South Carolina: Beaufort

Day 318
May 24, 2016
NM Today: 41
NM To Date: 5030

After leaving Savannah, Jeff, Chris and their families headed directly to Charleston, South Carolina. We, however, made an intermediate stop in beautiful Beaufort to cut the trip into manageable chunks and to see an historic town we were told was a "must see" spot. Since we told the "kids" we would be in Charleston on Wednesday so we could go to a plantation together on Thursday, we left Savannah early so that we would have some time to see Beaufort late afternoon / evening.

Traffic in Savannah as we prepare to depart

Most of the trip along the ICW was "as per usual" though we did see a couple of interesting sights.

Parasailing (not us!) on the ICW

Clark explained to me that the color of the marker does not determine which side the boat needs to pass on. Normally the green and red colors tell the pilot where to steer. In the case of the two shown below, however, it is the yellow triangle or square that tells the pilot how to pass the markers when boating on the ICW. How anyone is supposed to spot the square or triangle from any distance is beyond me!

Green Buoy with Yellow Triangle

Red Buoy with Yellow Square

Unfortunately even though we tried to leave early, we still got into Beaufort late afternoon. We jumped on our bicycles as quickly as possible to have a look around town. Our tour started with the waterfront park quite close to where the boat was docked.

Waterfront Park

After that we took a quick run through the main shopping area.

Bay Street Trading Co.

Since we knew we would have a late dinner, we decided to stop for a treat to hold us over until later.

Ice Cream Shop in Beaufort, S.C.

We diverted off the busy main street to take a look at the houses and sites in the historic section of Beaufort.

The Daniel Webster Crocker House

Beaufort Inn

Beaufort Arsenal

Miss Beaufort statue outside the Library

Sample Houses in Historic Beaufort

"The Castle" c. 1860

 At the ends of some of the streets we found undeveloped sections of land owned by the town of Beaufort to preserve the views.

Property preserved to retain view

We saw a couple of historic churches like the one below built in 1892 in the Gothic Revival style.

Gothic Revival style Church

 After touring a number of the streets in the historic district, we headed back to the boat passing once more through the Waterfront Park.

View of bridge from Waterfront Park

 I knew we would want to tour Beaufort as soon as we docked, so I pre-made dinner as we were underway. That worked out well as I could just reheat the food and make a very quick meal. Clark managed to get a sunset picture for the blog.

Sunset at Beaufort, S.C.