Deep South - part 2

We’ve been moving at such a pace that I’ve not had time to document our travels of late!

Still in South Carolina, we paid a visit to the state capital of Columbia. There we toured the SC Confederate Relic Room and museum. Founded in 1896, the museum focuses on South Carolina military history from the Revolutionary war to the present. After learning more about the Civil War, we headed down to Congaree National Park to check out the bald cypress and water tupelo trees. 

Our thanks again go to Alyssa who took time out to show us around.

North Carolina was our next stop and base for visiting Virginia. We drove part of the Blue Ridge Parkway and even though the views weren’t as clear as I’d have liked, they were still stunning.

We also stopped by historic Appomattox. At the McLean House, General Robert E Lee signed the surrender document drafted by General Ulysses S Grant, thus ending the Civil war in 1865.

On the road again, this time heading for the Outer Banks. Kitty Hawk/Kill Devil Hills is where the Wright Brothers took to the skies with the first powered flight. This hill was a huge sand dune and the brothers trekked up this and nearby dunes thousands of times to conduct their glider experiments

On to Cape Hatteras and the lighthouse, with its black and white candy-cane stripes, is one of the most famous and recognizable lighthouses in the world. Protecting one of the most treacherous stretches of the Outer Banks known as the Diamond Shoals, with a beam of light that spans 20 miles into the ocean, the lighthouse is also the world's tallest brick lighthouse at a staggering 208' ft. tall.

Having said that we weren’t going to travel to Washington D.C. we decided to go there after all, just for a few days and is the subject of my next blog…