To Tennessee!- Day 2

The next day we got back on the road again and began our drive to Charleston. We drove north up to Saint Augustine, where we enjoyed the beautiful sights of the city, from the safety of our car, of course, and reminisced about our previous visit to the Saint Augustine Fort. 

As we gradually drove further up north, my eyes were met with an amazing sight. The ocean was adorned with real waves, not the wimpy ones I'd seem so far in Florida! The scandalousness of the situation left me speechless (Who are we kidding? Me! Speechless! Ha ha!) for the rest of the drive to Singleton's Seafood Shack, a delicious seafood restaurant. We are our fill of amazing and plentiful clam strips, clam, crab, and shrimp. The restaurant was on the shore of the bay, which we had a great view of from our table. Finally, by the time we finished eating, we staggered happily out of the "shack."

Still full of the delicious food that we'd just ate, we sat in our car and waited for  The Saint John's River Ferry to come and ferry us across the bay. When the ferry came, I, who had been so stunned by the shockingness of the actual waves in Florida that I hadn't been listening to anything anyone had been saying during the ride, so I was surprised to learn the reason we'd come to the restaurant was to ride this Saint John's River Ferry. I was even more surprised to learn that this ferry allowed cars on it, so, when the ferry arrived, we drove onto the ferry in our car, payed the ferry fee, and hopped out of the car to get some fresh air and watch the river. I even took some pictures of the ferry.

We then drove up to the  Little Tablot Island State Park, and, after getting out to gaze longingly at the beach and stop at the bathroom, continued on our way to Charleston. 

On the way, however, we stopped at one of the small tourist shops that were scattered all over Florida to get gifts for the family. We got a bottle of special Hot Alligator Vodoo Sauce for Jaime and a jar of orange marmalade for Papa. The shop, as all shops in Florida are, was alligator themed, with a stuffed alligator and real life baby alligators. I couldn't help taking a picture! 

I love how Charlie's in the background of this one, stretching and smiling, thinking to himself, "Well, I've done my job well..."

...and here are the tiny baby alligators. They're soooo cute!!!!! I could just eat them up! ...That is if they didn't eat me up first... Oh well.

From there we took the highway past Savannah to Charleston. In Charleston, we drove past Battery Park, filled with people, even though there was still three hours until the fireworks started.  We went to park at the South Carolina Aquarium parking garage. We went down to walk down the coast of Cahrleston. There were plenty of people waiting for the fireworks to begin, so we amused ourselves by watching half drunk college students playing Heads Up and football, while dressed in red, blue, and white headdresses, shirts, and face paint. 

I took a picture of us beneath a flagpole and fountain as we walked down the pier.

I also got a picture of me with a South Carolinian Roxie (my nickname for the albino alligator that lives in the California Academy of Sciences).

Finally, it was almost time for the fireworks to start, so we went back to the parking garage, to the top floor, and settled down to watch the fireworks.

The fireworks were amazing, beautiful, and loud! They were being shot from a barge on the water and we had a perfect view from the top of the parking garage. 

When the fireworks started, we were all excited and awed by the enormity and length of the display. It must have been at least of thirty minute show of rapid succession fireworks, all leading up to a HUGE finale with even more fireworks. There was also many types of fireworks, happy faces, Saturns, and more. At one point there was one firework that exploded, and my dad exclaimed, "Wow! It looks like a heart." Without thinking, I immediately replied, "Really? It looked more like a crying face to me..." The Roschach test at work, I guess...

Overall we had a very fun time. I managed to get some pictures of the fireworks, even though the really impressive were too bright, and turned out as blurs.

This one was blurred, but I thought it looked cool anyways...

The funny part was there were some (probably drunk) rednecks (No, I swear they called themselves that, not me. At one point I heard one of them declare loudly, "Darn right we're rednecks, and we're proud of it!") also on the roof with us, praising 'merica in their loud Southren accents. It was, frankly, hilarious to hear their one sided view of the history of our great nation. One, at one point, exclaimed in a very loud voice, praising the USA "...an' nobody can mess with us, 'cuz if they do we'd just get all our guys and go after them, an' find 'em, and beat them to the pulp!" Apparently, however, my dad thought that the drunkards were picking a fight with someone, ignorant to the fact that the men were simply being patriotic. 

As soon as the fireworks were over, we rushed to our car in a desperate attempt to try and beat the impending traffic, and, of course, failed miserably, leaving us stalled in stand-still traffic for the next hour or so. But, eventually, we managed to get onto the highway and drove into the night.

We drove for a long time, past midnight, snoozing lightly, until we came to a gas station with a subways and pizza shop. We had pizza. After discussing the validity of Sharknado: spoof or not a spoof, I got a pint of ice cream to eat because I just really wanted ice CREAM!!! Sorry.

Anyways. At about one in the morning, we finally found a hotel to stay at in Colombia, South Carolina, and sleepwalked to our beds, already long asleep.