School on a Bus (a.k.a. Radical Sabbatical)

Sarah: I enjoyed my stay in Charleston, even though it was but a few days. We went to see many things in that historic town, including Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter. Many of the kids have moaned that if they never see another cannon in their lives, they’ll be happy. My favorite thing we did in Charleston was walking around the town, like we did in St. Augustine and Savannah. When you walk around the town, see the small cafes and local people, the exotic, old houses and the cobblestone and brick roads, you feel as though you walked back in time to the 19^th century-and even though your walk may be brief and you never have as much time as you want to look at everything—the feeling of ‘walking in history’ stays with you.

We set a whole day aside for seeing the town of Charleston, but the morning was taken up by school. We packed a lunch and finally left, the historic district we were planning to tour by foot not far away. It took nearly an hour to find a parking space, but we were so thankful when we did! We ate our lunch by the sea in a shady park, and then set out with an AAA book as our guide. We saw a large, white house elegantly decorated that had been a wedding present from a banker to his daughter. The groom’s family had given them a 2 year tour of Europe. I told Mom I was thinking of getting married soon. ;) We continued on, admiring the elegant houses, most dating back to the 1700s. Many of their doors and shutters were painted a ‘Charleston Green’—a green so dark it looks like black. The tale as to how it originated is that the South mixed a dab of yellow paint into black paint that the North had given them after the Civil War for rebuilding. Voila! Charleston green! We also ventured into several old cemeteries to see the grave of Charles Pinckney—signer of the constitution. It was very interesting to see the rows of graves, many having withstood several centuries of wear and tear.

On our walking tour we came by ‘the market’—a long, open brick building is a block wide and stretches for blocks in length. It is filled with stalls of baskets, blankets, sunglasses—really anything you can imagine. We were able to drag Mom away from the alpaca gloves to continue. In Charleston there is someone selling sweet grass baskets at least every tenth mile. At least. The sweet grass baskets are everywhere, since the talented locals discovered the baskets they make as a hobby can sell for big bucks. Mom wanted to find one for $20 but that is nearly impossible. At last, after several long hours of walking, we made our way back to the ‘green toad’ and then to the bus and retired for the night—another busy day had gone by.

p.s. we love to get comments!

Kathy: Since I am a former forester I was very intrigued when I read about the Congaree National Forest,  located near Columbia, South Carolina.  Especially since one of its nicknames is the “Redwoods of the East”, and my forestry school was next to the coastal California redwoods.

In the early 1800’s there was 52 million acres of floodplain forests in the southeastern U.S. Logging began in these areas in the 1880’s, and within 50 years these forests were almost completely decimated by logging and flooding from reservoirs. The Congaree River bottomland forests were mostly spared because it was so difficult to log in its wetland environment. In the 1970’s, when the area was threatened by logging, foresighted people fought to have this area preserved. It was declared the Congaree Swamp National Monument in 1976, and in November 2003 it became the Congaree National Park. It’s the second youngest National Park in the U.S. (Can you name the youngest?)

The Park, containing 22,200 acres, contains the largest contiguous area of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the U.S. (whew! what a long description!) Although once called a swamp, it is actually a floodplain of the Congaree River. The intermittent flooding is vital to the health and environment of this area – occurring about 10 times a year. The Congaree contains around 20 champion state and national trees, such as loblolly pine, hickory, and bald cypress. The canopy of the forest reaches more than 150 feet which is said to be taller than any other deciduous forest on earth; even the hardwood forests of Japan, Himalayas, South America, and Europe. The Congaree contains some of the most diverse habitats in North America. There are 22 plant communities, more than 80 species of trees, 170 bird species, 60 reptile and amphibian species, and 49 fish species. Can you see why this area is so fascinating?

We went along a guided boardwalk trail for several miles, and learned about the Congaree and its characteristics. We read that there are 6 different species of bats who live in hollow trees, and saw an oxbow lake that was created when the Congaree changed course. We saw the famous Dorovan Muck which breaks down pollutants into harmless ingredients. (and we thought it was just mud!) We also saw the evidence of Hurricane Hugo from 1989; in fallen trees and new growth springing up from the resulting open areas. In the wetter areas there were bald cypress and water tupelo; in the slightly elevated and drier areas there was a mixture of bottomland hardwoods and upland pines. It was a wonderful walk on a beautiful day, free of mosquitoes and heat, enjoying the amazing Congaree.