A Mixed Bag

Hunting Island State Park — South Carolina
Temps: lO 59f / hI 67f (15c / 19c)

A mixed bag of a day to be sure — weather-wise as well as the varied places we explored.

We started the day with a gorgeous sunrise and blue skies that were quickly replaced by a thick cloud cover that stayed with us while we were out and about exploring Saint Helena Island and Beaufort. At least it was dry — until 1:46p when the skies opened up in a sudden downpour. With a 70% chance of rain forecasted, we were not surprised. Luckily, we had just arrived at the car after our last sightseeing stop, so we avoided being drenched.

By the time we arrived at the campground, the rain was really coming down. So we settled in for a cozy afternoon at home. Not so fast; Mother Nature added a bit of excitement into the mix when a tornado watch was issued until 9:00p. Oh! Oh! The good news is that the watch was canceled at 5:30p. In the end, we only had to contend with a severe thunderstorm, which passed over the area around 4:45p. It was a fast moving storm, and it didn’t linger long; but it hasn’t stopped raining since. We sure are glad that our weather radio was on top of things and kept us informed even as we searched the weather radar sites for more information. (The white arrow in the above radar image points to our approximate location.)

But that’s the bad weather news, and rather than dwell on it, I’ll go back to the simply glorious morning we woke up to. A beautiful morning that invited us to take a walk on the beach even before we had breakfast. Food can wait — got to make hay while the sun shines … isn’t that what they say?

A word about the bottom right photo … no there aren’t huge cliffs here at HISP;
Mui shot this photo of the edge of a tidal pool from a low perspective because
it reminded him of the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica — admittedly a very dirty ice shelf!

How's that for warming things up?

We walked as far as the “River Jordan” to see how it was doing. I wanted to get a video of it when the tide was coming in, and then duplicate the scene as the tide went out this afternoon. Needless to say, with the thunderstorm that came through, I didn’t make it back out there today.

19 seconds as the tide comes in.

We returned home before the incoming tide made the point near the campground impassable. The temp was comfortable, and the sun was still shining, so we enjoyed a simple breakfast at the picnic table before heading out to explore sights nearby.

For a change of pace, we skip the trails and go to Fort Fremont and historic Beaufort.
(1) HISP [green]; (2) Fort Fremont [Yellow]; (3) Beaumont (red)

Fishing trawlers at the Gay Fish Company on Saint Helena Island. Mui stopped by here on
Saturday to pick up some fresh shrimp and grouper to cook at home. Hmmm, Hmmm good!

Our first stop was at Fort Fremont, which dates back to 1899. We didn’t know what to expect of this place; just decided to go there because we saw a brown sign pointing to it near the intersection of Hwy 21 and Martin Luther King Blvd (aka Lands End Road).

MLK Boulevard — aka Lands End Road — is a lovely drive with beautiful oak trees
reaching out from either side to create a natural tunnel.

It turns out that the fortifications are within a preserve. Unfortunately, they are not in the greatest shape. In fact, there are signs at the entrance warning visitors to explore at their own risk. So we did.

From what I have since read, at the onset of the Spanish-American War, a clapboard hospital that stood on the site was demolished and replaced with a concrete building and the fortifications we saw today. The fort, which was designed to protect Port Royal Sound, was named after General Charles C. Fremont, a leading figure in liberating California from Mexico.

According to Historic Resources of the Lowcountry, “Fort Fremont is said to have
been the most expensive of all beaufort area forts and perhaps the most useless,
because no shot was ever fired from the fort.”

The Batteries are overgrown with vegetation and the walls are covered with moss and graffiti.

Pictured in the bottom right is Battery Fornance. The guns that once armed this
battery, and Battery Jessup as well, are long gone.

Our next stop was an unexpected find not far from the fort — Chapel of Ease. Constructed around 1740, this was apparently a place of worship built as sort of an annex to the main parish church in Beaufort so that local planters and their families could attend services on a regular basis. The chapel, which was made a church in its own right after the Revolution, burned down in a forest fire in 1886.

A glimpse of tabby walls through draperies of Spanish moss invited us to stop and explore.
(Tabby is a mixture of shell, lime, and water; it was used by lowcountry planters for construction.)

Scenes from around the ruins of the Chapel of Ease.
Mui decides the Spanish moss makes nice pigtails!

According to the National Register, “the church was virtually abandoned when the
planters evacuated the area in the fall of 1861. During the Federal occupation of
Saint Helena, the church was used frequently by several of the northerners who
had come to the island to educate and train the freedmen.”

From here, we drove to Beaufort. Initially, our plan was to just find a hardware store so Mui could pick up some EternaBond to repair a small crack in one of the rails of the Phaeton — he found something else at a marine shop instead. Anyway, seeing as how we were so close to the town’s waterfront park, we decided to check it out. Despite the overcast, it turned out to be a good place to eat our packed-lunch before spending an hour wandering the national landmark historic district. Oh, and yes, somewhere in there we got some chocolate fetish ice cream from Southern Sweets. The name says it all … and all I can say is, yummm!

The Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park is all decked out for the holidays.
The gentleman with the gold lamé neckwear is Thomas Heyward Jr, one of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence and a favorite son of the state.

Originally constructed in 1799, the Beaufort Arsenal is home to a museum as well as
a visitor information center; we stopped by to pick up a map from the latter.

Left: Built in the 1800s, the William Elliott house was renamed “The Anchorage”
by a retired naval officer who bought the house in the early 1900s.

Right: The maxcy-Rhett house is known as “Secession House” because it was “the scene
of many informal discussions and formal meetings during the 1850s by the Rhetts and
their allies advocating secession and southern independence.”

Our last stop in the city was Saint Helena’s Episcopal Church, established in 1712 and celebrating 300 years as a place of worship. The docent who greeted us when we stepped inside for a quick look-see explained that the church, which was was erected in 1724, gained its current size in 1842. Local history has it that the church was used as a stable by the British during the Revolution, and as a hospital during the Civil War.

The wooden altar was carved by the crew of the USS New Hampshire while
the warship was docked in the harbor during Reconstruction.

According to the docent, of the 1000 graves in the attached cemetery, 800 or so have been identified. He also pointed out that amongst those buried are two British Revolutionary officers and three American generals. As well, we saw several graves marked with flags to honor veterans who were interred here.

The grave in the top left photo dates back to 1776.
the bottom middle photo is the oldest grave in the cemetery; it dates back to 1724.

This is about when we started feeling a light sprinkle, but the downpour kindly held off until we were back at the car so that we wouldn’t be soaked.

Not wanting to end this post at the cemetery, I left my favorite photo from today as the last one.

A tricolored heron and a great egret keeping company in the swamp.
These birds were quite distant, and the heron blended into the environment
so well that I didn’t even notice it until I looked at my photos later.

Well, this brings us to the end of our stay at HISP; tomorrow is moving day. If one is to believe the weather forecasters, the rain is supposed to end overnight and we’re supposed to have a dry day to continue our way south. We shall see!