one long day

busy little crabs

the house is through the trees

We had a nice home cooked breakfast and walked out on the pier over the marsh.  It was full of crabs!  We headed into the historic section of Charleston for our Pirate tour.  A "real" pirate and a real parrot took us on a walk through the area and the pirate told us some great stories about the height of  pirating in the Charleston. 

Eric and Bob

Bob, Eric, Sara and Mara

After the tour, we hopped in the car and headed to Wilmington, NC.  We were thinking about taking a quick trolly tour around the historic district, but the trolly was shut down for the day due to the extreme heat.  We decided to take a boat tour instead.  The breeze from the water helped cool us down a bit.  We saw The Battleship North Carolina and some nice views of the city and an area where they used to grow rice. We also saw this cool mural that is part of a series called the Whaling Walls. 

Coastal Dolphins

We had quite a drive ahead of us, so we got off the boat and headed on to Richmond, Va.  I knew when I planned this day that it was going to be long, but I did not realize just how long it would be.  To add the the excitement, the GPS would not acknowledge the address or the name of the hotel, so I had to put in a different Richmond address just to get us in the right direction.  Part way there, we stopped at a McDonald's so we could use the WiFi and get better directions to the hotel.  Then we drove and drove and drove and then, as we neared Richmond, the sky lit up with lightning.  It was kind of pretty at first, then wind swept up and all kinds of stuff started blowing across the road, cars slowed down and things got kind of scary.  Finally, the rain came pouring down.  We drove for a while like that and I hadn't found the exit I was looking for, so when I saw a Super 8 and a DaysInn off the next exit, we headed over there.  There was one room left at the Super 8, but another family had gotten there first, so we drove over to the Days Inn.  They had no electricity and were not interested in helping us.  We (I) considered sleeping in the car, but I managed to play with the GPS and get it to at least find the street of our hotel.  So we headed back out on the freeway and managed to find it.  We checked in at midnight.