Once the main event was over, we spent another couple of days on vacation in Charleston before the long drive back up the East Coast to Mole Hill. There's a lot to see and do in the Low Country, and we could easily have spent another week.
The day after the eclipse we spent at the beach on Sullivan's Island (where Edgar Allen Poe set his story "The Gold-Bug"). The South Carolina seacoast is not one of your gentle "paddle around in the ocean" spots. The waves coming in have been building up strength since they left Africa and hit like football tackles. The water temperature is like a warm bath — if you're accustomed to having your bathwater flung in your face by the tubful.
Still, we had fun. My son and I pit ourselves against the breakers while my lovely science advisor puttered about the waterline looking for interesting organisms in the sand.
The following day — our last full day in Charleston — my son and I went to Patriots' Point near our rental cottage to visit the city's other historic warship museum, the World War II aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. This is the second carrier to bear that name, an Essex-class ship (hull number CV-10) which replaced the original Yorktown (CV-5) sunk at Midway.
Like other warships I've visited the Yorktown is a paradoxical mix of vastness and claustrophobia. It's a huge ship, but it's absolutely stuffed. All the compartments (except the hangar deck) are cramped and labyrinthine. The Yorktown has a lot of its interior open to visitors; we were even able to climb down into one of the boiler rooms.
There's a nice collection of aircraft on display in the hangar and on the flight deck, with planes from World War II all the way to the present, plus a replica Apollo command module in commemoration of Yorktown's role as the recovery ship for Apollo 8. I was amused to see that the more recent jet fighters on display are missing their engines. Apparently jet engines are still too valuable to be stuck in a museum. The winner of the loveliest aircraft award is the F-14 Tomcat, hands down. Even sitting on the deck with no engines it looks like it's moving fast.
After touring Yorktown from stem to stern we went back ashore to visit the Vietnam War museum. It's a pretty neat museum, with most of the vehicles and equipment displayed outdoors. The Charleston summer heat and the presence of a nearby helicopter harbor tour operation gave the whole place an eerie verisimilitude.
That afternoon my science advisor and I went back to Sullivan's Island to tour Fort Moultrie. I was expecting something like Fort Pike in New Orleans: a pile of 19th-century bricks and a couple of replica cannons. What I didn't realize was that Fort Moultrie was in use right up to the end of World War II as the lynchpin of Charleston's harbor defenses.
The museum does a great job of showing the fort's long history. Different sections are restored to how the place would have appeared at different times. There's a War of 1812 battery, a Civil War-era section, a section set up in the late 19th-century style with giant muzzle-loaders, an early 20th-century coastal artillery emplacement, and the World War II era command post for the entire harbor. Even if you're not keen on forts, Moultrie is worth a visit.
On our final night we sampled more of Charleston's super-hip dining scene, at the ironically-named restaurant The Ordinary. The oysters were excellent, as was the steak tartare.
And the following morning, we packed up, locked the house, and turned north for the long trip home. I think I'd like to return to Charleston someday (though probably not in August).
For more stories about travel to exotic places, buy my new ebook, Monster Island Tales!
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