It's a little lonely here without Evelyn and Colin, but Leslie and I are managing just fine. Yesterday we took the ferry out to Fort Sumter, which is where the Civil War began. It is surprisingly small, and not as grand as it once was, but still very interesting. The park ranger gave a short talk, which was well delivered (no body mikes here) and informative. It turns out, they not only built the fort, they built the island! There was just a shoal there until they imported granite rocks and gravel from New England upon which to build the fort.

Today we visited the Charleston Museum, which is America's first museum. The building is new, and the collection has continued to grow, but there is still a display of some of the original items in the old style. Part natural history, part local history, and quite extensive, this museum took pretty much all day. The highlight was the dress up area; Leslie tried on an artillery uniform and I tried a dress with a hoop skirt. No wonder they're called Southern Belles!