Yo Ho, a pirate's vacation for me

We just finished a pirate's vacation down the East Coast.

First stop - Williamsburg. Blackbeard's crew was tried and hung here. The trial was in the state house but reenactments are done in the court house. Also, Jamestown Settlements has a wide selection of pirate gear, some of it serious.

From there we drove down the Outer Banks to Beaufort, NC. The Naval Museum there has artifacts fro Blackbeard's ship on display.

Next we went to Myrtle Beach. No pirate associations here but all the souvenir shops have pirate T-shirts and stuff.

We spent three nights in Charleston, SC including Talk Like A Pirate Day (TLaPD). I was wearing a pirate T-shirt and several people stopped to comment on TLaPD. There are lots of pirate associations here. Blackbeard blockaded the city. In retaliation, the city later captured a couple of pirate ships and hung the crews including Stede Bonnet, the gentleman pirate. Anne Bonney lived in Charleston for a while before turning to piracy and local legend has it that, instead of dying in jail, her father bribed the guards to let her free and she lived out her days in Charleston.

We ate at the Queen Anne's Revenge restaurant. They decorated with antique weapons, pieces of eight, and other pirate memorabilia. Also, the food was good.

We went south through Georgetown which has a two-masted ship that does pirate cruses. It also has a nice pirate-shop where I got a cutlass.

We spent the night in Savannah which does not have any direct association with pirates. We did have dinner at the Pirate's House Restaurant which has a pirate theme. They claim to be haunted by several pirates including the fictional Captain Flint from Treasure Island. The restaurant is a rambling building. Parts of it are the oldest buildings in Savannah.

We took two days to get back home. For our half-way point, we stopped at a tiny town called Hillsville. The only passable restaurant turned out to be the Hillsville Family Fish House. This had a nautical theme including some pirate figures and three huge murals.

For good measure, Disney showed the pirate episode of Kim Possible that night.