Charleston, SC to Florida

Once we were sure Sesame was safely tied up and plugged in, we rented a car to drive south to Kissimme, Florida to see our daughter Lyz and her family just before they moved to Dallas for Chris's new job.

We got to play with the grandsons, Matthew (4 months) and Mikey (3 years).

"Poppie" got to take Mikey and Matthew out trick or treating.  Mikey was Woody, from Toy Story, riding his horse Bullseye(?).  Matthew was either a dragon or a lizard, take your pick.

After a relatively chaotic week getting Chris to pack the SUV with everything they would need to live for at least 2 months in the temporary apartment in Dallas that would be their home until their new MacMansion is finished, we saw him off on Friday for his 2-day drive with the "stuff" and the dog.  Two days later we put Lyz and the boys on the plane for Dallas and drove back to Charleston. We left the house pretty much "as is" for the professional movers to take care of since they are being paid by Chris's new employer.

As we walked the Megadock at the Municipal Marina, we discovered that we had namesake boats docked on either side of the pier.

We spent a couple of days shopping and being tourists since we had the expensive luxury of a slip with electricity (= airconditioning and heating!).

We toured one of the oldest town houses in the city and had lunch at a seafood joint where the waitresses wore interesting shirts.

We did some browsing and Christmas shopping at The Market.  (Guess who gets the sweet grass basket?) The Market is a string of roofed open-air shops just behind the original slave market which is now a museum.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset over the anchorage one night.

We were anxious to get going again after a few days of bad weather and took a last quick tour around the marina which hosted a huge variety of boats from our little 28-footer

to The Sublime

and The Ridiculous

We left Charleston and headed south through many opening bridges, all of which we had to wait for on our first trip down the ICW on our Nonsuch 30 sailboat with its 54' mast.  Now we only have a 14' "air draft" and are able to sneak through a lot of the bridges while they are closed.

Along the way, we saw a lot of dashed dreams, aka: boats that could be bought cheap!

Most of them were "water stored".

In the same areas there were some fairly impressive "winter cottages".

The "riparian rights" around here seem to guarantee everyone the right to build a dock to the edge of navigable water and everyone seems to take advantage of it, no matter how long the dock.  And they don't share! Each and every house has its own dock, some of which I swear are a mile long!

More modest houses celebrate the few "forested" clumps of land in the middle of the marshes.  The only visible access is through many miles of winding creeks between the house and the mainland.

As we got into Georgia, we passed the Bonaventure Cemetery made famous by the book and movie The Garden of Good and Evil. We also passed Moon River which was actually named after the song rather than vice versa.

There is a steady stream of "snowbirders" on their way south. Sometimes, one misses a turn and has to wait for BoatUS, Tow Boat, or a tide change.

We passed the Jekyll Island Hotel, the winter home of the mega-rich in the 20s and 30s, now owned by the state but still open to the public as a combination luxury hotel-museum-restaurant.  We stayed at the dock in the foreground on our first trip south in our sailboat, but there is no longer any water there.

Our last stop in Georgia was Cumberland Island, another home of the rich and famous until the Germans scared then all away in the 1940s with their U-boats.  The skipper had planned to spend a day ashore and maybe even take a swim in the ocean on the far side, but the dinghy engine failed to start and we had no replacement spark plugs, so we decided to head on to Florida.