Second Day in Charleston

Sunday morning was another beautiful day. After a big breakfast at the Mills House I inquired at the front desk about transportation options to the City Marina. I wanted to take the boat to Ft. Sumter. The desk clerk told me he could call a cab for me and that it was too far to walk. I had studied the map and knew it was a long walk, but it looked doable. The temperature was on the cool side but very comfortable for walking. I had no trouble with the walk. I purchased a combination ticket that provided transportation to Ft. Sumter, admission to one IMAX movie and admission to the South Carolina Aquarium.

I knew from my history lessons that this was the place where the Civil War began when the Confederates fired on the fort, but I learned several new things. The fort is operated by the National Park Service. The guide for my group was excellent—very entertaining and informative. I learned that Abner Doubleday, the founder of baseball, was an army officer and was assigned to Fort Sumter. The men played a ball game in the open parade ground at the fort that was the predecessor to baseball. I also found out that Fort Sumter was still being used as late as World War II. Anti-submarine nets were strung from Fort Sumter to keep the German U-boats from entering Charleston Harbor. It was learned after the war that the Germans actually got close to Charleston.

When the boat returned to the Marina, I went in the IMAX Theater to exchange my ticket for one of the movie tickets. The movie, Robots, was going to be shown in fifteen minutes. That was the movie I wanted to see. I was missing Henry. It was a very cute movie. Whenever I have an opportunity to go to an IMAX theater, I always do. I love the huge screens.

After the movie I went to the South Carolina Aquarium. Last summer I had taken pictures in an aquarium in Honolulu with mixed results. I decided to try again. The South Carolina Aquarium’s tank walls were angled. The top part was closer than the bottom. This was really a photographic challenge. I put my camera on shutter priority at 1/500 sec. This is the fastest sync speed for my flash unit. Unfortunately fish do not sit still and pose. This aquarium had some speed demons. I got a few usable pictures but several of them showed reflections of my camera and hands.

The walk back to the hotel was much longer because I missed the cross street I intended to take, but my mistake led me past the City Market which I planned to visit the next day. The temperature had increased considerably. Finally I got back to the Mills House and shed my shoes as soon as I was in the room. I again consulted my Frommer’s Portable Charleston and decided Tommy Condon’s Irish Pub sounded good and was not too far from the hotel. I called to make sure they were still operating since it was two years since my guidebook had been published. My SprintPCS cell phone showed five bars of signal strength as it had over most of Charleston’s historic district. Charleston is good Sprint territory, but Savannah is not. I had my dinner and then settled in for the evening at the hotel.