Visit to Fort Moultrie - Friday - October, 21, 2011

Nancy here:  This is the first part of our day trip to Charleston.  I know you have already seen the Bridge Walk Blog.  If you haven't seen it,  just click here.  Like I said, these are out of sequence since we stopped at  Fort Moultrie in the morning and then over to the bridge in the afternoon.  Oh well, the photos are nice regardless of what order they appear ;o))  Let’s just said it all happened on the SAME day!!

Remember to click on any photo to enlarge!


It was a beautiful day for a ride.  We left home about 8:30 and headed south on Rt. 17 toward Mt. Pleasant.  We took the Isle of Palm Connector over the Intercoastal Waterway. 
01 - Crossing Intercoastal to IOP
View crossing the Intercoastal Waterway

We headed south and crossed the bridge to Sullivan's Island.02 - Crossing bridge to Sullivans Island
View crossing the inlet to Sullivan's Island


Once on Sullivan's Island you just continue to
the southern most tip of the island to find Fort Moutrie.
(Take note of the church in the background)03b - Fort Moultrie Visitor Center Sign & Church
Arriving at Fort Moultrie  
03 - Fort Moultrie Visitor Center


We went into the visitors center to purchase Nancy’s
Senior National Park Pass and a National Park Passport.03c - inside Fort Moultrie Visitor Center

They have a very nice visitor center and a wonderful movie. 
Since we had just been here last year to buy my pass,
we didn’t spend time to redo those things. 
We highly recommend allowing time on your first visit to do both.


It was such a beautiful day,
Nancy wanted to climb the stairs to the roof of the visitor’s center
to take a couple photos.
03d - view from roof of Visitor Center
Views of Fort Moultrie from the Visitor’s Center Roof03e - view from roof of Visitor Center


We did not go into Fort Moutrie today,
but we did spend about an hour
walking the grounds around the fort. 

05 - Entrance to Fort Moultrie
Entrance to Fort Moultrie

You can see the photos we took last year from inside the fort here.


As we headed around Fort Moultrie towards the water,
we saw this large freighter entering Charleston Harbor.
It looked like it was about to ram Fort Sumter!!

We walked down to the beach and off to the west,
we could see the bridge we were going to walk later today.


Across the harbor, we could see the City of Charleston.
09 - Charleston from the beach


This is the view of Fort Moultrie looking back from the beach.
08 - Fort Moultrie from the beach


Display of the guns that were used at the fort.
08b - Fort Moultrie guns


As we headed back towards the car,
we saw this sign about Sullivan's Island and
its role in Slavery.
(be sure to click to enlarge)
We learned some history we did not know today.


Nancy had one last thing she wanted to check out. 
She wanted to see the church that is right next to Fort Moultrie.
10 - Stella Maris Catholic Church
It is a beautiful old church that sits right on the corner
across the street from the fort.

10b - Stella Maris Catholic Church
Literally, on the CORNER!!


There was no name on the outside of the church.
However, it was open and we went in.
There was the name...

'Stella Maris Catholic Church'
of
Moultrieville, SC!!

10c - Stella Maris Catholic Church

The Sanctuary and Stained Glassed Windows were beautiful!!

10d - Stella Maris Catholic Church
Nancy did a little research and found out the following on the Internet:

 
Sullivan's Island, the home of Fort Moultrie, suffered extensive bombardment by Federal troops, and by the end of the war, in 1865, the church was the only public building left standing on the island. Father Timothy Bermingham, the Vicar General of the Diocese of Charleston, took up Sullivan's Island as a special project in the late 1860s. He first planned to rehabilitate the old church. By 1868, however, Father Bermingham developed the idea that a new church building should be the centerpiece for a restoration of Sullivan's Island as a popular resort.

Father Bermingham bought the present church lot in October, 1868, for $100. He secured permission from the Secretary of War to use bricks from the ruins of Fort Moultrie to build the new church; indeed, in his enthusiasm for the project, he occasionally had to be physically restrained from tearing down additional walls of the Fort to secure even more bricks. On 18 January 1869 Father Bermingham laid the cornerstone for the new church, which he first called Saint Mary, Star of the Sea, or Stella Maris.


We are really glad we visited this historic church.

But now, we had to cross the little bridge
from Sullivan's Island to Mt. Pleasant
11 - Bridge to Mt. Pleasant
to find the big bridge over Charleston Harbor!!

 
It has been a great day so far and
I have no doubt,
things will be looking up ;o))

Charleston Bridge Walk - Friday - October 21, 2011

The weather was going to be perfect today and Nancy was off from work at Home Depot. We also knew that we had a house showing today (as it turns out we had two showings) so it was a great day to leave and go to Charleston for the day. We planned to drive down to Charleston to accomplish several things.

First, we needed to go to Fort Moultrie to get Nancy a senior national park pass. I have one, but we wanted a backup just in case we misplace it.  For the inexpensive price of $10, we figured it was a good insurance plan!! We only spent about an hour at Fort Moultrie as we have been there several times in the past, so we took some photos and then went to the second planned adventure for the day, walking over the Cooper River (Ravenal) Bridge.

Nancy here:  This post is out of sequence and should have appeared before the previous post about the house showings.  However, I am again behind on photos and blogging, so just pretend it is where it should be ;o))  Also, because I am behind and because there are so many photos, I will post our Fort Moultrie visit in a separate blog in reverse order also….after the blog about the bridge walk.  Now that you and I are totally confused…  hope you enjoy the photos and the beautiful day :o))

We left Fort Moultrie and drove to the base of the bridge
where they have a welcome center, a beautiful park and a fishing pier.

12 - Approaching the Bridge
Approaching the Bridge

13 - Arthur_Ravenel_Bridge- from Wikipedia (from_water)
Photo from Wikipedia taken from Charlestown Harbor 
 
The Ravenal Bridge, its official name, is a 2.4 mile suspension bridge
over the Cooper River connecting Mt. Pleasant to Charleston.
Every year they have the “Cooper River Bridge Run”
with over 30,000 participants.
We thought it would be a fun thing to do, just not running and
not with 30,000 of our closest friends ;o))


13 - Parking under the Bridge
View from our parking spot under the bridge


13a - Waterfront Park under the Bridge
Waterfront Park under the bridge


13a2- Waterfront Park Pier under the Bridge
Fishing Pier built on the supports of the old Cooper River Bridge.
The new bridge opened on July, 2005.


After putting our quarters in the parking meters,
we enjoyed our packed lunch and then
headed out to walk the bridge.


13b -  Sidewalk to Bridge Walk
Sidewalk to start of the bridge walkway


13c - Start of Bridge Walk
View from the Start of the Bridge Walkway

On the east side of the bridge there is a 12 foot lane,
designated for foot traffic and bicycles,
which is separated from the auto traffic by large cement barriers.
It’s a great idea and well thought out.

13d - Getting higher on the Bridge Walk
Heading UP and South on the Bridge Walkway


We stopped many times to take pictures and
use binoculars to enjoy the fantastic views.
We kept looking at each other and
commenting about the spectacular sights we were seeing. 

We’ll let the photos tell the story!!


13e - Cruise Ship in Charleston
Our first view of Charleston. 

There was a large cruise shipped docked at the port. 
To the right of the ship, you can see the steeple of 
St. Mathews Lutheran Church. 
That is the tallest building in Charleston.


13f - USS Yorktown at Patriots Point
USS Yorktown, part of the maritime museum
at Patriots Point.


13g - I526 Loop Bridge around Charleston
As we continued up, we could see another bridge off to our right (west). 
That is I-526 which loops around Charleston.


13h - Approaching the First Tower

We are approaching the first tower!!  WOW, is it high!!

13h1 - Top of the  Tower



13i - View from First Tower to Second Tower
The bridge walkway juts out around the towers
which gave us this view from Tower One to Tower Two.


13j - Cyclist crossing the bridge
First cyclist we saw crossing the bridge.
He looks so tiny compared to the bridge!!


13k - Halfway across
The Halfway Point


13l - View from Tower 2 to Charleston
View from Tower Two to the Charleston end of the Bridge


13m - View of Citadel in Distance
Our son attended The Citadel and
we were able to locate the Citadel Clock Tower
from the Tower Two Platform.


13n - Freighter being unloaded
We saw this large freighter heading to port
when we were at Fort Moultrie early this morning. 
Now, here it is at the shipyard being unloaded.


13o - Shipyard with Cruise Ship in background
Here is a picture of the shipyard for the Port of Charleston. 
Lots of cars…not sure if they are coming or going. 
 My guess is COMING!! 
You can see another view of the Cruise Ship in the background.


13p - End of the line - Time to turn around
This is the view at the end of our walk across. 
Now we turn around an head back. 
Yes Sherry, things do look different walking the same path
in the opposite direction ;o))


13q - USS Yorktown and Fort Sumter Ferry from across the harbor
Another view of the USS Yorktown
with the Fort Sumter Ferry Boat passing in front of it.


13R - Many Boats in the Harbor
All types and sizes of boats in the harbor!!


13s - Big Nuts and Bolts
This is one BIG erector set ;o))


13t - View from tower 2 toward mt. pleasant
View from Tower Two (north) towards Mt. Pleasant


13u - Water Taxi
Water Taxi crossing under the bridge


We stopped in the middle of the bridge
so Nancy could take two photos of the harbor…13v1 - View at Middle of Bridge toward Patriots Point
View to the Northeast – Mt. Pleasant and Patriots Point


13v2 - View at Middle of Bridge toward Charleston
View to the Southeast  -  The City of Charleston


13w - Down towards Mt. Pleasant Hard to Cycle up
As we approached our starting point,
we saw this cyclist was just starting UP… it is a long, hard climb!!


13x - One more view of USS Yorktown
One last view of the USS Yorktown!


13y - Poleing in Salt Marsh
This guy was deliberately poling his boat into the grasses. 
Not sure what he was after?!?!


13z - Tahoe almost home
We were almost back to the start.
There’s our car parked under the bridge.


The walk was fantastic!
We’re going to have to bike this bridge some time.
However, we need to do some hill training first ;o))

The 5 mile walk can now be crossed off our “bucket” list.

Would we do it again?

ABSOLUTELY  --  Can't Wait!!


Before we headed back to Murrells Inlet,
we stopped at The Whole Foods Store in Mt. Pleasant.
We needed to pick up some groceries
that we can’t get here in Murrells Inlet
and the surrounding grocery stores.
Don’t ask me what they were!
I just know that Nancy said we needed them ;o))


All in All... It was a WONDERFUL Day!!