Tall Ships...I love Charleston.

Alas, this is another late Sunday post, slipping in under the radar as being a Sunday post but here none-the-less, there is good reason though and I have many pictures to share with you so please forgive me.

So, many of you realize that I did come home and share the graduation pictures with you, but then I became sick - as emphasized by my treading into the waters of thread crochet.

Honestly, I've been wanting to try the thread crochet for years and just haven't had the patience for it. I've had the supplies and such, just no patience until now. You will have to trust me though, that I HAVE finished the one I pictured, and I mean truly finished, ends woven in and all, but can not show you it tonight because I exhausted the camera battery at the Tall Ship Festival in today.

Chad has had a good week. He's ordered me some surprise, that I think I have completely coaxed out of him to tell me what it is before it arrives but, may just have to wait a few days for this mystery package... Hmmm. This is a rotation weekend so he's in the middle of working, which is good as I'm a miserable patient to take care of and he was sick of hearing me blow my nose all the time. (My words NOT his) He's also looking at the house "decoratively" wise now in telling me that certain frames would look good for pictures that I've taken and surprising me with a Jim Booth print of the Battery in the storm surge (I believe to be Hugo inspired as it was painted in '89 but not completely certain) for our living room as an anniversary present. Ultimately Chad is the best "enabler" husband a photographer/knitter/crocheter could ask for as he looks for ways to make me happy in my endeavors.

But back to being sick and the post being late... so, I was out of work for two shifts and returned last night. And instead of resting today, I slept a few hours and headed back downtown to enjoy the Tall Ship Festival as I am truly feeling much better.

All in all I walked 3.5 miles around a little section of the city today. My first picture of the day came as I made my way down Market St. towards the water:


Gotta love the R2-D2 drop box. It's just cool.

I then arrived at the water front and enjoyed looking at the "Tall Ships" classified as so because they use sails and such to help navigate. It was nice to get a feel for how this historic city used to look. (You know, when you close your eyes and forget about all the modern day things we have)
Of course, what is the tall ship festival without pirates? Gotta have them...
More imagining of colonial days...
The Prince William is a tall ship from the UK (guess why it's named that...) and they were running a special:
I wonder if anyone took them up on it. If I didn't have work responsiblities, I would have been tempted to...

And here, the prize of this year's festival, the Spirit of South Carolina:
It left in the boat parade on it's maiden voyage and will be used to help educate about the sea and sailing and other projects that can be thought of...

And in the next picture, more imagining... just try to ignore our bridge in the background there... I get a little carried away.

It was beautiful day, fairly clear as you could see across the harbor to Fort Sumter easily...
Parasailing is even made it's appearance in Charleston today with this parasailer showing off by turning upside down...
...and then dipping into the water.
Not me that's for sure.

I spent two hours at the post I picked out as having the best view point for me, waiting for the parade of the ships. Until then, I enjoyed watching them set up amidst all the other boats enjoying the water and waiting for the ships to go.
Of course the tugs helped the ships move from the dock and keep the other boats in line.
And I can't resist a plane picture, especially when it's a little one:
The largest ship at the festival moving away from the dock to take it's place in line.
And I hate how I have bad depth perception as this looked like it was to be a bad accident, but of course everything was fine, and it just made for a fun picture.
If you squint really hard, you can tell that the ship in the distance is ready and the crew is brave as they are standing on the masts...
The ducks truly didn't seem to care a bit about any ships...
Finally the parade, and The Spirit of South Carolina leads the way, with cannon fire to celebrate:
I liked listening to all the kids behind me wonder about where the cannon balls landed... nobody bothered to burst their bubbles.

Here come those brave crew members with throngs of people waiting to see them pass on the main pier at water front park. (I was at the next one down as I thought it would make for better picture taking, I got there first, and was able to sit and take pictures without being jostled and I wasn't in anybody else's way either)
Close ups of other visiting ships.

They're getting closer...
More cannon fire...
I just thought this was a pretty picture...
Squint again and you'll see that biggest ship I talked about earlier in the distance, their crew is brave too and standing on the masts, but more about their braveness later...
Here's the first brave crew, all waving like it's nothing, and if you look hard enough, you find one who's using both hands to wave... Fortunately it was not a "hey ya'll, watch this" moment.
The Prince William I talked about earlier...
Another pretty ship...
The second brave crew, looking very proud and colorful. I wish I could have seen this ship come into harbor a few days ago. Smoke was blowing in from the wildfires in FL and GA giving it a colonial feel (although, I hate that it was wildfires causing that and not fog...) while they were standing in this formation...
But, when I look closer, I realized that some of the crew isn't brave but just nuts as they were at the very tip top... (they have more guts than I do and more power to them for it) Click on the picture and it will open up larger for you to see it clearly.


They were enjoying themselves too as you could hear them singing. I'm not exactly sure where they were from but it was cool.

And needless to say, this is just the tip of the iceburg for my pics of the festival. Yup, I'm just a little obsessive.

Anyway, though, nothing really new here for us, just living life day by day as we should. I'm back to enjoying myself again and will continue to do so this coming up weekend as Piccolo-Spoletto USA starts up again in Charleston. Street performances and lots of photo opportunities.

Until then guys, unless I decide to share more craftiness again through the week.

Take care all...