Day 33: Horses and Warships

We headed out early for a carriage ride through Charleston to learn more about the city and its history. It was really cool to see the old churches and hear about the history, including seeing the border of the original walled city and original seawall. This was for me.

Next up was what Nicholas has been waiting for this entire trip: visiting the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier. We spent nearly 5 hours there and saw every inch of the boat. Rob’s Grandpa Chuck was a Hellcat pilot on a similar carrier, making some of the exhibits displays even more meaningful. This was for Nicholas and Rob.

During a snack break we went outside to enjoy some mask-free fresh air. We were treated to another Nicholas favorite, the tour helicopter taking off and landing. A highlight for me was seeing a mom and baby dolphin playing.

There was a destroyer, the USS Laffey, across the dock and it was interesting to compare sizes of the 350-crew Laffey vs. the 3,500-crew Yorktown. We watched a very impactful film about a kamikaze attack on the Laffey. The messages from the survivors gave us an appreciation of what they went through. It really rattled Cooper, who got a total of three hours of sleep (the two of us shared the foldout couch) that night.

When we were back at the site and getting packed up to leave the next day, Rob was getting bitten by so many mosquitoes, but the kids and I seemed untouched. He was over by the water hookup, which probably had something to do with it, but they also LOVE him way more than the rest of us.

Cooper had been begging for a nighttime bike ride, so we made it happen. We didn’t really think it through, so only Rob had a light on his bike. Fortunately, it got the job done and helped everyone stay close. He would call out when he saw frogs on the bike path, which the kids loved. Then one time he called out “crab!” and came to a complete stop. There was indeed a crab, which was soon followed by even more crabs intermixed with the frogs on the rest of our dark ride. That was soon followed by a few lightning bugs, which the boys and I had never seen. We look forward to seeing even more as we continue traveling south. This ride was super bucket-filling for Cooper.