Beaufort, SC - Prince of 9-Foot Tides

We decided to go ashore this morning while it was still relatively cool. The Gullah festival was going on, which is a celebration of the traditions and customs that slaves preserved from their African ancestors and passed down thru the generations. They have had some great music -- jazz, soul, even steel drums. This morning as we walked past it was gospel. There wasn't much of a crowd (I imagine most folks were still at church) but those that were there had their hands raised up to the skies and were chorusing "Amen!".

We picked up a walking map from the visitor's center and although none of the tourist attractions were open on Sunday we did walk through the historical district to see the antebellum homes. Most of them were plantation-style, big white behemoths with double decker front porches and pillars galore. One of the nicest ones had a "for sale" sign so out of curiosity we looked it up on the internet www.jamesrhetthouse.com and the asking price was a mere 2.5 million. A lot of the other homes were familiar from the many movies that've been filmed here: "Forrest Gump", "The Big Chill", "Forces of Nature", and "The Prince of Tides".

After our walk we had lunch at a waterfront cafe called Plums (which we were told was a favorite of Barbra's when she was filming P.O.T. here). It was wonderful to look at a menu with reasonable beer prices ($2.50). We didn't order any (it was 11 am, too early even for us) but after five months in the Bahamas things here really seem cheap. We were back on the boat a little after noon, just in time to see the scads of powerboaters flock to this tiny sandbar beach across the water from us. Tidal difference here is 9 feet so half of the time this sandbar beach is underwater, but at low tide the beachgoers come out in full force. At noon, the tide was still going out and it was entertaining to watch the earlybirds all circling slowly in their pleasurecraft waiting for the beach to magically appear. When it finally did, it filled up fast -- we tried to take a photo but couldn't fit all the people in one shot so we cobbled several photos together using photoshop.