Civil War history at Fort Sumter

Friday we got up and first thing we did was head to the bay to board a ferry and go see Fort Sumter.  Some quick facts about Fort Sumter; the first shots of the Civil War were fired here in April 1861.  This is where it all began.  Union troops occupied the fort, and when they refused to vacate, Confederate soldiers fired shots from nearby Fort Johnson.  After 2-days of battles, Union troops finally surrendered the fort to the South.  Fort Sumter originally stood about 50 feet high on all walls.  In 4 years, through the battles of the Civil War, it suffered a lot of damage and now only stands roughly 1-story high.  It is estimated that in that 4-years time, 46,000 shells were fired at Fort Sumter.  It wasn't decommissioned as a military fort until after WWII.  Since that time, it serves as a national monument for tourists.

Here we are waiting to board the ferry.

 

 This plaque shows the destruction of the fort from its original structure in 1861 to 1863.

 

Charleston bound!

This year for our 1 year wedding anniversary, we decided to take a trip to Charleston, S.C.  To break up the long road trip, we left Wednesday after I got off work and drove to Greg's parents house at Lake Oconee, GA.  That way we only had about a 4 hour drive on Thursday to get to Charleston.

However, we ran into a bit of a crisis the moment we arrived into Charleston. (Forgive me while I rant for a minute, or two).  We had booked our stay through Hotels.com at the Holiday Inn.  When Greg went inside to check-in, they said we didn't have any reservations.  Greg gave them my name and his name, and nothing (and apparently they were very rude about it, too).  Well, just a few days before I had gotten our credit card statement and had seen where we had been charged for the 4 nights.  So, for the first almost 2 hours of our arrival to Charleston we were sitting in the parking lot in our car searching both email accounts for any confirmation emails (which we realized we never got), calling the credit card company (who luckily was extremely nice and helpful), calling Hotels.com (who was extremely slow and not the most accommodating, considering the whole thing was their fault in the first place), and basically panicking because we were running out of options.  Obviously, Hotels.com figured out they had to refund our hotel reservations, but we were left on our own finding another hotel we could book for the week (which was hard enough to do online from home 3 weeks ago, for a price that was decent).  So, when we finally realized we didn't have any back-up plans, Greg just put the car in reverse and drove across the bay to the Courtyard Marriott.  We basically just walked in, tried to briefly explain our crisis, and hoped we could get a decent deal.  Thank goodness the lady at the front desk was very understanding, and she gave us a GREAT deal (better than what we had had in the first place).  So in the end, God took care of us and it all worked out.  But it was super stressful for a while.  I can't believe I didn't cry, to be honest.

Whew, ok, rant done.  How about this Charleston sunset...

So by this time it was dinnertime and we were ready to see Charleston.  We headed to East Bay Street and walked around, did some window shopping at the local shops and restaurants.  We ate dinner, then walked around some more.  We ended up walking down to the pier then headed home for the night.  After a long day, we were ready for a comfy bed!

Welcome fall

Fall is here!  I'm so excited.  We are getting closer to cooler weather, which means I can almost bust out the boots and scarves.  And of course I loooove the holidays creeping around the corner.  I've been itching to get my fall decor out, so last weekend I packed up my summer decor and filled my house with pumpkins and gourds, cinnamon scented candles and fun little Halloween items.  But first, I needed to get some pumpkins.  Mom, Katie and I went to the Finely Avenue Farmers Market and they have soooo many pumpkins to choose from.  We spent a good hour and a half picking out pumpkins, and man, did we do some damage.

 

 

 Yep, that's our load in the car.  Kind of outrageous, but they're so pretty :)  And now for a little home tour for fall 2012...