Amy and Kurts Wanderings

  Last Day in Charleston.  I am ready to be home but don't look forward to having to say goodbye to Chase! We had to pack up the VRBO this morning. Rentals are not cheap around here so switching back to a hotel for the last night.  Today's agenda is Boone Hall Plantation. Upon arrival you drive down the Avenue of Oaks. It is breathtaking! Pictures don't do it justice! We toured the gardens a bit before our house tour. All the flowers were in bloom and smelled great! The tour of the house was just the first floor as it is still a private residence. When it first opened for tours in the 1950s the family that owned it opened the first floor and lived on the second and third floor with their children. I can't imagine growing up with tours going through my house and wandering my yard and gardens. Because it's a private residence they ask that you don't take pictures inside (I don't really understand as the rooms you can tour are obviously staged). The main house ...

When I asked Chase what he would like to do in Charleston other than the USS Yorktown he picked Cypress Gardens. So we did Cypress Gardens this morning. The main draw of Cypress Gardens is the swamp boat tour. You can either row your own boat through the swamp or do a guided tour for $5. I had read you need to get there early as both are subject to availability, so we planned to get there right at 9am when they opened. We arrived right at 9 am with maybe 5 other cars. Oh well, better than lines of people! We decided to go with the guided tour as we figured they could point out alligators and points of interest and added bonus we wouldn't get lost in the swamps of South Carolina. Ends up it is a man-made swamp so really no way to get lost and the alligators we saw were pretty obvious. We basically ended up paying extra for some young guy to row us and a bunch of old people through the swamp. We had to laugh at ourselves. Our tour guide did point out a couple of interesting tidbits a...

  USS Yorktown Day! I have been looking forward to this! I know the air carriers are quite different now then the Yorktown but I was excited to at least get an idea of where Chase will be living and working. Patriots Point actually has the USS Yorktown, the destroyer USS Laffery and a Vietnam Experience. We did not even get to the Vietnam Experience. Walking across the bridge to the ships you start to get an idea how large they really are.   We got there around 10:30 and had booked the Captain's Tour for 11:00. Upon arriving you are greeted by a volunteers at the information desk. They have maps of the ship and were great. Our greeter was quite funny. We ended up chatting with him until it was time to wait for our tour. The tour was about 90 minutes and led by a retired Navy fighter pilot. Such an interesting tour! I would go again tomorrow! He talked with experience about the planes and the process of taking off and landing on a carrier. I would highly recommend!!! The racks ...

Good sleep last night!  Packed up and checked out of the hotel this morning. Stopped at the gas station for a couple donuts and headed out for the day. First stop of the day was the Angel Oak. As usual Kurt set the GPS to avoid highways so interesting drive. Angel Oak is a live oak thought to be 300 to 400 year old. It is 65 feet high and circumference of the trunk is 25.5 feet. Area of shade is 17,000 sq feet. It's largest limb circumference is 11.25 feet and length of 89 feet. They had large wooden posts helping to hold up the limbs. Many of the limbs are actually hollow. It was beautiful!!!  Next stop was Charleston Tea Garden. Out the boonies but another neat stop. The have a cute little gift shop with different hot and cold teas you can sample. We started with a video factory tour on the processing of the tea leaves. They tour was just three different video screens you watched as you went along the windows looking into the factory. Unfortunately, they will not start harve...

 So, the original plan was to go see Chase in May as that would be about halfway between bootcamp graduation and A school graduation but the new real ID rules go into effect in May and Someone hasn't gotten the new license, so I guess April it is. Which is totally fine because I am more than ready to see the kiddo!!! We flew out of Sioux Falls at 3:19 on Wednesday, April 9. Parked in Mom and Dad's garage and got a ride to the airport by the greatest driver, Aunt Jen. This makes traveling so convenient (well, as convenient as air travel can be...). Smooth flights and easy connection in Chicago. Got into Charleston around 9:30. We had an Emerald Aisle Car rental and I really wanted an SUV. The only one they had some sketchy lady was sitting in reclining. I think an employee was taking an unauthorized break. So we ended with a Malibu, at least I really like the gray blue color.... Headed for the hotel, Comfort Inn and Suites, just about 10 minutes from the airport. Is a decent pla...