Another Rainy Day on Parris Island

   John got up early and took a long walk while I slept in until 9:15!!  What's up with that??  Had breakfast and because the weather was still pretty yucky decided to drive around the base and check things out.  Most of the trees are draped with Spanish moss and it's beautiful.  It's obvious that the moss doesn't like to inhabit some trees, like pines and palms.  We'll have to research why.  It's graduating week for the new Marine recruits who have successfully made it through boot camp, so we got to see a lot of groups of soldiers practicing their marching/parading skills.  The one group was marching in sneakers!  John explained to me that they were brand new recruits and they start their marching maneuvers in sneakers because that's what their feet are used to.  After their feet are "toughened up" they are switched to hard soled boots.  Wow!  The Marines do have a sensitive side after all.  Then we spent about 90 minutes in the Marine museum.  It was wonderful!  The best part was watching the boot camp video.  It was pretty brutal!  I couldn't help but imagine what it was like for my father who was here for basic training back in 1942.  At 90 he is still a proud Marine!!

A real life re-enactment of the Marine insignia!

 

Lt. General "Chesty" Puller-my Dad's favorite commander!!



   We had lunch at the PX and decided to come back to Harvey and watch a DVD-The Legend of the Fall.  We turned on the fireplace and enjoyed the next 3 hrs curled up on the sofa.  John wanted to treat me to ice cream and we needed a few things for Harvey, so we headed into Beaufort to Kmart first then to a mom and pop soda fountain he found on the internet.  When we got there, it was closed!  We looked for a Dairy Queen and settled for blizzards.  We laughed about the fact that we came all the way to South Carolina to go to Kmart and Dairy Queen.  We made some hot dogs for supper and I ate mine while watching The Voice.  John played on the computer.  We were both very tired so we "hit the hay" at 10:15.  The weather gal is promising sunshine tomorrow so maybe we will finally be able to ride our bikes and go to the beach.