Discover America 2025

I spent a few relaxing days in Mount Pleasant with Sean and Sabrina. The town is a suburb of Charleston, but it is actually the fourth largest municipality in South Carolina – and still growing. And there is no “mount” in Mount Pleasant; it is a flat oceanside town. It received its name from an 1800 plantation of the same name in the area. It is connected to downtown Charleston by the iconic Ravenel Bridge, the third longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere.

Sean’s work is at its busiest at the beginning of every month, so on Thursday Sabrina and I took Gipper and Madison to the beach on the nearby Isle of Palms. You can see from the posted video that Gipper loves the beach, whereas Madison, who had never seen the ocean, was afraid of the waves and would not go in the water. But when I threw a stick in the ocean, Gipper went to retrieve it and dropped it back in the sand. Madison grabbed it and decided to play keep away for five minutes up and down the beach.

On Friday afternoon, Sabrina and I went to Angel Oak Park on Johns Island, just south of downtown Charleston. It is the site of the “Angel Oak Tree,” the largest live oak tree east of the Mississippi, estimated to be 300 to 400 years old. If you google the fifteen most fascinating trees in America, it is ranked by one website as number one, even above the tall redwoods in California! It was on my list of “must see” items when I started the trip. Many of its long branches dip down low and are buried in the ground. Interestingly, we ran into a couple at the park who live less than five minutes from my home in Fairfax.

That night Sean, Sabrina and I went into the city and took part, along with some of their friends, in the “First Friday Art Walk,” a monthly event in which 40 galleries open their doors and serve wine and cheese to the many patrons viewing the art displays.

On Saturday, my last night in Mount Pleasant, we went to the Credit One Stadium on nearby Daniels Island to see the country artist Cody Johnson in performance, with Walker Montgomery and Ashley McBride as the opening acts – a great concert.

So over four days in the area I was on six islands (Daniel, James, John, Kiawha, Seabrook, and Isle of Palms). And on previous trips there, I visited Sullivan’s Island, as well as the man-made island on which Fort Sumter was built (and is still a National Monument).

All in all, a good four days.