Charleston - History Field Trip

Our family made our first trip to Charleston, SC at the end of November and I am only now getting around to writing about the wonderful homeschooling field trip it turned out to be! We were only there from Friday night to Sunday afternoon but "Wow!" did we enjoy a wide variety of adventures and experiences! Cornflower still has not stopped talking about it to family and friends. Apparently, I waited way too long to recount our journey and Cornflower (thank you!) has written a quick synopsis of our visit to just give a hint at the fun we had! A special thanks to Cornflower's Uncle Rosh who made the weekend possible!

In her own words:
A Visit to Charleston

When I went to Charleston this past November, I first went to a unique Irish fiddlers concert held in a beautiful chapel. The players ranged in age from nine to eighteen. One player played a penny whistle and another played a bodhran (a goat skin drum). You don’t hear either instrument very often so it made the concert very intriguing. [The group was Na Fidleiri and they were wonderful!]


The next day, early in the morning, I went on a carriage ride (which I had never done before). The mule pulling the carriage was named Otis after Otis Campbell from the Andy Griffith Show. One odd detail about the carriage ride was that the driver had several flagged-markers that he was supposed to mark the street with if the mule left some watery business for the cleanup people to take care of.

Next, we went to the Charleston Aquarium I saw an green moray eel, moon jellies, comb jellies, a Bonnethead shark. I got to touch an anemone in a special touchable tank. Also I got touch a purple sea urchin. After lunch, we took a ferry boat ride (which I loved) to Fort Sumter where the Civil War began when General P. G. T. Beauregard fired against Major Robert Anderson at Fort Sumter.

On the boat ride back to Charleston, people were throwing crackers over the edge of the boat to a humongous flock of gulls that snatched the crackers in mid-air. My sister (age 1) loved seeing the gulls because she likes birds a lot.

That night we went to see a Holiday Festival of lights on James Island. Two million lights over three miles and marshmellow toasting (and eating) to boot!

The next day, on our way back to Georgia, we stopped and saw the Civil War submarine, the Hunley, the first submarine ever to sink an enemy ship. I had a great time with my family and seeing the sights of Charleston. And the history was neat too.

If anyone wants the long but fascinating version (no short version available) of the history of the Civil War submarine from design to raising from the bottom of the sea...ask Cornflower.