I just took a little trip down South Charleston & Savannah way.

The trip was to make up for lost opportunities in both cities. We had been in Charleston about a year and a half ago and only had time to drive out to Sullivan's Island adn then thru town on our way to Morris Island. I promised my wife, Esther that we would return and see the city.

We had planned on seeing Savannah about a year before and had to cut some time out of our vacation that time due to a death in the family, so i figured I'd combine the two cities. They are fairly close to each other.

We flew out of Newark on Friday 2-8 and as we wound our way south I looked out and was able to see Sandy Hook, the actual hook not the light, from the plane.

I looked out the window as we approached Charleston and was rewarded with the sight of Sullivan's Island on one side of the harbor and Morris Island on the other.

We went into town and checked out the visitor's center and got all the approriate info and brochures for our stay. I was particularrly interested in the boat out to Ft Sumter.

We got our passes for the DART for the next day. this is a downtown shuttle that runs continuously between about 15 stops around the Downtown area and some outlying hotels. It just so happened that the courtyard we were at had a stop right in front of it.

We drove over to the boat dock and took the cruise out to FT Sumter. I asked the gentleman handing out the brochure if there was any evidence left of the Lighthouse and his response was " There's no lighthouse at FT Sumter, never has been."

I did not argue with him (too much). I opened the brochure and on the first fold was a picture of the Lighthouse that was torn down in 1948.

You can see both Sullivan's Island and Morris Island Lighthouses on the way out to FT Sumter. You are much closer to Sullivans Island , though. I was able to get some nice shots with my son's Olympus C-2100.



The National Park Ranger at FT. Sumter gave a great talk about the role of FT Sumter during and shortly after the Civil War. I hightly reccomend taking this trip if you visit Charleston.


We drove over to Morris Island after getting back in from FT Sumter. I was hoping to get some nice sunset shots of the light. I did get some, and also of Sullivan's Island across the way.









We then drove downtown and roamed around a little and got dinner at a great rib place- Sticky Fingers. It's a chain, but the food is still great.

We spent the next day going out to the Magnolia Plantation which has a restored Plantation home (post Civil War, mostly) with many original time period furnishings, and a Garden that has won raves for decades.

More my wife's cup of tea than mine, but this was her day. We then went down into the City again and explored some of the old houses and buildings and roamed the streets for most of the day.

We drove over to Sullivan's Island at the end of the day to try and get some shots from a different angle. I found a small hill next to the fire Station that I walked up which gave me a view of about 2/3 of the lighthouse. We then drove thru Ft Moultrie which predates Ft Sumter.



We had dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant , Vincenzo's right across the street from Sticky Fingers. Great soup, and the entrees were delicious also.

Sunday morning we got up and drove down to Savannah. We stopped at the Visitor's Center on our way out to Cockspur and Tybee Island. We picked up our brochures to plan the day on Monday and continued on our way out to the Main Event- Tybee Island.

We picked the right day completely by accident- it was Museum Sunday. There was free admission to many of the Museums and Houses in the city. This extended out to Ft. Pulaski and Tybee Island also. We did not take full advantage of the freebies as this was my day and Lighthouse were on top of the Agenda.

We stopped at Ft Pulaski and climbed up on top of the Fort as was reccomended on the forums and did get a nice view of Cockspur.



We left there and I was going to stop at the boat launch on the way to Tybee Island, but I had someone right on my tail so I figured I'd stop on the way out.

We stopped at the North Beach Bar for a "quick" lunch. Nothing quick about it. The food was fine, but the service was very , very slow. Nice view though. It's across the parking lot from the Lighthouse.

I took a few shots of the Lighthouse, etc and then we climbed the Lighthouse. It was a nice clear day when we went into the Lighthouse, but by the time we got to the top it was raining- very hard. This made it impossible to even see Cockspur from the top, let alone photograph it.







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We were driven inside by the rain and went back down to the gift shop. We lucked out as about 5 minutes later they closed the Lighthouse (but not the gift shop, of course).

We drove back into Savannah without stopping at the boat launch and found our hotel, took a swim had dinner and watched the Olympics.

We got up on Monday morning and took a overview tour of Savannah and then utilized their version of the DASH- this one is free. It runs every 20 minutes thru the Historic district of Savannah. This area is extremely beautiful. there are a series of Squares that are distributed thru the area and a large number of the homes and buildings around them and the other parts of the Historic district are restored extremely well.

Savannah is even more walker friendly than Charleston. We spent the day touring the streets and the homes and buildings ( and of course the shops). We had lunch at a Pub called the Six Pence Pub. Great soup and sandwiches.

We even got down to the River and saw the Range Light that has been reatored, along with both the depiction of the Olympic Torch (Savannah was the base for the yachting competition at the Atlanta Olympics)and the statue commemerting the "Waving Girl" who waved at all of the Ships coming and going into and out of Savannah. She was the sister of a Lightkeeper at Cockspur and was waiting for her true love to return to her from his sea voyage.

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We had about half a day on Tuesday before our flight out so we went back into the city and toured the Owens- Thompson house that we missed the day before. We then went back out to Tybee Island, even though it was closed.

I wanted to get those shots from that boat launch, and get the pictures of the other buildings at Tybee that I missed due to the rain.

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We did both and then drove around Tybee Island, took a walk on the beach and then hightailed it to the Airport and flew back north to Trenton.

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Not a lot of new lighthouses on this trip, but still a great time was ahd by all (most of the time)

Dennis
[This message has been edited by wheland (edited 02-15-2002).]

[This message has been edited by JChidester (edited 02-15-2002).]

Dennis,

Sounds like you and Esther had a great trip. When do we get to see the pictures?
I love the Savannah area and try to get back there each time I visit my parents in Augusta. Glad to hear you had a good time.

shirin

Shirin,

I hope to put some in this evening.

I'm going to use the advice in the Photography forum and see what happens.

Dennis

Thanks for sharing your trip with us Dennis. It brought back great memories! We took a vacation to Charleston in 1990. It is one beautiful place! We also took the trip out to Fort Sumter. I could see Morris Island Light in the distance and asked on of the rangers about it and how I could get closer to it. To put it mildly, he wasn't too helpful and told me you can't get to the lighthouse. Well, duh! I could see it was out in the water! I went into a local shop and the store owner was very helpful and gave me directions on how to get close. We drove down to where the gate was and by chance, saw a van drive around it, so we followed and got very close to the light without a lot of walking. (Been back since and had a fence around the gate) This all happened before I was really into lighthouses, but seeing this beauty sitting out in the water really started it for me! Charleston, with its history and beautiful old buildings and mansions, is one of my favorite vacation destinations!

Dennis,

Sounds like a wonderful trip. I too was reminded of my trip to these lovely cities last fall. This trip was the only lighthouse trip I have ever taken alone. Though it was enjoyable, it just wasn't the same without Diana with me.One highlight was that I did link up with Sean and Liz for dinner one evening. (They introduced me to she crab soup). I can't wait to go back with Diana because there are some great lighthouses there and she realy loves the historical stuff and victorian houses.

I didn't get to the range light though and time prohibited me from getting to Hunting Island. I fell in love with Hilton Head Island and Harbor Town. I hope to get my timeshare swap there sometime.
You could spend a month in this area of the country and not see everything. I had a realy good guide book of the Lighthouses of the Carolina's so I had no problem finding all that I went to. I was a little disappointed with my pictures though. I just had a little auto focus cheap camera. Next time I take the Ricoh KR5 and some tips from Gary. Thanks for sharing your trip. Makes me want to pack my bags right now.

Dale

Headed out to get some She Crab tonight, Dale. Sounds like you had a great time Dennis. We have been having great weather. I think it must have missed me in San Diego so it came East to visit.

Dale,

Hilton Head (the Fake one) is what started me on my Harbour Lights trip.

We went to Hilton Head and a few weeks later I was roaming the web and saw a picture of the Hilton Head GLOW (dirty word), and the rest as they say is history.

i've been to over 150 lighthouses since then and the number of Harbour Lights products is around the same place.

We got to Hunting Island about a year ago. they have part of the original Fresnel lens from Morris Island in the base of the lighthouse. It's in a very nice park complete with beaches.

I'm going to add some photos. i'm working on setting them up now.

Dennis

Thanks for sharing, Dennis. A couple years ago we visited Savannah and Charleston on spring break - had a great time in these beautiful cities. We also had dinner at Sticky Fingers. Loved the ceiling in that place (and, of course, the ribs were outstanding.)

Dave

Great Report Dennis - and great pictures. Thanks for 'taking us all along.'

I visited Tybee and shot a couple of photos of Cockspur a couple of times -- the last being in Feb 1999 when Tybee was relighted.

I've never been to Charleston, but hope to make it there someday.

Dennis,
Glad you found the how to on posting pics to the forum. Very interesting travelogue... thanks a bunch for sharing it and, yes, it really is pushing 3AM... I've been scanning photos and it's time to call it a night and crash!

Nite all...
Gary

Thanks for sharing the photos Dennis. It served as a reminder of the trip I took to SC/GA last summer

Thanks

Thanks for sharing your trip Dennis. Haven't been to these areas yet but it would be nice. Maybe someday.

Thanks Dennis...makes me want to go.

Dennis-
Great photos of the area and the lights these are our favorite lights to visit and we do almost every year on our way from Florida to North Carolina.
Your shots really bring the L/h's to life.

thanks

Harry

Thanks all for the nice words about my posts.

Funny thing- I've had 5 people come in to AAA and mention that they are planning on going to Charleston, Savannah or both.

I'm thinking it would be easier to print out my posts and pictures, except they might not all be Lighthouse Wackos.

Dennis

Your timing of this post couldn't be better Dennis. We are heading for Savannah and down to Florida after the Nascar race in Atlanta next month.

Thanks for the information.

2beacons