Hunting Island Day 4

We thought we would have rain in the night but did not...we were having a few sprinkles this morning so thought today might be the rain day.  We finished up breakfast and headed off to tour Parris Island and Port Royal.  We had never been to either of these places on our other visits to Hunting Island - the trip is only about 15 miles.

We visited the Parris Island Museum which illustrates the history of the Marine Corp. The place was quite crowded with a tour bus of seniors and 2 classes of 3rd or 4th graders.  There was a video, exhibits on local history, as well as Marine Corp history, examples of all the uniforms, and history of the development of Parris Island itself.  We then found Traditions - what we believed to be the Officer's Club - and I think it was.  At  Traditions we had the buffet lunch - a great salad bar and an oriental buffet.  Not what we had expected but it was very good - the other option was a Subway! After lunch we drove around to see some of the recruits marching and took a few photos.

The major function of Parris Island is to provide basic training for Marine recruits.  The training program lasts 12 weeks and usually each week on Wednesday they have Family Orientation Day, on Thursday they have Family Activity Day and on Fridays Graduation.  This week however was a down week - evidently they have a week off from the normal routine periodically and that is this week!  So there were groups training but none of the family type activities.

Causeway to Parris Island

Main Street on Depot (instead of base)

Early Marine Dress Uniform

Officer's Club

Marines in line for the head

Model of the Statue in DC

Our next stop was in Port Royal.  There were lots of historic homes and buildings. It was a very pretty small town and most of the building were well preserved.  We then stopped at the wetlands preserve right in the middle of the town and took the .6 mile walk around the wetlands.  When we had driven by last evening one of the trees was totally white with some sort of bird - of course that was about 7 PM when they would have been settling in for the night. Today there were not as many birds but we saw a lot and other animals as well.  - White Ibis, Wood Stork,Wood Duck,  Egrets,Turtles, and an alligator.  I need to add two other birds but need Ben to help me... guess I will add them tomorrow night!  The thing that made it difficult to see the turtles and alligator was the duck weed growing over the entire pond.  It was an enjoyable walk.

Ibis Mom feeding Young

The birds are all around the alligator!

A few of the many turtles

Ben on the Boardwalk

 We made a couple stops in Beaufort and then headed back to camp. We stopped along the way at Gay's Fish to buy some more shrimp.  Jane cooked dinner tonight and if you overlook the paper plates it was every bit as good as a restaurant!  I will confess it is Zatarian's Shrimp Creole Mix, a can of tomato sauce, and the fresh shrimp...it meets the one pot rule I have for camping..

Shrimp Creole at Jane's