From Charleston, SC to Jerome, AR

The last couple weeks after the government reopened have been particularly hectic for Bragg Family South.  With things back to "normal", we were able to do the business trip/family trip to Charleston, South Carolina, as we planned.  First major stop, though, was at the Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta, on Beth's birthday.  Below, the kids enjoyed the "petting zoo" part of the aquarium, where they let you touch a number of different sea creatures--here were urchins, starfish, and hermit crabs:

This is an amazing aquarium, with all sorts of exhibits, including the albino alligator that really impressed the kids:

Not everything at the Georgia Aquarium was fish, as you can see Kenny getting a close-up of some penguins:

I think my favorite part was watching their big ocean tank, which had whale sharks, large stingrays, and lots of other big fish.  I could probably sit for hours just watching them swim by:

Later that evening we arrived at our hotel near Charleston after driving through a couple hours of rainy South Carolina countryside.  Fortunately, the next morning dawned clear, allowing for a very nice visit to the coastal part of the Charleston area.  First stop, Ft. Moultrie, a national historic site that was a fortification protecting Charleston from the Revolutionary War up to World War II:

Note the large freighter in the background of the picture above--Charleston is still a pretty major port.  I had a meeting to attend in the afternoon, so Hope and the kids boarded a ferry and went to the best known of Charleston's fortifications during the Civil War, Fort Sumter:

Fort Sumter is way out in the harbor at Charleston, but very strategically located.  Although heavily shelled at the onset of the Civil War, it remains in pretty good condition:

Downtown Charleston is full of history, having been a major hub of activity since its founding in the late 1600s.  Below, Kenny hams it up with one of the large Civil War-period mortars on display:

I was in Charleston to attend a business meeting, so Hope and the kids got to roam the area while I worked.  The visited multiple forts on this trip, including Fort Pulaski (below) just outside of Savannah, Georgia:

Fort Pulaski was a brick fort whose construction was aided by a young Robert E. Lee, then of the US Army: 

While considered state of the art during their construction, masonry forts like Pulaski proved to be of little use against the higher-powered rifle artillery that dominated the Civil War period, as the damage below attests:

 While in the Charleston area, the kids got to the Atlantic beaches several times, we ate some amazing seafood and barbeque, and my meeting went very well.  After arriving, we had to scramble to get into Halloween gear, including a pumpkin carving evening:

You may recognize our neighbor, Jessica, carving a pumpkin, too--the woman at the back of the table by Beth is Hope's Aunt Diane, who is visiting us from Michigan.  Below, Stephen hams it up with his pumpkin:

After another successful if nearly rained out Halloween, we then jumped into a birthday party for Beth.  Because we were traveling when Beth's birthday occurred, we decided to let her have a few friends over for cake and ice cream after we returned.  Below, Beth's goofy face is because she had been trying to blow out her candle before she had "Happy Birthday" sung to her...

Today's adventure took use to a couple small communities not too far out of Monticello.  Our local archeological society had a field trip to the site of some Japanese internment camps.  The newly reconstructed guard tower model below is near Rohwer, Arkansas:

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, during World War II President Roosevelt signed an executive order forcing people of Japanese origin, primarily American citizens, to a number of internment camps away from the West Coast of the US.  Two such camps were located in southeastern Arkansas, and these held about 16,000 people for several years during the war.  Today, virtually nothing remains of these camps except a few monuments and some grave markers of internees that died while being held prisoner (located in the clump of trees on the left side of the picture above).  After our visit to the site of the Rohwer Camp, we stopped in the nearby town of McGehee, where we had lunch at a local barbeque:

Located in an old gas station, this place didn't look like much from the road, but they had great food, including the BBQ and pies!  After lunch, we stopped in and visited the recently opened internment camp museum in McGehee, which is located in part of the old train station:

This small but well-done museum provides a number of displays to help people understand what had happened here.  Interestingly, our archeological society chapter was joined by an elderly couple from Illinois.  The woman, Mrs. Sherry Lehde (pictured below with Jessica Howe), actually spent a year or so living in the camp as a child--her father was a Little Rock resident that had been hired to be the fire chief for this camp:

After the McGehee museum visit, we drove a few miles further south to the second camp location found just outside of Jerome, Arkansas.  Below, a fellow member of the archeological society, Curtis Lagrone (cowboy hat and sunglasses, with cane), recounts his memories as a boy growing up near this site:

As with the Rohwer camp, the one at Jerome has been largely disassembled and converted to agricultural operations, but there are still some remnants, such as the large concrete tank left that locals have occasionally used for target practice over the years:

It is sad to think that these Japanese Americans were forced into these circumstances, amazing to know that some of the volunteered for the US Army and proved to be some of the fiercest fighters in the European campaigns, and inspiring to see both the remaining survivors and local Arkansans trying to preserve what little remains from this period...