Hunting Island State Park, S.C.: June 22 - 29, 2021

 We had a wonderful week at Hunting Island State Park, near Beaufort (pronounced Bewfort), S.C.  I was able to get a lovely, sheltered site, the best one in the campground: #124. It was just a short walk to the beach, which was really nice, also.  The Atlantic was warmer than I remember, so beach walking in the surf was fun.  

Hunting Island is the largest state park in South Carolina, so it has lots of interesting things to do.  One day we went to the lighthouse, and Alan went to the top.  I only managed to go about 1/3 of the way before I chickened out.  The views he got were lovely, though.

The volunteer at the lighthouse was nice enough to take a pic of the two of us.

We took a short hike to Little Hunting Island, which had an interesting "boneyard" of dead trees on the beach.

Notice the pelicans flying overhead.
We saw wonderful formations of pelicans,
once as many as 50 in a huge flying V.

Several evenings we went to a really nice, long boardwalk to look at the sunset.

The rest of the time we spent exploring the sights in the beautiful old city of Beaufort.  It has an amazing history, which we were unaware of until visiting there.  In order to disrupt shipping in the South, Beaufort was one of the first ports conquered by the Union forces.  When they took over Beaufort in 1861, the white plantation owners went inland, in "the great skedaddle." The vast numbers of slaves who had been on the rice and indigo plantations were then freed, although the Emancipation Proclamation was not to come for several years yet.  Under the direction of the Union occupation, these former slaves were allowed to form black military units, own property, form schools, be elected to office, etc. The Union forces took over the city without a fight, so all the beautiful homes were preserved, and are still gorgeous to see, much like the houses in neighboring Charleston.  There is so much more fascinating history I could tell you about, but I will leave it at that.

The National Park Service has a wonderful Reconstruction Era National Historical Park, which covers several sites in the Beaufort area.  We had a fantastic walking tour of Beaufort conducted by one of the park service rangers.  Her knowledge of the history of the area was outstanding, told in a most interesting fashion.

Robert Smalls was one of the most famous of the ex-slaves
 who rose to prominence during this time. 
He was elected to Congress five times
and was a person of great influence throughout his life.
He ended up buying the home he was born in as a slave,
which is pictured above. 

This old armory is now an excellent visitor center and museum.
There were extremely helpful and knowledgeable people at the visitor center.

Built entirely by hand by the former slaves,
this was the first church for blacks in Beaufort.
Under slavery, they were allowed small "praise houses,"
or they were in the back or balcony of the white churches.

One of the many mansions in the city.
This one was used as a hospital during the Civil War.

Another most interesting historic place we visited was the Penn Center, a large complex of buildings on St. Helena Island, which housed the first school for formerly enslaved people in the South.  It was started in 1862 by two abolitionist women from the north while the Civil War was still raging, right after the Union army took Beaufort. It eventually developed a full range of academics, from elementary through high school and trade schools.  It continued in operation as a school until 1948, when South Carolina finally started having high schools for African Americans. 

It was really rainy the day we were there, so I didn't get pictures.  We visited the interesting museum and drove around looking at many of the buildings.  Because it is one of the sites of the Reconstruction Era National Park, the Park Service has tours there some days.  If you want more info on the Penn Center and its activities, see their website:  Penn Center

The Marine Corps training base at Parris Island was not far, so we toured their museum one day.  It contained interesting displays about the history of the Marine Corps, the many combats the Marines were engaged in, as well as background on the Parris Island area.  They didn't let you take pix inside.  (Because it is a military base, they took our driver's licenses and truck registration to run a background check before letting us onto the base.)

The Gamble family has a tradition of playing kazoos at Christmas time, so Alan decided that we needed to visit a local kazoo factory and museum. It was fun, but not great.  I forgot to take pix.

We each got a commemorative kazoo.

We enjoyed going out to eat at the many seafood restaurants, and we got fresh shrimp from a nearby seafood company that was right next to the boats they used to do the catch:

Selfie inside one of the restaurants

The only problem of the whole week was a tropical storm that came through the area on the last day we were there.  We had high winds and torrential rain, but nothing was harmed.  We were really glad that we weren't scheduled to leave that day.  It would have been too windy to tow a trailer, especially since we had to go over several high bridges.  The next day was sunny and beautiful, so we drove home without incident.

As usual, I will end with Shelby, who has adapted well to life in the truck and in the trailer:

Her leash allows her to sit on the console of the truck
or get into our laps just a little bit. Most of the time
she sleeps in a cubby hole on the floor of the back
 seat next to the door.  The only time she complains
 is when the road is bumpy or when Alan gets out of the truck
 to fill the gas tank. Then she anxiously looks out the driver's side
 window to keep him in sight.

She confiscated the quilt for a nap one day.

She likes sitting on the bed, looking out the window.
The rain and wind on the last day fascinated her.