A couple days of sight seeing and pleasant surprises.

Preparing for the crowds at Myrtle Beach

    After leaving the activity laden Fourth of July weekend with my brother and his family, we headed east once again and drove to Charleston, SC.  Along the way though, we did stop at Augusta, GA home of the Masters.  I wanted to let the girls look through the gate down Magnolia Lane, but to our disappointment, they have it blocked off.
   Anyway, we reached Charleston in the early afternoon and tried to find a place to park so we could look around.  Not an easy thing to do in an old colonial tourist town.  I finally found a space in a loading zone that wasn't being used for the weekend, so we got out to check it out.

Typical Charleston

    Cecelia wanted to come to Charleston because she had heard so much about the outstanding colonial architecture.  As we wandered through the city we did  marvel at the regular buildings and the many church steeples that were prevalent.   The disappointing part to us, was that the streets we walked on were all about shopping and commercialism.  It took some of the charm away for us.  Now I can't say I am an expert on Charleston, because we only had a short time there and there may be areas that are more authentic, but we had to get back to our loading zone parked vehicle before getting a ticket.
    After Charleston, we headed up the coastline to Myrtle Beach SC.  The drive wasn't what we thought it would be.  We expected to see the ocean a lot and many white sandy beaches, but what we encountered was a nice highway through a corridor of trees.  Not until we actually arrived in Myrtle Beach did we see it on our drive.
    Arriving in Myrtle Beach, we promptly parked the RV at the campground where we were staying for the night and ran off to watch the Women's World Cup Final.  Fortunately we found a bar and restaurant close by that was crowded with people that had the same idea as us.  Despite the crowd, it was great watching the game and hearing the entire restaurant cheer after each goal.  By the time we were done with dinner, the atmosphere was electric.
    After watching the US trounce the Japanese in soccer, we walked down to the beach.  It was about 9:30 at night and the temperature outside was a nice 85 with some mild humidity.  It was the kind of air that caresses the skin and makes you feel very comfortable.  The water in the Atlantic was about the same temperature, just cool enough so that you notice a change.  The sand was like sugar and very fine grained.

Sunset over Chesapeake Bay

   We walked along the beach enjoying the atmosphere, until we came to a river mouth that was too deep to cross.  This stopped our progress down the beach, but there was a boardwalk that lead to an amusement park.  At the amusement park, there was a large ferris wheel.  Since the girls had never been on one before, we decided this was a good place for them to have their first ride.  Cecelia rode with them while I stood guard.  They had an enjoyable time, but while they were at the top they saw an even bigger one in the distance.  Of course they wanted to go on that one next, but it was time for bed.

     The next morning, we got up early and headed toward Fayetteville, NC.  We needed to stop there for business.  After our meeting in the morning, we headed back toward the coastline and on into Virginia.  When we got back to the coast, we found a really cool campground located on the Chesapeake Bay.  Along the way, we stopped at a roadside stand to purchase some vegetables and seafood.  The seafood I bought was two dozen oysters and some crab meat.  You can't beat the price for oysters over here.  Two dozen oysters cost me $10 and the crab meat is real crab, not that red and white artificial stuff in the stores.  We had planned on having these items for dinner, but when we arrived at the campground, they had a cafe that served seafood.  We needed to do laundry, so we figured we would save the food we bought for the next day and eat dinner while doing laundry.

Watching a storm come in over the water

   It turned out to be a great decision.  We had some of the best crabcakes and softshell crabs that I have ever tasted.  The crabcakes were thick and juicy and made of crabmeat with some additional ingredients, unlike at home where we get additional ingredients with a little crab meat.  The softshell crabs were huge, and they served two with the meal.  It was awesome, especially compared to the over fried seafood we had the day before in Myrtle Beach.
    Chesapeake Bay is a beautiful place.  The breezes are pleasant and the sunsets are amazing, especially when there is a big thunderstorm out over the water.  We had quite the light show in the evening.  Along with the sunset and then the lightening storm out over the water, it was like watching 4th of July fireworks again.  We went to bed that night with full bellies and pleasant thoughts of a wonderful evening.  The girls were excited and had a hard time going to sleep in anticipation of our next stop, New York City!!!!