Visiting South Carolina

So I'm exceptionally glad I was able to visit the South. Not only because it was a wonderful opportunity to visit with family but we are also being cheated of a summer out here. I just drilled at Camp Ripley and it was about 50 degrees the entire time I was there - in the middle of July!

We drove down from Virginia to South Carolina early Tuesday and went straight to visit Grandpa and Grandma Floyd. Grandpa took us out walking along Congaree River. The city has created a beautiful walking path several miles long on both sides of the river. My Grandpa bikes and walks there almost daily - in the 100 degree weather I must admit he nearly out walked Rachel and I. I really enjoyed visiting with him and learning things I hadn't know about his past. He told us how they would make boats out of scrap wood when he was little and seal the holes with tar then float down the Congaree River.

Grandpa and Grandma took us out for some fantastic fried chicken and ice cream. Grandpa told us about his trip to see Washington DC with other World War II vets and Grandma reminded me how witty and sassy she can me. I really enjoyed her spunk.



I spent Wednesday with the Doolittles. I enjoyed seeing Brian and how excited he is to be part of the military. I was very impressed with how much he has learned and changed in the last few months. Harry, Dianne and I saw an interesting display of some of their skills at family day. The program started with a bang - literally. All of a sudden there were things being shot and lots of smoke as the troops showed how to secure an area with insurgents. I thought it was super cool to see the graduates run out of the forest and through the smoke to formation.

We met up with Brian later for some bowling and touring of Fort Jackson. I'm not so good at bowling.



Thursday Rachel and I headed over to Congaree Swamp National Park. We loaded up with bug spray and sunscreen then went exploring. It's an incredibly diverse area. The mosquitoes weren't nearly as bad as the ones in my parents' yard in Wisconsin. However, you can't hold still because there are numerous other large insects that buzz loudly in your ear. I highly recommend visiting the area, there are all sorts of lizards to see, turtles swam up to our pier from the river and the plant life is extraordinary. Some parts look like a prehistoric jungle, others appear to be scenes out of a Lord of the Rings adventure. Rachel found what we believe is a wolf spider - it was at least the size of my palm with its legs. We kept trying to get a close of picture but were very nervous since we couldn't remember if they jumped or not. All we could imagine was it jumping onto one of us so we warily photographed it and continued on. We made about a 3 mile hike along a boardwalk as well as a regular trail that led out to the Cedar Creek and Wise Lake.

Following our outdoor adventure we met up with our Uncle Joe to go visit historic homes. Uncle Joe was a career fireman so visiting homes with him is more interesting since he brings insight to the fire history of the history and is very observant of construction. We toured the Robert Mills House which was built in 1823 by Robert Mills for the Halls family. Robert Mills was one of the first US trained architects and built many public buildings and monuments including the Washington monument. Symmetry was huge during his time period. So there were fake doorways in some areas to compliment the doorway in the hall on the opposite side. I really enjoyed the order and little details in the design.

They didn't allow pictures inside the building so this site can give a little more detail if you are interested.

After our tour of the home and Columbia as narrated by Uncle Joe we met up with our cousins Sally and Jaimie for dinner. They have this fabulous tradition of eating about once a week at a delicious Vietnamese restaurant. Rachel and I enjoyed coming along and catching up. I hadn't seen Sally since I was nine and it's been about 5 years since I saw Jaimie. We also got to meet Jaimie's beautiful baby boy Preston and his father Timmy who we also enjoyed.



Friday we headed out to see Grandma Pat. We really enjoyed talking with Grandma, checking out her beautiful garden and catching up. Grandma planned a day out on the lake with our cousin Ryan and my Uncle Donny we even saw my cousin Drew with his two girls briefly. I was really excited to see Ryan since we didn't expect to coordinate schedules with him. He and his wife recently bought a boat and he graciously took us out on it. I tried water skiing as well as Rachel. We are going to blame our lack of getting up on small feet that wouldn't stay in the skis. We ate on the boat and spent the day on the water. The temperature of the air and water were both perfect. Here's a shout out again to Ryan for sharing his boat with us and to Grandma for planning it.

It's a good thing I have Jason to go back to and Rachel had military training, I'm not sure we would have returned otherwise. Thanks to everyone who hosted us and to Harry, Brian and Dianne for your time. I hope you all get to enjoy summer days full of the ones we had on our trip.