Port Royal/Beaufort, SC

Our next stop took us to Port Royal/Beaufort, SC.  Actually, we ended up staying at Tuck In The wood Campground located on Tuc-In-De-Woods Lane in St. Helena, SC.

No. Seriously, that was the name of the campground. (Cue the banjos...)

Why did we come here you ask? To visit family, of course. Here is a picture of my brother, Dane, trying to avoid getting his picture taken:

OK, I guess he must have gotten my camera and deleted the photo. Curse you Dane! (Maybe I will have to get him back by posting a completely embarrassing photo of him as a baby...Dane knows the picture I'm referring to...)

Anyway, I digress. We also met Dane's girlfriend, Kelly and her family while we were in town. A very nice family if I do say so. Although I am a little hesitant to get attached until I see a ring on her finger. LOL (Note to Dane: Aren't you glad you deleted the picture?)

Kelly is the Captain of her own shrimp boat, the Miss Melissa. Cool, huh? Check her out:

We climbed on board and took a look around. Kait and Andrew thought it was so cool.



Kait looks right at home behind the wheel.

Next stop: Savannah, GA!

Charleston, SC

The day after Thanksgiving, The Riggleman's took us into Charleston, SC to see the city. The city is beautiful and it's another place that makes our short list to return to and explore again. There are lots of great places to eat, art galleries, architecture and historical places to see.



The Riggleman's and The LeFevre's at Aw Shucks.

We also went to Patriot's Point, home of the aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown, and the submarine, the USS Clamagore.

It was raining that day and apparently our family photographer doesn't work in those conditions so we don't have any cool pics of the exterior of the ship or the sub. If you go to the web link above, you can see it all.

I learned a couple of things that day. First, I (aka Goldie Locks) could never live and work on an aircraft carrier or a sub. I would be lost all of the time on the aircraft carrier (it's so big) and I would freak out in the sub (it's so tiny)! Second, the men and women who work in these conditions deserve all of our respect and admiration. Third, there is so much about history that I don't know.

My last discovery was that you can take the man out of the Navy but you can't take the Navy out of the man. Or maybe it was just that Tom spent four years in the Navy and never set foot on a ship. (He was stationed at China Lake which happens to be a dry lake bed in the California desert and worked on planes not ships!)

Anyway, I swear he and Don looked at every knob, dial and switch on the carrier and the sub. I even have the pictures to prove it. (Evidently, conditions are perfect on the carrier and sub for our family photographer.) I'm sure twenty years from now, our kids will laugh at all of the aircraft carrier pictures we have in the scrapbook.


Kaitlyn in the cockpit of a F9F Cougar.



Andrew and Nathan in front of a Skyraider.

One of the unexpected bonuses aboard the USS Yorktown is the Medal of Honor Museum. There were fascinating biographies the the Medal of Honor recipients explaining how and why they received the Medal. It was very moving.


All of the kids showing respect for their country.



Thanksgiving in the South

I thought Thanksgiving might just be another day on the road for us this year. Luckily for us our friends, The Riggleman's, invited us to join them at their Uncle's house in Summerville, SC. At first, I thought it would be weird showing up at a complete stranger's house to eat Thanksgiving dinner but we figured they wouldn't have invited us unless they were serious about us coming so we said what the heck and went.

We were so glad we did. From the moment we arrived, we felt welcomed and completely comfortable. Our hosts were so nice and Gigi is an excellent cook so that was a nice bonus.

The kids got to play with their friends from home, Lauren, Josh and Nathan.  Here is a picture of the boys playing with Andrew's Beyblades:

Kaitlyn with a pickle sticking out of her mouth and Lauren.

We ate so much that we stuffed ourselves and I couldn't eat any dessert. After dinner the grown ups challenged the kids to a game of kick ball. The grown ups lasted three innings and lost by a landslide.

Not only was it a great day, we made some new friends. Lots of stuff to be thankful for!