First Family Vacation - Part 2

This is the continuation of our first family vacation. If you haven't seen part one, in Savannah, I'd suggest starting to there. If you have seen it, or don't like Savannah for some reason, continue on.

The rain was letting up by the time we got to Charleston, but it was getting late in the day. We got some good BBQ take out and settled into our new pad, which was a unit at a retirement community. It was only a 10 minute drive to the Charleston Historic district and was a great price. Since this place had wifi inside the unit, it was much more convenient to plan our trip.

The first day was very windy, but that didn't stop us from getting out to see Charleston. We started off with a delicious homestyle lunch at Jestine's Kitchen where I discovered coca-cola cake. As far as I can tell, it's just chocolate cake with some coca-cola in it, but it was incredibly moist. I had it three more times after that while we were in Charleston.

From there, we just meandered through the historic district, admiring the architecture.

We made it all the way to the waterfront, which was surprisingly not that windy. There was a nice park where we relaxed before making our way back up through town.

Charleston had a better preserved historical feel than Savannah, but without the small squares scattered throughout, was not as good a place for meandering. In Savannah, you were never more than a couple blocks from a quiet shady spot to sit and relax, in Charleston the waterfront is pretty much it in terms of parks. In both cities, meals were so big that we resorted to having breakfast at our home base and then one meal during the day - either a late lunch or early dinner. Of course, dessert usually happened at least twice.

After one day of walking in Charleston, we actually felt we had a pretty good feel for the city and decided to spend some time on day trips. The second day, we went to Boone Hall Plantation to see what a plantation would have been like. There are a few of them scattered around the area, some with some very exorbitant entry fees. Boone Hall seemed to offer the widest array of activities for the most reasonable price.

The house is at the end of another beautiful live oak drive.

On arrival, we joined a tour of the house, which was very beautiful, but were frustrated that pictures were not allowed inside. Stephanie was also a bit disappointed that the house was not the original, but was built by some Canadian diplomats years later.

Fortunately, they built it in a traditional style, so we still got to soak up the atmosphere. Interesting factoid - it turns out that in the low country of coastal South Carolina and Georgia, that people did not really build huge plantation houses. The mosquitoes and summer heat/humidity, that most people only lived on their plantations for portions of the year.

After the house tour, we explored the slave cabins that run alongside the driveway - a guide explained that they would not normally be placed so visibly or be made of brick, but that since one of the plantations main products was bricks, this was a way to display both the product and the ability of the slaves to build brick structures to prospective clients.

Our next stop was a performance by a local woman to familiarize us with the local Gullah culture, which is a unique culture created by the slaves in the low-country. She provided an interesting mix of history and modern issues that was very engaging. In all of our tours, Aiden periodically felt the need to add his own two cents. We tried to keep him as quiet as possible, but weren't always successful. When we apologized, people waved us off and told us that he was their favorite part of the day. I think that reflects more on Aiden's charm than on anything lacking by the presenters - we really enjoyed them.

We finished off the afternoon with a trolley ride around the plantation, where we learned more about the history and current workings of the site. Afterwards, we drove out to a restaurant on the water called the Wreck. It was in the middle of nowhere, no sign, and we would never have found it if someone at the visitor's center hadn't recommended it as a non-touristy option. She was so right - it looked like it was literally built from a wrecked ship. But it had great views of the sunset, delicious seafood, and even offered free steamed oysters on the dock.

To top it off, the service was great - Aiden decided to be very industrious in his diaper - three times. Each time, the hostess ripped us off a sheet of paper that they use to cover the tables so we could change him without putting him on the bathroom floor.

The next day, we drove about 45 minutes to Wadmalaw Island to visit a winery that also turned out to feature a distillery. On their recommendation, we did the wine tasting first, and then the liquor tasting. It was all delicious and we were quite tipsy by the end. Knowing that we'd probably be in no condition to drive right away, we had packed a picnic lunch. Everything went well until we were interrupted by a rooster chasing a chicken right over our table. Luckily, they missed the food. Then, we were accosted by a duck that hopped up on the bench and stared us down. Someone left a butter knife on the table and I swear the duck tried to pick it up in it's beak to threaten us.

After lunch we enjoyed the rocking chairs and the tire swing, and then moseyed over to the petting zoo, where Aiden got to see the pigs, chickens, rabbits, and goats.

By the time we were sober enough to drive, the sun was beginning to go down.

On the way to dinner, we stopped at the Angel Oak - an enormous live oak tree that's believed to be as much as 1600 years old.

On the drive there, I noticed something white in the trees - what I thought was an albino squirrel.

But then I saw a couple more on the way back so I think it might be a local species. No one I asked knew about them and I haven't found anything online. If it's ever established as a subspecies, I hereby stake my claim to have it named after me, as the discoverer.

For dinner, we hit another middle-of-nowhere spot - Bowen's Island Restaurant (on Bowen's Island). They're famous for their steamed oysters, so we had some along with frogmore stew. We didn't realize that steamed oysters still need to be shucked, and neither of us had done it before, but we did a respectable job and opened almost all of them.

We were rewarded with a beautiful low country sunset from the restaurant. The noseeums were insane, so we didn't stay out for long but it was enough to enjoy it.

The next day, we headed back into Charleston with a mission - to buy a sweetgrass basket. These are beautiful handmade baskets, iconic of the Gullah culture, and since even a small one can take hours to make, they aren't cheap. We visited a lot of sellers and did a lot of negotiating, but in the end we found one. We also had lunch at a Gullah buffet, where Aiden was the hit of the restaurant. One of the service people spent almost the entire time at our table playing with him. It was especially nice because Stephanie and I got to eat at the same time.

We spent our last full day in the Charleston area back on Wadmalaw island. We visited the only tea plantation in North America - with a neat sign post showing the distances to the next closest plantations in the world.

After enjoying a very informative presentation on the tea preparation process (green tea is apparently just tea that isn't allowed to oxidize), we decided to just take it easy.

On our last day of our first family vacation, we made one more foray into downtown Charleston. I was able to confirm something that I have long suspected - bacon makes EVERYTHING better, and there is no food item where bacon is not appropriate. We started off at a gourmet donut shop, where they had a number of creative options, but the one that won my heart was the maple bacon donut. Then, to top it off, we went to a breakfast place that a local Charlestonian recommended and they had pecan pie - WITH BACON! It was delicious. And I decided, if bacon can make pecan pie more delicious, it can make anything more delicious.

What a way to end our first family vacation!

Here is a link to the rest of the pictures - hope you enjoyed as much as we did.

Charleston 2012 JPGS