Sunday to Tuesday

Sunday, Charlston, North Carolina
We're had difficulty getting much email access, so a couple of days stacked up here.
Three more states to add to our list (I forgot to mention Florida). Internet access is a little difficult to come by now (ship wireless costs $45 per hour!). When we posted the blog this morning, we'd just arrived in Charlston. Yep, we're still in the deep south. We only had a brief chance to look at emails during our wanderings around the town. It's very hot here, so much so that we only spent about 3 hours wandering around and having coffee at Starbucks. This is a very old town; it figures in civil war history and in many romantic novels I've read. They have a church with a community that's been active since the mid 17th Century (evangelical). It was too hot to stay off the ship, so we were back here for a late lunch. A storm came over and most of the afternoon and evening there were light showers – made it cooler.
Monday, at sea
It's windy and rainy out and the boat is rolling nicely; there was little visibility out there but that cleared to a grey day. We were going to join the fitness walk on lower promenade deck but the rain cancelled that. Each day we do a couple of mile walks as well as going up and down stairs all day: that way we can enjoy the food! Dutch high tea this afternoon – because we all need some more decadent calories! We found a nice little oasis up on the Crow's Nest, sitting right at the bow, with 360 degree views – quiet spot to read and watch the ocean pass by. Had our first swim as well today.

Tuesday, Newport, Rhode Island
Wow! You should see the mansions! We did a tour of the biggest one – the home (well, if you can call it that) of the Vanderbilts: extraordinarily opulent; the amazing thing is that the mansions were only used for about 8 weeks of the year; some of the mansions are still owned privately and still used as holiday homes. The yachts in the harbour are rather nice too.
The weather generally has been variable, some very cool, some quite hot: they're always grateful for the rain because like us, there's drought around different areas.
We're in Starbucks at the moment: they have really nice areas where you can sit forever and use the internet. We're about to head back to the wharf and hop on the tender to go back to the ship for yet another amazing meal (which we don't really need).