A Visit to Charleston

We are back from our long weekend to Charleston, S.C.! It was a wonderful trip and we can't wait to return to visit the beautiful city again. It was amazing!

We went to Charleston with a tentative itinerary in mind. It was good to have the guidance, but we quickly made the discovery that you have to be ready to adapt with a child who is quickly approaching 2! While we did everything we planned (see previous post), we did have to change some meal plans. Dinner on Sunday night was scrapped for takeout brought back to the hotel. Ema needed to play! And, the carriage ride was not fully successful. Ema and Gage bailed half way through (to the surprise of the driver/guide). They walked back from the furthest point of the tour to the starting point. It was just too long of a ride for Ema.

We did manage to add a few fun things to the trip including a visit to Angel Oak, Patriot's Point and the Citadel (which was less than half a mile from our hotel) and a quick trip to Folly Beach. The weather was iffy, so the beach trip was SHORT! Especially since the winds were kicking up the sand and it hurt! But, we got to see a South Carolina beach. It was overcast most of the trip. It would drizzle on and off and downpour every once in a while. But it was bearable and kept the temperatures much cooler than it could have been (Charleston is known for being very hot and muggy). It was beautiful on our final half day.

The homes in the area are amazing. It's almost breath taking. There's so much charm and beauty in Charleston! I was taunted a bit by all the wonderful shopping and I hope to return to indulge that at another time! We also would have liked to check out more restaurants. We did eat grits while we were there. But that was about it for Low Country fare. Maybe next time!

Ema really enjoyed the outing to Cupcake, an all cupcake bakery. It was very good! She also really enjoyed all the animals we saw at Charles Towne Landing, including two bears, a puma, otters, bison and deer. Gage and I saw dolphins in the harbor. Ema would tell us she saw them, but there were never any there.

Ema's vocabulary continues to amaze us! She has complete sentences of words we didn't even know she knew! And, she likes to sing. She'll try to sing the alphabet and then applaud herself. Then she wants someone else to sing it....."Daddy's turn" she'll say. She continues to call Gage, "Gage Harter". And when we were talking to someone in the market, those were her first words to the person. She looked at the lady and said, "Gage Harter."

All in all, it was a wonderful time for us. We look forward to a return visit to Charleston as well as our next adventure as a family!

We have many photos. I took almost 700, but have less than 100 in our album.

Enjoy!