When we got back from Charleston we talked to our neighbor in our RV park stating that we were disappointed in the bus tour that we took. He said that we should go to Beaufort and ride the horse carriage. He said that he liked this one better than the ones in Charleston and we should really go there. So we decided that we would go there to see what this town had to offer. What a surprise, it was wonderful. The guide was fantastic and since there were only 3 people on the carriage we got to ask lots of questions.

We boarded the carriage at the docks and the scenes of the bay were awesome.

We only covered a small area in town but saw so many beautiful homes and learned so many stories about them. He said that the slaves were given a certain amount of compensation after the war and many of them went back and bought homes in the Beaufort area, some even bought their previous owners homes. One house slave, that had been owned by an elderly lady, bought her home. She had left during the war and later came back to her home to live. She walked in and assumed she still owned the house and no one told her different. The slave took care of her till she died without ever letting her know she didn’t own the house.

One doctor living in Beaufort had a really nice home but his wife wanted more room for a party. So he found a park that had enough space for her party. However, she said it was too far from the house so he built her another larger home by the park. Both homes were fantastic and it seems crazy to build a new home just so she could be close to her party in the park. Oh well, to each his own….

There were also some interesting churches and other buildings.  The town was just beautiful with street after street of houses, churches, beautiful gardens, and rivers or ponds.

Movies have often used Beaufort to film and some of them are “Forest Gump” and “North and South”. The house in Forest Gump is in the historic district right in town. The bridge over the river was the same bridge used in Forest Gump’s epic journey across the country even though it was portrayed as being over the Mississippi River. When they completed the movie they didn’t take the sign saying Mississippi down and visitors to Beaufort got confused thinking they had then entered Mississippi, even though it was all in South Carolina. So the city was forced to take the sign down.  One of the interesting buildings was the arsenal which had it roots in the Revolutionary war and used during the Civil War to hold all the ammunition for the protection of the city.

After our tour ended we decided to ride some more. I saw a sign stating Hunting Island State Park 14 miles, so we decided to go there. We stopped at the visitor center at the park and had to walk along a board walk to get there. The swamp beside the walkway was home to a mother gator but we did not see her. They said that construction was going on around the pond and she was temporarily hiding due to the noise from the equipment.

We then drove out to the beach on the Atlantic Ocean. There was a beautiful lighthouse, gift house, and wonderful flat beach. We walked out and enjoyed the view of the waves. There was damage from the hurricane farther down the beach but the area close to where we were was already cleaned off. There are so many trees that you can see that were downed by the winds and waves of the hurricane.

After we left the park we started back home but Tony wanted to stop for seafood for dinner. When we got done eating it was already dark. When we walked into the parking lot we saw a beautiful sunset with the moon showing. Couldn’t resist the pictures. Enjoy.

Out next stop will be Warner Robins GA to see Tony’s sister. Her husband is stationed at Robins AFB.