Charleston, SC to Fort Pierce, FL....in a nutshell!

I feel like I left poor Charleston with her hem showing in the last blog, so in order to make sure she is treated like the Southern Belle she is, I am rearranging her "skirts" a bit! Charleston is a lovely city full of gracious old homes & pretty tree lined streets.  We spent a week there, getting various repairs and to-do list items done. As a University/College town, Charleston has a lot to offer in the way of Arts, Culture, and events.  We could easily have spent a few weeks enjoying all the area had to offer, especially the restaurants!  It was honestly not enough time to explore as much as we would have liked to...But Southern warmth was calling our name, so off we went!  

We did a nice day sail to the St. James River, where we anchored out for two nights.  Other than a very strange "Deliverance" type moment the evening we arrived (One member of the food chain was apparently consuming another member in a most hideous, noisy,  fashion), our stay was uneventful-which was quite nice.  We thoroughly enjoyed christening the new grill with a liberal application of Steak, potatoes & sweet baby peppers.

Enjoying a cigar on the St. James

Our next Port of Call was Hilton Head, South Carolina, where we stayed at Skull Creek Marina.  Hilton Head itself was a bit of a letdown-pretty, but very quiet and sleepy.  We did find a great waterfront restaurant that was quite lively, though, and met some fun local folks.  We listened to live music one evening, and caught some football the next....But we had places to go and Savannah to see, so we were up & out of the Marina by 7am on our way to visit Bill's old stomping ground: River Street, on the waterfront in Old Town Savannah.

Skull Creek at Sunrise

We docked just East of the Public Dock, away from the "riff raff" we were told would cheerfully sit themselves on our boat whenever they felt like it....our private dock wasn't so private, as you can see from the walkway just in front of the iron railing-that is River Street!  Considering the fact that we regularly jumped the "locked" access gate, can't see where it would have stopped any serious transient from doing the same...but fortunately, that didn't happen.

Savannah

We hit town just in time for Halloween, which made for some great people watching! It was a pleasure to revisit the city for a few days and enjoy the Old Cobbled streets, fantastic Graveyards, and various Squares filled with amazing homes, complete with Wrought Iron.

River Street

River Street Stairway

A cold front moved in, letting us know it was time to continue on in our quest for warmer weather, so we hauled the dock lines in & headed back down the river on our way to Scenic Brunswick, Georgia. We picked up a spot on Dock 14, which was our home for the next month.  Bill's Mom & Dad stopped to visit us for a few days on their way down to their condo in Fort Meyers Beach-they were our first official visitors (other than the kids!) on the boat.  We had a lovely time exploring  St. Simon & Jekyll Islands. 

Jekyll Island

Gargoyle on Jekyll

Staying in Brunswick for the month meant we were able to get to know a few of the local people, so we were able to get some insider knowledge on places to go, things see & the best places to eat-bonus!  I have no pictures, but the Oyster Shack was one of our favorites, and I am really not sure that a picture would have done the place, or the people in it, justice!  Suffice to say that is was local hangout loaded with some interesting Georgia people. We left Mañana tucked safely in Brunswick, and flew to Lake Tahoe for Thanksgiving-a long standing Ehlke Family tradition :) and had a great week with the kids.  There was one alteration to the familiar schedule this year, when the King family drove down to South Lake to see us, instead of the usual Ehlke trek North to Incline Village to see them.  Much fun was had: The Annual bowling tournament was held for the first time ever without bumpers!  Also spent an enjoyable afternoon outside at Fire & Ice watching the hordes of boarders & skies coming and going on the Gondola. Hard to believe it was November in Tahoe!

Fire & Ice

Then it was back to the boat to prepare for our final run down the coast to our last port before making the jump to the Bahamas... We left Brunswick behind with nary a glance back & pulled an all-nighter to Fort Pierce for quick stay, then right off in the morning to West Palm Beach.  We pulled into the Lake Worth inlet, and stayed Rybovich Yacht Center. Talk about feeling like a poor relation; most of the boats in the marina were over 100+ feet, and many of those were over 200ft!  West Palm Beach had lively downtown & we decided it would be a lot of fun to return at some point & spend a week there exploring the area.  Our plans called for leaving Lake Worth at 4am, so it was early to bed for us :)