June Road Trip 2013 - Charleston, SC to home (Chambersburg, PA)

One last trip into the historic downtown Charleston.  We hadn't checked out any of the shops yet!  We started by walking through the Charleston City Market (we weren't that impressed).  My goal was to find a donut and cupcake shop! :)

 

We stopped in The Peanut Shop again, just like the one in Savannah, for lots of samples!  We checked out a couple other shops, then found a Farmer's Market which was pretty cool!  We got a smoothie called a Painkiller (excellent!) and also picked up some boiled peanuts to take home for Chels and Adam to try.   Next we headed to the donut shop (that I, of course, found on Trip Advisor) - too late!  Once they run out of donuts, they close!  We continued on and did find the cupcake shop - well, Katelyn saw it - I would've walked right past it!  It was called Cupcake downsouth.  They were pretty good - we split a key lime, chocolate salted caramel, and red velvet.  Then we headed back to Sandy.

 

We drove around the historical section of Charleston next - we saw the cobblestone streets, Rainbow Row (little houses that were different colors), and some other old houses.  Katelyn and I also checked out the Pineapple fountain.

After that we started our drive home... we couldn't do a ten hour drive, so we stayed overnight at a Hampton Inn outside of Richmond, VA.  Turns out we got a free night because there were some partiers that kept us awake.  I complained in the morning and they said the night was on them because of their 100%  satisfaction guarantee!  (That was even cheaper than camping!!)

We had a really nice trip - I will say it was extremely humid and if we hadn't purchased the fans when we got to Savannah, we would've been very uncomfortable sleeping!  I also want to purchase a rain flap - that way we could camp even if there is a chance of rain (which it seems like every night there was!).  I may not choose to travel south again in the summer - who knows??  Originally, I had wanted to go to Florida!  Maybe we could invest in an A/C unit for Sandy! :)

June Road Trip 2013 - Charleston area - Day 3

Today was another beach day!  We drove to Folly Beach and drove around to check things out.  We found a place to park - as long as there are no signs telling you not to park and all four tires are off the road, it's free! :)

It was another windy day on the beach! :(  This time I laid on a towel, since last time Katelyn suffered! :)  The sand is very thin and sticks to you - I definitely recommend chairs for all the beaches we have visited on this trip.  The water temperature was nice, but there was a very strong current.  Doug and Katelyn stayed in a lot longer than me!

When we got tired of the windy beach, we decided to find a place to eat.  We settled on The 'Wich Doctor.  Katelyn and I split a pizza with 1/2 jalapeños (Katelyn's choice!) and Doug got fish tacos - I had one.  Both were very tasty.  Afterwards we stopped in a couple surf shops.

We decided to try a campground tonight because it was our last chance before we started our trek back to Pennsylvania.  We stayed at Oak Plantation.  It was a nice open campsite - I would stay here again.  We swam in the pool for a little - nice pool, but right beside the highway so a little loud.  We hadn't done a campfire yet, because it had been so hot, but again, being our last night, we had to make s'mores!!  They didn't have fire pits, so you rented a fire ring instead (that was new for us).  We didn't last really long because the bugs started to attack - that was our cue to head into the Westy!

June Road Trip 2013 - Charleston area - Day 2

Today we did the educational part of our trip :) - we went to Middleton Place. It was a beautiful day here - there was a little breeze in the air so it made the humidity more bearable.

This was a plantation owned by a very wealthy family (no relation to Kate Middleton according to the tour guides) - it was known for its beautiful gardens.  It was also known as a self-sufficient plantation - they had their own animals, blacksmith, carpenter/barrel maker, and potter among other things.  There were, of course, hundreds of slaves working on the plantations and tending to the rice crop which was their big money maker.  (There were also some really big trees!)  This particular plantation was burned by the Northerners - you can still see the remains of the main house and you can just imagine the grandeur of it back in the day!  We spent most of the day here walking around the grounds, taking pictures of the beautiful gardens and animals, and learning about plantations of the pre-Civil War era.

We drove down into the historic downtown area after leaving the plantation to try and find a place to eat near the water.  We were unsuccessful, so we decided to eat at the Hominy Grill, which had a really good rating on Trip Advisor.  We all tried some southern cooking - Katelyn - cornbread, Doug - grits and fried green tomato BLT, and I tried stewed tomatoes and okra.  We all tried some boiled peanuts - you eat the whole peanut, shell and all - we didn't care much for these.

Struck out again with camping - we actually had a place picked out, but bolts of lightning caused us to stay at a Hampton Inn instead! :(

June Road Trip 2013 - Charleston area

Today was supposed to be a beach day, but we didn't have lots of luck.  We were checking out Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island.  After much driving around, we finally decided to beach at Isle of Palms.  Beaches are different around here from what we are used to - the sand is packed down and hard, so you really have to have chairs - laying on a towel is not much fun (poor Katelyn).

We were there for an hour when we could see a storm approaching.  It started to rain so we ducked under a beach umbrella that was for rent. :) The rain stopped, so we beached a little longer, but when it started again, we decided to head back to Sandy. Looked like the rain was here to stay.

After driving around a little (touring the island) we ate at Taco Mamacita in Sullivan's Island.  Very good tacos and guacamole, cheese dip, and salsa!

We aren't having much luck with the weather - we had to stay at a hotel again tonight.  We decided we really need to invest in a rain fly for Sandy. 

 

June Road Trip 2013 - Savannah - Day 2

We drove into Savannah for a second day to tour around the city.  One of our goals was to find the waving lady.  She was said to have waved each day to sailors passing for 44 years!  We walked again along River Street (cobblestone streets) and found The Peanut Shop - they had the most samples of any store ever!!  We had a nice snack!

 

 

Walking around the town we found some other cool shops - one was an old mansion (one of the oldest) that now had antiques on each of the four floors.  We also admired the amazing old houses, pretty trees, and architecture.

 

Doug found a place to eat called The Pirates' House.  It was a unique place in that it was an old inn and tavern for sailors and pirates passing through the area. We ate here and then got a tour of the building from a "pirate."  We learned a lot about the history of the building and other interesting little tidbits.

We really enjoyed Savannah - we would come back again because there were tons of interesting restaurants and shops all over the place!

We left for Charleston later in the afternoon.  Unfortunately we couldn't sleep in Sandy, we had to stay at a Hampton Inn because of the rain.

June Road Trip 2013 - Savannah

Katelyn woke up this morning with an earache.  We know all too well not to mess around with these with all the swimming we do over the summer!  So we found the closest Urgent Care and got her some meds. 

Checking out the city of Savannah was on our agenda for today!  We stopped at the visitor center for a map and some info.  We really enjoyed walking around this city - lots of very old, huge historical houses, beautiful trees with Spanish moss hanging from them, and shops and restaurants galore! We walked through the City Market area, River Street (riverwalk), and then W. Broughton Street.

Along our journey we found a chocolate shop we definitely wanted to come back to and also we had heard about a famous ice cream shop that had been around since 1919 that we just couldn't miss. We decided to just eat something small so we found a place called Goosefeathers - Doug and I split a chicken salad sandwich and Katelyn got a black bean burrito that was not so small :).

Back to Chocolat by Adam Turoni - I've never seen a shop like this before!  There were four cases of amazing chocolates.  You pick up a silver tray and then put on the chocolates you'd like to buy (using tongs of course).  Then they have a bar you can sit at to indulge in some of the best tasting chocolate ever!  My favorite was a dark chocolate with a honey filling (from bees right in Savannah).  We struck up a conversation with Adam Turoni himself and ending up getting to try one of his new chocolates which also was a dark chocolate with honey filling, but this one had honey from bees that fed on wildflowers.  So delicious!

Then next we headed to Leopold's for ice cream.  We were raking in the calories today!!  Very good ice cream - Katelyn had peppermint, Doug had coffee and mint chip, and I had mint chip.

We headed back to the campground pretty stuffed!  We swam in the pool and ended our night with a game of Scrabble Slam.