Our Charleston vacation in words

Charleston, SC 2009

Day #1 (Friday)

• We went straight downtown & took a scenic carriage ride. Our guide was very engaging & informative and we had a beautiful horse named Chief pulling us around. Some of my favorite items from the tour were the White Point Park along the river, the 13 million dollar house for sale, and of course the HUGE porches that were attached to most of the houses. How Beautiful!
• We were going to go to our harbor tour next but it looked like it was about to rain so we went to the hotel and checked in instead. It didn't end up raining but we had already missed the boat.
• We ate at a YUMMY resturant named "The Water's Edge" on Shem's creek. Both of us enjoyed the meal immensly. We had live entertainment.....the dolphins were putting on a show in the water below us. I loved the mother/baby combo that looked like they were attached at the fin. Ben also liked the fact that one of the fishing boats had pulled up & unloaded a large catch. It was pretty cool until they started skinning them on the table below us then I didn't really want to watch anymore!
• We finished up the evening with a car tour around Isle of Palms & Sullivan's Island. (We also got out and walked along the beach for awhile collecting shells for Kendall.) We stopped and looked at Fort Moultrie too. We ended up stopping at "Poe's Tavern" for an adult beverage before heading back to the hotel. (We thought that someone must have just loved Edgar Allen Poe to dedicate a resturant/bar to him but it turned out that he was born and raised on Sullivan's Island.)

Day #2 (Saturday)

• We started out going on a half day, 6 mile, guided, tandem kayak tour through the salt marsh and harbor. I was extremely nervous but it turned out to be pretty neat. We were only about 10 minutes into the tour when we got to help our guide rescue a rare bird that was hurt along the bank. I think that my favorite part of the trip was having dolphins swin about 10 feet away from us. It was like they wanted to follow along and play.
• Next, we went on our harbor tour. Both Ben and I like to be out on the water so it was pretty heavenly for us. We learned a lot about the history of Charleston, Fort Sumpter, Fort Moultrie, and BlackBeard the pirate. We also got to see some more playful dolphins that decided to swim in front of our ship putting on quite a show.
• We ate at "Toast" which was a resturant that we found when we were walking downtown. It was good food and I loved the "she crab soup."
• The night finished up at a comedy club called "Theatre 99." Not too bad for amateur stand-up.

Day #3- Sunday

• The morning started off with a few rain sprinkles so we were a little apprehensive but it cleared up. We went to visit the naval museums. We went through the Vietnam Memorial, the USS Yorktown, & Patriots Point Museum arboard the Yorktown. I was disappointed that we didn't have enough time to go through the Medal of Honor museum.
• Next was our tour to Fort Sumpter. Again, we loved being out on the boat and enjoyed some quiet cuddle time on the ride out to the fort. The scenery was pretty once we got out there but I was a little disappointed with the actual fort....kind of like when we went to tour the Alamo.
• After that tour, we went and looked at some of the wares in the open air market. It is a good thing that they were closing up some of the shops or I could have really did some damage to our checking account!
• We decided to go to "Bubba Gump Shrimp Co." for supper since it was close to us. It turned out really good and i LOVED their hush puppies. There was even a quiz on the Forrest Gump movie before you could get your food. (Let me also say that we had so many recommendations for resturants in Charleston that we could have been there for 3 weeks and not got through all of them....it was a little overwhelming to tell you the truth!)

Day#4- Monday

• This was probably the worst day of our trip weather wise....it was COLD and rainy. We went to the aquarium since we had free tickets to it. It was pretty fun minus the 3 schools that were there on field trip! We got to watch the sea otters being fed as well as the deep sea fish feeding. It was pretty relaxing and fun to look at all the creatures. I am super excited to take Kendall to the aquarium in June!
• We went to S.N.O.B. for lunch. (Slightly North of Broad) It was delicious & of course we enjoyed having more adult conversation!
• Hold onto your seats.....we actually went back to the room and took a nap after lunch! Man was that worth it!
• We went to Southend Brewery for supper then went back to Poe's tavern to watch the Pens game. (Plus they were the only place that we foudn that had my beloved woodchuck!)

Day #5- Tuesday

• Our last day we spent a leisurely breakfast together then went back to the open air market for a few souveiners. Both of us were ready to get back to the kiddos so we left around 1100 for our 4.5 hour drive back.

It was wonderful to enjoy 2 a day showers without a screaming baby or a busy toddler reaching little hands under the shower curtain. (Can I get an AMEN from the mothers of small children that know what I am talking about?)

I loved being husband and wife for a change without any daddy/mommy interruptions. It was really great for us to be away alone together for awhile.

Thanks again to Mom and Dad for keeping our wild kiddos so we could get away together!