Beaufort, SC

We took a trip to Beaufort (which we found out, is pronounced "byoo-fort", not "bow-fort") today.  Lots of beautiful antebellum homes, dating way back before the Civil War, unlike Bluffton, where we went yesterday.

We started out at the Visitors Center, which is housed in what was the Beaufort Arsenal.  From here, the  townspeople kept watch over the river, and would try to get the first shot in if anyone was trying to sneak in for an attack.

From there we took off on a walking tour of some of the homes.  I just love all the big wide porches, and the architecture in general, of this time period!  Most of the homes on this tour were built in the early- to mid-1800's.

Love the double staircase entry.

Parts of Forrest Gump were filmed in this area.  His house was built on a plantation outside of Beaufort, but was torn down after filming because it wasn't built to code.  The Vietnam scenes were filmed off the Beaufort coast on Fripp Island and Hunting Island State Park.  This bridge was in one of Forrest's running scenes.  It was also seen in The Prince of Tides.

More cool homes:

Catholic Church 

Presbyterian church... One of the newest buildings on the tour.

Hidden behind these trees is The Big Chill house.  The current owners don't seem to want anyone to get a good view of it.

After the historic downtown tour, we went to the kazoo factory.  Yep, kazoos.  One of only 2 in the US.

They have a nice museum display, show you a short video of the history of kazoos, and then take you through the process of making the kazoos.

Little plastic pieces of the desired color are melted and then poured into a machine like this, and then cooled with water.  This part of the process is actually done in Florida.

This machine cuts the little disks that vibrate inside the kazoo to make the sound.

This machine helps them quickly bag the kazoos to send off all over the country, and all over the world.

This machine prints whatever needs to be printed on it.  At the time we were there, they were printing some with a band's name and logo for the band to toss out into the crowd.

We got to make our own kazoos, picking out the colors, inserting the little vibrating piece, and putting on the cap.  Then you stuck it in this machine so the cap was quickly popped on, and it won't come off.

I made a Royals kazoo, in powder blue and white.  Brad made... A bumblebee?

It was a lot of fun, and our tour guide, Erin, was a bundle of energy!