The Civil War wasn’t civil. Discuss.

Today we toured Ft. Sumter, the site of the first shots fired in the Civil War. Ft. Sumter was built on a man made island near the entrance to Charleston Harbor. It was built for the War of 1812 and wasn’t decommissioned until the end of WWII. The architecture was very similar to Ft. Jefferson in Dry Tortugas, only smaller. Turns out they were built within about 25 years of each other.

A park ranger patiently answered our long list of questions about history and geography. He also told us about a non-native owl that recently started living in the fort.

To get to Ft. Sumter requires taking a boat. There are two launch points, one in Charleston and the other at Patriot Point. We took the latter because the timing of ferry worked better for us. There were a few other military museums at Patriot Point, like touring the USS Yorktown, a WWII aircraft carrier. We decided to spend more time at the campground instead.

At the campground, we decided to use our kayaks one more time on this trip. Amy wasn’t thrilled about kayaking again in gator-infested waters. We saw a half dozen gators on the lake. One was resting near the office. A couple started swimming when they saw us. They were just as afraid of us as we were of them, or so Greg says. Luckily we made it back safely! We also saw a few turtles.