Fort Sumter National Monument

On January 31, the last day to use the Be a Tourist passes, Thomas and I set sail aboard the Spirit of Charleston to visit Fort Sumter. We were joined by Thomas's friend C and his mom and a good time (albeit a bit chilly!) was had by all. It was a breezy day in general, and a bit nippy by Charleston standards, but to be out on a small island in the middle of the harbor, the wind was amplified by about 20! Still, it was fun and I'm glad we made the trip.

On the boat ride out there:


A feeble attempt at a self-portrait since S & C were upstairs at this moment:

Do we have the same eyes? :-)

Thomas did fine on the boat and before we knew it we were there (20-30 minutes after departure):


Thomas & C decided they didn't need to hear the historical presentation given by the park ranger. Instead they much preferred to show their expertise manning the canons.


And there are many, many canons to man:




We climbed up a rather tall flight of stairs and once we reached the top Thomas celebrated in a victory run:


It was very, very windy:


Not sure what he is doing here other than making a really goofy face:



You can see our boat off to the right, and the Cooper River Bridge in the background. The city of Charleston, therefore, is to the left in the background.

We sought a bit of warmth and shelter in the little museum, but Thomas didn't really want to look at any exhibits. We mostly hung out in the front entranceway.



He does not want to pose for pictures, at all!

We finally decided to venture back outside.


I managed to get him to sit still for a second:


More play with the canons...


And then since we couldn't find a warm place to picnic at the Fort, we headed back to the boat:


Not the best picture, but I'll share it anyhow...


The boys had a good time together. Thomas has never really met anyone he doesn't like!


A view back to the city as we made our way out to the boat:


There were about 4-5 tables downstairs on the boat (where it was heated) and luckily we got onboard just in time to snag the last table! It made for a perfect little picnic. We enjoyed the pretty views from a warm place as we enjoyed our lunch heading back.


Thanks so much to Trey for the Be a Tourist passes this year. I think we definitely got great use of them, and maybe next year we can do it again and explore even more of the sites!

And yes, I promised this post by Sunday...sorry it took me until Tuesday!