November 17, 2017 - November 18, 2017
On Friday we arrived in Beaufort, SC at about 11:00 AM. On our way up to the office to check in we met Victoria climbing out of her dinghy with some empty propane tanks. We struck up a conversation and agreed to go across the bridge to Ladies Island in the courtesy car to provision and get propane together. She was uncomfortable driving, but could help us find the Publix. After a great lunch at Plums we reconnected with Victoria and set out to Ladies Island. It only took a few minutes to get there and on the way Victoria shared some of her background. She is single handing her sailboat and has been in Beaufort since last fall. She is a writer and is in the process of editing her book on her voyage to the South Pacific. We invited her to happy hour that evening. Meeting people with such fascinating stories is one of the perks of this lifestyle.
That evening she shared more of her story and gave us lots of information on what to do in Beaufort. One spot that interested me particularly was the Pat Conroy (one of my favorite authors) Literary Center. We connected with her in a way that made me feel I had known her for much longer than a few hours. We made a “date” to visit the farmer’s market in Port Royal the next morning.
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| In the morning Bob and I had breakfast at this local cafe. |
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| We strolled back to the marina along Bay Street where many of the historic homes have been converted to shops. |
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| Bob made a new friend. |
We met up with Victoria at the marina and even though we had a bit of a struggle getting a taxi to take us to Port Royal it was worth the effort. The amount of local produce available was incredible and Bob and I made some interesting purchases. One mistake, on our part, was to buy crab cakes…they looked and smelled delightful, but were not as tasty as expected. Our fault…we broke the age old rule of never eating crab cakes outside of Maryland. Victoria introduced us to many of her friends and we felt very welcomed by the residents.
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| A booth at the busy Port Royal Farmer’s Market |
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| The crab cakes look pretty good, right? |
I will definitely be keeping in touch with Victoria and hope to spend more time in Beaufort when we return from the Bahamas in the spring.
That afternoon I visited the Pat Conroy Literary center which is only two blocks from the marina. It is small, but contains a wealth of Pat Conroy memorabilia and a docent who was extremely knowledgeable. Pat lived in Beaufort most of his adult life and wrote numerous novels set in the low country of South Carolina. My favorite is The Water is Wide which fictionalizes his experiences as a teacher on Daufuskie Island in a one room school house with students who had been neglected by the public school system up to that point. As an educator myself in challenged schools with challenged students the book touched me in a deeper way than it may for a non-educator. There was a wall of pictures documenting his first year of teaching on the island and one of the artifacts was a letter he wrote to his family after the first day of teaching on the island. It was obvious from the tender way that the docent discussed Pat that he was an exceptional man and beloved by the Beaufort community. One comment made was that he treated each person he met as if they were the most important person around and always asked them to tell him their story. So the center’s theme is “Tell me a Story” and their goal is to promote reading and writing in those who visit the center and take part in their many events. As you can tell I was thrilled with my visit.
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| This case holds the letter Pat wrote to his family after his first day of teaching. |
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One of the docents snapped this picture of me sitting a Pat’s writing desk
in his actual writing chair. What a special moment for me.
In the background you can see the collection of Pat’s
father’s Air Force medals that Pat kept with him always.
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The walls of the center are covered with artifacts and artwork.
This is a painting of the Beaufort waterfront at sunset.
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After spending 10 weeks last winter in the South Carolina Low Country I gained a new appreciation for the beauty of the salt marsh with its golden sargasso grass, its water birds and sea life, and its distinctive fragrance when low tide reveals the mud flats and the tidal oysters. I reread pat Conroy’s Prince of Tides and realized once again what a beautifully descriptive writer he is. I have downloaded two more of his novels and will read them before returning to Beaufort in the spring.
My next blog post will cover our trip through Georgia.
Thank you for reading my blog.
