Greetings from Augusta

We have left Charleston after a fabulous day at the waterfront there, starting with a morning walk from our hotel to the Spirit of Charleston, which took us on a half-hour cruise past the Charleston coastline and the visiting tall ships to Fort Sumter. I learned a lot -- for instance, I didn't realize that the entire island upon which the fort stands was built on an underwater sandbar -- from the audio tour on the boat, which covers both the historical background and some of the architecture of the city. Adam and I stood on the forward deck for the whole cruise watching the pelicans, swallows and seagulls, plus Pride of Baltimore under sail and tugboats directing enormous freight tankers to the deep-water docks. It was very hot within the fort where the Civil War started, though also lovely, with little fiddler crabs and arthropods among the rocks.

After the boat ride back, we went to the South Carolina Aquarium, which mostly focuses on native species though it has a visiting exhibit on Magellanic penguins on loan from SeaWorld. We picnicked on the tables behind the aquarium overlooking the harbor, then we went to the dive and feeding at the big sea tank, which has sharks, a sea turtle, moray eel, and a lot of fish. We also spent a lot of time in the "outdoor" exhibit of shore birds, turtles, crabs, and fish found near the harbor (the room is surrounded by mesh but is open to the air and has local plants). And we saw the Carolina rainforest, an exhibit on rivers with otters and snakes, the touch tank with horseshoe crabs, urchins and rays, an interactive exhibit on camping with skunks and owls, and the aforementioned penguins, whose feeding we attended. In the late afternoon, we drove to Augusta, where we had dinner in our hotel room and took the kids to the pool.


The boys at the entrance to Fort Sumter, which Confederate fighters captured from the Union at the start of the Civil War.


From inside the fort, one can see the Charleston riverfront as well as the wildlife that lives in the brackish water.


Here is a view from the upper level of the guns in the fort as well as the boat that brought us there.


Harborfest visitor Pride of Baltimore under sail -- we passed her in the river on the way back to the dock -- with some of the area's gorgeous waterfront houses in the background.


The U.S. Coast Guard barque Eagle in the water in front of the Custom House.


Russian four-masted barque Kruzenshtern and Romanian barque Mircea. Kruzenshtern lost most of her foremast in a storm while sailing to Charleston.


Adam with one of the visiting penguins at the South Carolina Aquarium.


And a glimpse into the Ocean exhibit, which holds 385,000 gallons of salt water and has hundreds of fish, plus a loggerhead turtle.

Saturday we go to Atlanta to see Civil War sites and Gone with the Wind settings!