Shem Creek is one of the highlights of Charleston, South Carolina. Whenever I travel to Charleston I always venture to Shem Creek for a delightful dinner while watching the shrimp boats travel into the creek for docking. Boating and seafood admirers have plenty to do here since it is, in my opinion, the best spot in town for eating on the water. With fresh seafood coming in daily from the locally-parked shrimp boats, visitors are sure to get the best seafood right here on Shem Creek. The ambience is spectacular - it takes me back in time to the days of "Gone with the Wind", a place where Rhett and Scarlet might have dined. As the sun declines across the Creek, It is romanticism at its finest.

Beaufort, SC is the heart of shrimp burger country. Travel to nearby St. Helena Island at the Shrimp Shack, a roadside take-out window on stilts, with just a bench and a couple of tables. It's like dining in a tree house. When you place your order, observe the many old features still existing after all the years of operation. The burger is similarly lofty, with a thin, crispy crust enveloping a uniformly pink, slightly spongy cake that unleashes the turbocharged flavor of ocean shrimp. The shrimp come from boats docked directly across the street at a wharf built in the 1940's by the parents of the Shrimp Shack's owner, Hilda Upton. The experience is without a doubt worth it, one you will always remember.

Ocracoke Light was built in the town of Ocracoke, on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina in 1823 by Massachusetts builder Noah Porter. The lighthouse stands 75 feet tall. Its diameter narrows from 25 feet at the base to 12 feet at its peak. It is the oldest operating lighthouse in North Carolina and the second oldest in the United States. Ocracoke Light remains among the oldest lighthouses still active on the southern coast. In 1798, a 54-foot wooden tower was built on the Ocracoke Inlet entrance where Edward Teach, known as "Blackbeard the Pirate," lived at one time. The channel shifted, rendering the lighthouse ineffective. It has been rebuilt several times. The present structure is the third and was cemented and whitewashed in 1868, giving it the appearance it has today. Originally fueled by whale oil, it is now lit by automatic electric power and shines 14 miles out to sea.

On December 1, 1875 the beacon of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse filled the remaining "dark spot" on the North Carolina coast between the Cape Henry light to the north and Bodie Island to the south. Be sure to visit the Bodie Island Lighthouse as well. To distinguish the Currituck Beach Lighthouse from other regional lighthouses, its exterior was left unpainted and gives today's visitor a sense of the multitude of bricks used to form the structure. The lighthouse was automated in 1939 when the United States Coast Guard assumed the duties of the Bureau of Lighthouses. At a height of 158 feet, the night beacon still flashes at 20-second intervals to warn ships hugging the chain of barrier islands along the coast. Enjoy the beautiful manicured grounds and other structures surrounding the Lighthouse. A trip to the top will leave you with a breathless experience.

Lake Murray South Carolina, named in honor of chief engineer William S. Murray, was completed in 1930 and is owned by SC Electric & Gas. It covers approximately 78 square miles of land and provides electricity for South Carolina's Midlands region. In order to build Lake Murray, the Lexington Water Power Company (SCE&G's predecessor) relocated 5000 citizens and removed three churches, six schools, and 2000 graves. The Saluda Dam, which was once the largest earthen dam in the world, is 1½ miles wide and 208 feet high. Work on the dam across the Saluda River was started on September 21, 1927 and was finished on June 30, 1930. During construction of the dam, a Movietone news crew filmed the construction, and the newsreel footage has been preserved at the University of South Carolina. As you travel around this historical lake today there are many points of interest to explore. Through the years the greater midlands area is known as Lake Murray Country.