We spent a nice easy day exploring Beaufort today. We borrowed the marina's courtesy car to get to the grocery store to replenish the fridge and freezer. Then we walked around the town and found a nice restaurant where we had lunch on their back veranda which looked out over the city's waterfront park to the river and towards Saint Helena Island in the distance. After lunch we took a horse and carriage ride tour on a carriage that held 16 plus the driver with a horse who was much happier trotting than walking. We learned about Beaufort's interesting history, dating back to the Indians, the Spanish, the French, through the prosperous years of the plantations, the difficult years of the Civil War where the residents abandoned the town and the Union Soldiers occupied the town and created hospitals during the war, to the bad economic times after the war, terrible damage from hurricanes, and on to more prosperous times with the arrival of the military bases. The Captain
In addition to all our history lessons, we heard about the movies filmed here in Beaufort : The Big Chill, Forrest Gump, and the Prince of Tides. The best story was about Barbra Streisand's 7 week stay here for the filming of the Prince of Tides. Apparently she wanted to live in an antebellum house that also had a pool. That left one choice and it was right here in the downtown area. Unfortunately, the owners said they wouldn't rent. Her agents gave them another offer and they said no again. Three times they refused but as you know, money talks. Finally on the fourth offer, they agreed to move out for the 7 weeks. She moved in and promptly covered their wood floors with white carpet because she only walks on white carpet. She also arranged for all their furniture to be stored and bought all new, undoubtedly from rooms to go. Long story short, they moved back into their house after the seven weeks were up and were able to send all four of their children to college, fully paid, with the proceeds of their windfall. Guess you never know what's going to happen to change your life. Another fun vacation day! The Admiral