Friday, April 26, 2013

A Tree That You Must See and Fort Moultrie! (If You Say That Out Loud, it Rhymes!)

Ok - I don't mean to be too cheesy with the title of this post, but I thought it might bring you a little smile, right?:)

During our stay in Charleston, we visited The Angel Oak Tree.  This magnificent tree is estimated to be somewhere around 400-500 years old!  It is absolutely amazing! 



 The Angel Oak Tree measures over 66 feet tall and 28 feet in circumference! It produces a shade of 17,200 square feet! WOW!


 The longest branch on the tree measures 187 FEET from tip to tip! Amazing!!!!


One other part of Charleston that we visited was Fort Moultrie.  We had originally planned to visit Ft. Sumter as well, but the cost of the ferry to get there is very expensive.  We decided we could see Fort Sumter from a distance (for free) and the boys could still learn a lot just visiting Fort Moultrie instead. The history of Fort Moultrie goes all the way back to 1776 during the beginning of the Revolutionary War.  The commander, William Moultrie, and his four hundred men defended the fort during a day long battle with British warships.  The fort was originally constructed out of soft palmetto logs. The structure ended up absorbing the shots from the cannon balls and sometimes they even bounced off!  Hence, South Carolina is known as the Palmetto State! 

First, we stopped by the visitor center to watch a short film and to pick up the Junior Ranger books. 


Of course the boys had to climb all over the cool cannons! And- there were A LOT of cannons!






You can see Fort Sumter in the background of the next two pictures below.




It was a tight squeeze, but the 6 of us made it through all of the tunnels at once! When our family is on a field trip, our motto is always: "No man left behind!"

We ended up staying here almost four hours!!! After watching the required video, touring the fort, and filling out their books, the boys earned their Junior Ranger Badges.  Their names were displayed along with the other Junior Rangers on the "wall of fame" at the visitor center.  Good job boys! :)


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