Charleston, #2...

Our motel while at Charleston was the Marriott Courtyard Charleston Waterfront located on the river.  It was your typical Courtyard, but the location was pretty nice.

One other convenience about this place was its proximity to the Historic Center area.  We were only about 5 min. driving to get down to the center of the town and it was basically only one street to get there.

If looking at expensive boats is your thing, then this place was a must stay on your list.  The marina which can be seen in the pictures above was quite nice.  I think I have only seen one such place before that would top this and that was the Washington boat yard (not sure that is the name of it).  But then again, as I have said many times before, nothing in Washington is real and certainly the size and cost of some of those boats is totally unreal.  I bet they don't get as good of gas mileage as Miss Pam, my little fishing boat we "cruise" around in on Lake Loramie.

Of course, Lake Loramie isn't as big as these waters.  While we were out on the beach, the tide was coming in.  We were standing out on a sand bar and very shortly after getting out there and staying pretty dry, I mentioned to Pam that we should begin to work our way back to the beach or we would soon be surrounded by water and probably real wet.

We made it back and took the time to send Quinn a happy birthday sand card as well as greetings to the whole family.

We also found a little path that led from the beach over the dunes to some "cottages."  It is hard to call a 4-bedroom, two story house a cottage, but that is what they called them.  A couple of the locals were also walking by and we talked to them for a while.  They were the ones who took this picture.

So that was our afternoon at the beach -- very relaxing, very scenic. 

While I was standing out there on the sand bar, one thing I couldn't help but wonder was what the kids who were here around the 1600s did and thought of when they were standing out here.  I suppose they were too busy to so this, and maybe they were just too wary of pirates or Indians, but I wondered if they scratched names in the sand, or just relaxed and walked around, looking out over the ocean toward their former home country. 

And maybe more interesting is the idea that whatever it was that they were thinking is probably the same thing others over the centuries have thought, maybe the same as what I think today.  When we go to the beach with Quinn, I wonder if he too thinks the same things and is beginning to marvel at the vastness of it all, and begins to understand his place in it.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea.( e.e. cummings)

Hooah