Charleston, SC (1)

Since we weren't sure how much time we would be able to spend in Charleston, we decided to go the traditional route and take a horse drawn carriage through the city. (I was worried about the kindness of such a thing to the animals but was assured of their kind keeping. Phew!) Our guide for the day was Cooper and his human. On our tour we covered Rainbow Row, The French Quarter, East Bay and The Battery (Feel free to look those up in your free time!). Jonah was a great assistant to the guide by pointing things out that HE thought were interesting too.

 

  

The history and architecture of Charleston is amazing. Some of the houses could be toured on the inside, but with a rowdy toddler, that was out of the question! The incredible porches on the outsides of the homes helped you to imagine how grand the insides must be as well. Some of the porches were large and open while others had privacy doors from the road that allowed them to be more enclosed. All of them had beautiful palettes of whites, greys, and pastels.  Without exception, they were very different from any neighborhoods we have ever known.

 

 

After the carriage ride, we dropped Cooper back off at his home and were able to thank him for a lovely tour. 

 

 We finished our morning in the city with a seafood boil for lunch (We made sure to eat seafood every meal we could while we were there.) capped off with a little ice cream on the curb. 

 

Angel Oak Tree

On the way into Charleston on one of our days we stopped in James Island to see the historic Angel Tree. I had pinned a picture of the tree on Pinterest and had no idea that we were going to be so close to it. It is cool in pictures, but even more awesome in person. They say that it is between 300-400 years old and is the biggest of its kind east of the Mississippi with a shade area of 17,000 square feet!! Craziness.

Doesn't Jonah look teeny tiny next to it?

The branches soared way into the sky but also dipped into the ground and came back out again.

Here's our little family next to the big tree.

Freshfields at Kiawah Island

Since Kiawah is an island it had its own shopping area for the visitors to use called Freshfields. It was its own little "town" complete with a super market, coffee shop, restaurants, bank, post office, doctors office, etc. It was super cute and we headed there for lunch and shopping a couple of times during our trip.

Here is there market (think Whole Foods, but even nicer!!),

the coffee shop,

and The Station (a little market/gas station/deli).

Jonah threw coins into a fountain in the courtyard with Andrew and played with the splashing water. (This water was ok since there were no waves of course).

 

 After the fountain we explored a little books store (Notice the choice reading material. Thomas of course!) and relaxed in the chairs outside one of the little shops that bordered the town square.

 

 

Kiawah Island, SC

At the end of May we were given the great opportunity to spend the week at Kiawah Island in South Carolina with Andrew's aunt and uncle. It was an opportunity see a place that we would not have been able to see on our own and we were SUPER grateful for their generosity! Kiawah Island is a beautifully manicured resort community with high end golf courses and will be the host of the 2012 PGA championship game. (It was all very chic.) 

Here is what the drive looked like from Charleston to Kiawah and the signs that greeted us.

 

 

Besides the two days that we headed into Charleston (blog to come) we spent our time lazily on the beach and on the beachfront deck of their rental condo. I don't usually get a lot of reading done on vacations since I am more of a go, go, go type of person but this vacation was definitely an exception.

Our view from the deck and from the water of the deck!

 

 Jonah was not a huge fan of the water (he refused to go in at all because of the waves) but loved the sand. He considered it the biggest sandbox ever, and it did not disappoint. Jonah and Daddy made castles to destroy, moats, and bridges. Jonah also made tracks to drive on and practiced writing a few letters.