Fort Pulaski and Tybee Island

Hilton Head is just over the border from Savannah, Georgia and the day after Christmas we headed south to visit some historical sites and lighthouses.  The day started out rainy and wet but cleared up by mid morning and was a beautiful sunny one though very windy by noon.  Fort Pulaski National Monument is on Cockspur Island which is the second to last island in a chain as you drive out from Savannah. The fort was the scene of a Civil War battle in early 1862 when it fell to Federal bombardment.  

We started with a picnic lunch on the grounds of the National Monument down by a Coast Guard Station.

There is a lighthouse just off the island and we began our tour with a three-quarter mile hike out to the overlook.  Arianna walked almost the entire way both ways and was very disappointed when water on the trail kept us just short of the end of the trail though we did get a good look at the lighthouse.

We then toured the Fort and got to see a demonstration of a musket firing.  It was Arianna's first Civil War battlefield trip and she was very excited to run around, look at things and of course climb on the demonstration cannons. 

We ended the day at the Tybee Lighthouse.  It was closed, so we couldn't walk up to the top but we got some nice pictures of it.  Arianna got her first taste of her father's obsession with lighthouses and with Civil War battlefields and was pretty wiped out by the end, in fact she actually took a second nap of the day for the first time in months on the drive home she was so exhausted.