Places to Go (Vacation) - Charleston, SC - Part II - Sullivan's Island Beach. The Third (and Final) Stop on Our Roadtrip of the South.

We spent the last day of our vacation at Sullivan's Island Beach. We originally planned on only staying for a few hours, but once we arrived the girls made friends with some local kids and it felt so nice to lie around and do nothing for awhile. Plus the beach itself was beautiful, with small sand dunes that the kids used to play hide and seek. T refused to go near the ocean, but he collected several sticks and played with the sand. So we spent the whole day there. Despite numerous sunscreen applications, poor little P became the victim of her first real sunburn (unfortunately she has inherited my pale skin).

After we arrived back at the hotel, we met a women who babysits for the hotel by the elevators. Turns out she wasn't booked for the night. So Dan and I had a wonderful date walking around Charleston's gorgeous waterfront park.

The next day we packed our bags and drove the LONG 9 hours back to Arlington (we broke up the drive by stopping in Richmond, VA at my in-laws house for dinner, which was lovely). We arrived home around midnight, full of that weird combo of relaxation and exhaustion that a vacation with children always brings. The next morning Dan went to "office" and I tried to do laundry while the kids complained that they're "bored already." How many days left of summer?

RANDOM LINKS:

*What a gorgeous toddler toy (I sort of want to play with it myself). And for older kids these look awesome.

*Back to the future - definitely check these out, they're pretty cool.

*This print is just beautiful.

*Vogue magazine 1965-1975 - I can't stop looking at these layouts. I can't stop. Wow, Cher really was gorgeous.

*I LOVE this picture.

*Planking?? This actually sounds kind of fun.

Places to Go (Vacation) - Charleston, SC - Part I - Fort Sumter. The Third (and Final) Stop on Our Roadtrip of the South.

About a year ago, one of my best friends, Laurie, moved to Charleston, SC with her husband. So for the last stop on our roadtrip, we decided to spend a few days with them. (Laurie also has a blog, full of her adventures and thoughts, click here to check it out and see her post about our trip).

For our first full day in Charleston we adventured to Fort Sumter (where the Civil War began). In many ways this was the perfect outing, my husband loves military history and, since the fort is on an island, we had to take a boat to get there, making it a wonderful adventure for the kids as well. Once we arrived at the island, we didn't spend much time learning about the fort's history, instead we caught up with "Auntie" Laurie while checking out the views and running on the lawns, what a fun way to spend a morning.



The boat to the island has two levels - the top is open air and offers wonderful sea breezes and views. Unfortunately, it fills up fast. So we ended up in the air-conditioned bottom level, which had old chairs and random paintings (it reminded me of a church basement). But still, the views were quite pretty.



After the boat ride, we walked by a farmers' market in the square next to our hotel. Which had a bouncy slide. This made for some crazy happy kids. Crazy happy. Regarding our hotel, we stayed at the Embassy Suites Charleston, which is located in the original citadel building. The glass elevators mesmerized the kids (yes, we did have a few elevator races, but only when nobody else was around). My husband and I really liked the nightly manager's receptions (free wine!!) and made-to-order hot breakfast, which we ate in a beautiful courtyard full of lilacs. The pool was also a plus. But by far the best thing about the hotel was its wonderful service. We were 150+ miles towards home when we realized that T's favorite blankies (yes, BOTH of them) were still in the hotel room. Luckily the hotel found and overnighted them immediately (we received the blankies within 12 hours of arriving home). So yay! for the Embassy Suites (a Charleston historic hotel).