Beaufort, SC

It's a not so early 7am here at Chuck & BJs.  We had a great first day yesterday, albeit a long one for Rosie and I with what little sleep we got after arriving in SoCar.

We were up, showered, packed, dressed and checked out of the Holiday Inn Express by ~0700.  Conveniently, at this particular exit off of I-26, one of our favorite restaurants, Cracker Barrell, beckoned us to stop in and have breakfast - so we did.  Never had a bad breakfast in any CB.  It's good, Southernish, comfort food and, they serve you quick.  At this time of the morning on a Friday in SoCar, wasn't crowded at all.

Back on the road at ~0800 with about 105 miles to Ladys Island adjacent to Beaufort.  Mostly major highways:  I-26 to I-95.  The only thing of note, apart from the nice 70mph speed limit on I-95, was the gathering of many police vehicles along the onramp at exit 62 on I-95.  Had to be a good 10-12 patrol cars of various design.  Just felt like they were prepping for the flood of 'out of towners' who would surely be traversing through SoCar on this very popular major thoroughfare. :-) Otherwise, a fairly uneventful trip down to the exit we took to head East, exit 38, off the InterState. 

I don't recall ever taking exit 38 to head over to Chuck & BJs... Matilda was telling us to go that way so, in an effort to rebuild trust with my driving companion, we decided to follow her lead.  Worked out better than I thought because the route she'd picked out for us took us past the old Sheldon Church - we'd visited the ruins before with Chuck & BJ - and we stopped for a quick walkaround and some photos.  Time was ~0915.  Didn't take long before the mosquitos to start hitting on us and we departed after about 10 minutes onsite with our fair share of bites!  They must like my blood... I had about 7 bites, Rosie only had one but, it was a good one on her left cheek that really swelled.

Old Sheldon Church, Yemassee, SC

A couple of photos around the church ruin

Rosie looks great in this B&W leaning on someone's tomb

Continued our journey picking up Rt. 21 on into Beaufort, through the city, over the bridge onto Lady's Island - Parris Island clearly seen in the distance - and finally, to Chuck & BJs.  We did stop briefly at their Publix to pick up a few things.

Arrived at just after 1000.  Chuck was perched on the rear of his truck with Deuce ready to greet us!  Talk about a sight for sore eyes, damn, it's good to see them! BJ came right out of the house.  Hugs and Kisses all around and quite the jubilant young Deuce getting to know us.  :-)

Some of the landscape enroute to Beaufort

View of the Beaufort River just before turning right towards downtown

Spanish Moss just hangs from all the trees

Beaufort side of Woods Memorial Bridge

Ladys Island side of the Bridge

Rosie meets Deuce

BJ and Rosie en la casa

What a handsome pup!

A blood orange mimosa

Made our way indoors and BJ was already set making mimosas of different flavors (turns out they'd run out of OJ :-) )  for us to take out back to the mesh enclosed patio just to sit, visit and catch up for awhile.  Great to be back. 

After a very relaxing, mimosa filled hour+, we jumped into our rental and headed over to downtown Beaufort to have lunch and do some shopping.  Turns out there's a Gullah Festival going on right by the water and along the boardwalk with a lot of food, music and arts & crafts.  We chose not to go there on this day in order to stroll around the rest of downtown Beaufort. 

Downtown looking West

Downtown looking East

Lunch

Rosie and BJ in Plums

Chuck & I

A lovely palmetto lined street to the boardwalk

On the boardwalk, Beaufort

Good shot of the Woods Memorial drawbridge

Beaufort's a very old town that evokes memories of a bygone era in the South, a much more sedated time, with gorgeous old plantation-like homes dotted around with huge live oaks draped in Spanish Moss.  Guided, horse drawn carriages taking tourists around town stopping at significant historical locales for photos and some history.  The downtown area where we spent most of the afternoon has many places to eat and shop.  Chuck & BJ took us into Plums for lunch and cold beverages.  Was quite good.  After lunch we continued walking around town and poking our heads into a variety of shops and, amazingly, bought stuff!  :-) 

Chuck, BJ and I

Plenty of places to just chill along the boardwalk

Rosie and tall Hunter, 17yrs old, outside la casa

Chuck's large new Marine Corp Exchange

Chuck was telling us about an amazing sunglass sale, Costa del Mar, at his Marine Exchange so, we left Beaufort, went back to the house to swap out cars, picked up Hunter and, drove over to Parris Island.  It's a very unique setting for 1 of the 2 Marine Corp 'boot camps' for new recruits... I'll wax on about that in a later post.  We parked in front of Chuck's new store, it's huge, and went inside.  He has over 90 employees all providing high quality service to the reserve and active Marines and their families that shop in his store.

Left after buying said sunglasses, some t-shirts, a Guy Harvey belt and some make-up for Rosie.  Got back to the house around 1730, made drinks, ordered some Domino's Pizza and just chilled until we hit the rack early!

Will post photos later today