Rushing Goes to Ft. Sumpter

Last month the boy and I went to a wedding in Charleston and while there, righted a wrong in the boy’s life. Somehow, despite being a (nearly) life-long Civil War buff, he had never been to Ft. Sumpter. I did the research beforehand, got us up early on a Saturday morning, and we jumped on the ferry out to Ft. Sumpter!

DSCN3838 — Looking out from the ferry toward the bridge over the Charleston harbor.

The fort, in case your history is a little rusty, is actually an island in the mouth of the Charleston harbor. It was built following the war of 1812 (thanks Wikipedia) and switched hands twice during the Civil War.

The fort was hammered by Confederate bombardment on 3 sides during the opening battle of the Civil War, destroying sections of the fort. After the war, the fort was partially rebuilt to serve during the Spanish-American war, and of course to preserve it as a historic landmark, you can see the different stages of construction from the brick, to the early cement, to the modern reinforcement.

Because the boy is such a history buff, we opted out of the museum and guided tours and went around on our own. I learned more about canons than I ever thought I would know in life.

Canons: more interesting than one would expect.

The ferry schedule gives visitors about 1.5 hours on the island, which was just about the perfect amount of time to leisurely walk around the entire fort and take some pictures. They warn you going out that the fort is about 10 degrees cooler than in Charleston and they. are. not. kidding. Not only is it 10 degrees cooler, but the wind is twice as strong. So an hour and a half is just about all you can take temperature-wise as well.

Note the jackets. In Charleston. In late March.

One more check off the bucket list, achieved!

A Weekend in the Mountains

Spring has sprung here in central NC. The jonquils are coming up, the mean temperature is above 50 degrees for the week, and there is just the tiniest touch of humidity in the air. Basically, it’s beautiful. And what does one do when it’s beautiful? Spend as much time as humanly possible outside!

And that is exactly what I accomplished this past weekend with the help of the boy and a couple of friends. We met in Asheville on Friday, and had dinner at Jack of the Wood while a couple of great bluegrass bands played. After a round over at the Bier Garden, it was time to turn in and rest up for the day ahead.

Saturday morning we drove out to Hot Springs, NC which is 45 miles northwest of Asheville. Hot Springs is a really adorable little down that sits right on top of the Appalachian Trail and, as the name suggests, natural mineral springs. We camped out at a site maintained by the Hot Springs Spa, which turned out to be a lot more secluded than we originally thought. We were right by the French Broad river away from the RV hookups and other campers.

We took some time to set up camp before setting out on our first hike:

campsite — The Unsinkable Molly Brown makes her NC camping debut

Our hike for Saturday was Max Patch, a large bald hill off the Appalachian Trail about 18 miles from Hot Springs. The Patch has spectacular views and we were told it would be the perfect spot for a picnic, which it was!

We were not informed, however, that you will be completely convinced you are lost on your way to Max Patch and turn around approximately 2-3 times while on your way to the trail. So there went one hour of potential hiking time. Once we made it there, Max Patch and the surrounding trails were a great first day’s hike.

A great view form Max Patch — A great view of the Blue Ridge

Matt playing in the snow on our way up to Max Patch

Saturday night was spent around the roar of our excellent campfire which we used to grill kielbasa, bake potatoes and of course roast marshmallows.

Matt and I slept late Sunday, while our campmates had gotten up earlier and greeted us with granola and coffee from the only coffee shop in Hot Springs. After packing up the campsite, we followed a hunch to the other side of the river, where we hiked up to the Lover’s Leap lookout, which offered amazing views of the town.

From there, we hiked a while longer on the section of the App Trail heading out of town, away from Max Patch, and doubled back when it was time to go for some ice cream.

If you ever find yourself in Hot Springs, you will undoubtedly go, as we did, several times to the ArtiSun Gallery & Marketplace. They supplied us with our morning coffee, afternoon ice cream (made in Asheville!) and overall good advice about how to get where we needed to go. We LOVED them.

2012 In Review – Part II

Continuing a review of the things I neglected to blog about in 2012, Part II is all about fun travels in…

WASHINGTON,DC!

This fall I got to visit DC twice for two work conferences, the Salsa CRM conference and the New Organizing Institute Unconference. I learned a TON, met some cool people, saw some sights, and ate some great food: