On the morning of Day 7, I awoke at an appropriate time, after an appropriate amount of sleep. So…yay! My plan for today was to visit the South Carolina Aquarium, then wing it. NOTE: If you are thinking of going to the SC Aquarium, the web site claims you MUST buy tickets online. So I went ahead and did that, which took me just long enough that I missed my bus. Since this bus route only runs every 30 minutes, and I had my supply of water on my back (see my Travel Tips from Day 6), I decided to proceed on foot. The idea was to keep an eye out for a place where I could have a large late breakfast / early lunch, then continue on foot or by bus, arriving at the aquarium between 11:00 and 11:30. Unfortunately, I did not happen across any breakfast joints, so I ended up walking all the way from my hotel on the west edge of the peninsula to the aquarium on the east edge. According to Google Maps, that’s 2.2 miles.
Now keep in mind, I almost decided against going to the aquarium to begin with. Aquariums (like old mansions) are getting to be a “been there, done that” kind of thing. I also felt that while I’m in Charleston, I should do stuff that’s unique to Charleston, rather than see more of the same types of fish I’ve already seen in four other states. But I decided to check their website to see if anything grabbed my attention. It did. Because ya see, this aquarium is local. It’s divided into sections, with each section replicating the aquatic environment in a different part of the state – from tiny mountain streams, down through the foothills, the swamps, and finally the ocean. And there are many more and niftier types of fish in South Carolina than I would have guessed.
Once again I did not bring my camera, as I really didn’t intend to try to get any pictures in the aquarium. Then I realized that, being right on Charleston Harbor, the aquarium also offers more views of the Ravenel Bridge! And lighting conditions today were much better (sunnier) than the last couple days. So I tried to get some pics with my phone. Let’s see how that went, shall we?
Once I got started taking pics, I couldn’t stop! I took these, too (and several not worth sharing)…
Who will win?
Then a couple of gigantic container ships came by, and I had to get pics of them…
Who will win?
Standing right next to the aquarium is the Fort Sumter Visitor Center. Now you may be thinking, “DAMMIT! I missed Jerry Springer!” But that would be totally irrelevant. So instead, you may be thinking, “Ummmm, you covered Fort Sumter a couple days ago.” Permit me to explain. Fort Sumter is an island; to go there, you have to take a boat. There are two places to catch such a boat: here (next to the aquarium) and at Patriots Point (on the opposite side of the harbor). When I went to Fort Sumter, I departed from Patriots Point; the actual Visitor Center for Fort Sumter is on the aquarium side. So I hadn’t been there yet, and decided to check it out next.
You might think the Visitor Center’s exhibits would be the same as those in the museum that’s located inside the fort, but you’d be wrong. Inside the fort, the exhibits are all about the construction of the fort and the battles it was involved in. The Visitor Center’s exhibits describe the events and circumstances that led up to the dissolution of the Union, as well as events surrounding Fort Sumter between secession and war. (Did you know that the Civil War didn’t actually begin until about four months after the first state seceded? Well, ya do now!) So I was enjoying the Fort Sumter Visitor Center, except for one thing: it was hotter than Satan’s colon in there! I learned for as long as I could take the heat, then departed for the nearby bus stop.
According to both my GPS app and the digital display at the bus stop, I was six minutes early. Six minutes later, the bus stop display rolled over, showing the time for the next scheduled bus. At the same time, my GPS app claimed the bus was there, at the stop. It wasn’t. After waiting for several more minutes with no bus in sight, I decided the bus must have exploded, so I made the 2.2-mile journey back to the hotel on foot. With a stop for an ice cream bar.
Voyages with Parkinson's 