Shiver Me Timbers

Only one week left of our vacation. Time flies. Jio and Lilia have been enjoying the endless potato chips supplied by Grandma and Grandpa and the endless animation on Cartoon Network. Yesterday we went on a little adventure. We drove three hours to the coast, past fields of soybeans, cotton, and tobacco and a yard full of buzzards, through Greeleyville and Andrews (home of Chubby Checker), past a weathered old barn painted with "Hell is No Joke. Jesus Saves," on down to Georgetown, which is famous for ghosts, Revolutionary War hero Frances Marion, and pirates. We took a cruise on the Jolly Rover, a "pirate ship" sailed by guys dressed up in pirate gear. They menaced the children with cutlasses and pirate banter ("I'll cut off your eyelids if you go to sleep"), making the boy who'd swaggered aboard in a pirate costume, and one other kid, cry. The "pirates" sang pirate songs and told stories about Ann Bonny, the infamous woman pirate who spent some time in Charleston, and a peg-legged, one-eyed, hook-handed pirate puppet. It was a lot of fun. I was hoping to see some gators or dolphins, but alas, there were none about.