Charleston with kids

  This brings me to my final post about our trip.  I can't stress enough how wonderful of a time we had away.  These sweet friends, adventuring with our kids who were completely up for it, relaxing,  rejuvenating, and eating some good food.  Just mentioning Kiawah Island or seeing this picture of our smiling faces in Charleston can bring me back to how I was feeling that week; ache-free, well-rested, no worries, no schedule, so nice.

   There were always fights about who got to sit next to Auntie Rachel, but these two were also happy to sit together as always.

 They adore each other!

    When we got into the city, the first thing we did was pay our respects to Emanuel AME Church and the victims of the tragedy that happened there a couple of years ago.  This was hard.

  Life as usual was going on around us, with a small plaque to remember the 9 victims.  That night we watched the Chris Singleton E60 from ESPN that gives me chills every time I watch it.  You have to watch it.  He is the son of one of the victims that lives a life that makes me realize that God is not only good and loving and almighty, but real and raw and tangible enough to touch.

  On a lighter note, I broke my birks in walking Charleston.  We walked the whole downtown and did the tourist things.

Biscuits at the Old Slave Market.

 Finding dolphins out on the pier.

We found Rainbow Row and did our best to color match.

 The boys were really close, if not perfect!

 Joel insisted on taking my pic too.

Joel also needed to color match every part of his outfit.

 And he insisted I do the same.  He actually did a good job with the big camera!

  Walked along the water to Battery Park.

  February 2018

December 2014

  The kids walked 6 miles that day and they did awesome!  I'm not saying that they weren't telling us they were tired of walking, but they weren't whining and falling apart and making life miserable for us.  I wouldn't have been saying this if we tried this one year ago or if we were by ourselves, life is so much different than a year ago.  I wouldn't say life is easier, but traveling with kids definitely is!  And you bet, we rewarded them at the end.  Ava's coconut gelato was delish!!

    The second day in the city was a long day out.  We planned to go to Mt. Pleasant to visit Boone Hall and plantation, meet some friends at Ft. Moultrie, and then have dinner in Charleston.  This is the avenue of oaks on the grounds of Boone Hall.  We enjoyed our time here so much!

   We got here just in time to hear this wonderful lady tell us about the Gullah culture and a bit about slave life.  She sang hymns and told great stories, such a treat!

    The kids listened to most of it, but started getting hot and so they cooled off in the shade of one of these massive oaks.

   Before anyone got too tired, we took the opportunity to do a photo.  This one might be my favorite of them all.

   Exploring the slave cabins.  These ones were made of brick, had floors, had a fireplace, and were in the front of the house.  Very uncommon.  They often were made of wood, dirt floors, and were hidden in the back.  This doesn't change the fact that slavery was awful of course, but it was just different conditions than most.

  There were about 10 slave cabins lined up and each told a different part of the history/life of slaves.

   This chart got me.  Every line item is a slave ship to Charleston alone.  Charleston was a main port, but still.  That is a lot of ships!

  We also got to do a tour of the large grounds that formerly were the cotton fields, pecan tree farms, etc.

     We had lunch after the plantation and went to Ft. Moultrie.  This is where Mike would have to pipe in to give war deets.  I can tell you that it is right on the water and we went to the beach right after exploring the fort.  ;)

    There's Mike, trailing way behind because he is stopping to read every sign.

  She told us this is what you do when you stand on cannons.  LOLOLOL!

  This one we asked her to do because she does it as a pose often in normal life.  She is a character!

   Hannah was really happy to be put in jail.

   Met up with some friends who used to go to school with us in CA.  They love Charleston and I don't blame them.  Are they going to convince us to move there?  No, but we sure will visit!

  After Ft. Moultrie, we had time to kill before dinner.  Calvin and I broke off which was good for him to get some alone time.  We both wanted to shop at this one store one last time, so we raced to get there before it closed and we made it!

    There was an hour wait for the restaurant we wanted, so we did a little HH at The Gin Joint.  I would not say that this was a kid-friendly place, but they accommodated us so well.  We would have stayed here much longer playing telephone and sharing drinks if we weren't going to lose our reservation.  So I took one for the team, and cause they are my kids, and took all 4 to the next place while the other 3 finished their drinks.

   This was a new place for us, but came highly recommended!

  Have you ever done a burrito cheers?  Why are Uncle Mike and Auntie Rachel so much more fun than us?!?!

   We walked off dinner and the churros we had for dessert a bit before heading home.

We loved Charleston and doing it with kids is fun too!!

  The next day was a long day!  Mike and I got up early to get one last beach ride in, knowing reality was coming quick.  We had two flights including a five hour layover in Chicago, landing at 9:30 in San Francisco, getting us home at 10:30.  Which would be 1:30 in the morning for us adjusted EST vacationers.  We put the kids straight from their carseats to their beds!  The kids did great and were cute (she asked me to take this!) as usual.

What a trip!!