of the park now. It wasn't anything remarkable, but nice for a stroll.
In Myrtle Beach, we sorta played it by ear. Hallie surprised me by being interested in one of the sightseeing helicopter rides, so I took her to do that. Fairly short flight, of course, but fun!
At the hotel we did some shuffleboard with the in-laws.
We definitely made it a point to go back to the Brookgreen Gardens, about a half hour outside of Myrtle. We were impressed last time, so it was nice to go back to check it out again.
I think this nice enclosure for the Spanish goats was new since our last visit--we liked them a lot, especially the young ones. :)
We also paid a return visit to the little children's museum in town, where Amy had fun pretending to be the doctor, nurse, and receptionist all in one.
The girls had fun feeding these carp at the big shopping/entertainment complex near the hotel.
Tuesday, I headed out on my own for the day to check out some sights while the girls went shopping with Heather and their grandmother. First stop: the Cherry Grove Pier, North Myrtle Beach.
I'd never really tried my hand at these under-the-pier shots, pretty cool!
Next stop, a date to climb the Oak Island Lighthouse.
This is a new-ish lighthouse, built in 1958. The tower itself was literally built in a week, as they started pouring the concrete (which is itself colored, so it never needs painting) on a Monday and went nonstop to the next Sunday. As such, it's not a very pretty lighthouse, and the stairs to climb it are quite a bit different than the usual spiral stairs as well. A bit scary since you can see all the way up and down for the whole climb!
But the view from the top was pretty nice.
And we had good timing to see a big cargo ship passing by on the Cape Fear River, on the way to Wilmington.
From there I took a ferry (only $5 for a passenger vehicle, nice!) from Southport over to Fort Fisher.
Some kids were feeding the seagulls, which is always a good opportunity to practice my tracking shots. :)
I really didn't know anything about Fort Fisher, but it was very interesting. Turns out it was effectively the final nail in the coffin of the Confederacy during the US Civil War: the only Southern port that the Union naval blockade hadn't managed to shut down was Wilmington, North Carolina, and Fort Fisher was the reason. So around Christmas of 1864, the Union sent a landing force to check out the fort. They decided they'd need more men, so they came back a few weeks later with more men, and after 2-1/2 days of naval bombardment, 6 hours of close combat on land, and 2,000 casualties, captured the fort. With no ports left for foreign imports, the Confederacy was doomed and surrendered about 90 days later.
Also interesting: the fact that the fort, which was one of the largest earthworks forts in the world, was built entirely the old-fashioned way: shovels and wheelbarrows.
Across the street, the oceanfront was quite nice.
Switching wars, I drove up to Wilmington and the USS North Carolina battleship memorial.
"The Showboat," as she was called, BB-55 was the first new battleship in the US Navy in 20 years when it was launched in 1940. She served with distinction in the Pacific theater of WWII, primarily as an escort to the USS Saratoga (CV-3), Enterprise (CV-6), and Wasp (CV-7). During one battle the North Carolina shot down 7 Japanese aircraft in 8 minutes, putting up so much antiaircraft fire that the Enterprise radioed to ask if the ship was on fire.
In 1942 she took a Japanese torpedo hit in a salvo that sank the USS Wasp and and destroyer USS O'Brien, causing a 32'x18' hole below the waterline. She not only remained afloat, she held formation at 26 knots.
In 1945 she provided support for the US invasions and captures of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Decommissioned in 1947 (that surprised me, since I knew the WWII Iowa-class battlewagons had remained in service even up to the first Gulf War), it was set to be scrapped around 1960, but a campaign of NC schoolchildren donating spare change was started, and Wilmington acquired the ship in 1961, and dedicated it as a memorial the following year.
As I was taking a few more exterior shots, a pair of military helicopters made a low pass overhead, which was pretty cool.
We went to a little nature preserve in North Myrtle Beach, which was loaded with crabs. This one decided to check out Hallie's shoe.
Hallie rollerblading at a park in Myrtle Beach.
And Amy chasing the lights at this electronic playground thing.
Driving home, we stopped at Santee State Park in SC. I'd have liked to explore more, but the girls were ready to push on towards home.
And that was another trip down. Thanks for looking! :)