South Carolina

Warning: This post has about a million and one pictures in it, so it is going to be really long. I apologize in advance. J

We just got back from a GREAT trip to South Carolina! Neither of us had ever been to that area of the U.S. before, so it was a fun experience for both of us. My brother Jeff moved to South Carolina last year as part of his medical schooling, so we planned a family trip out there to see and explore a part of the country that not many of us had ever been to. Our plan was to rent a beach house at Myrtle Beach for a week. My mom and I and Lydia flew out a few days before the rest of the crew did (who couldn’t get that much time off of work) and we got to spend a little bit of time at Jeff’s house before we headed down to the beach house.

 I was having some SERIOUS anxiety for WEEKS and MONTHS before leaving about how Lydia would do on the flight out there. It was a red-eye flight, so if everything went according to plan she could just sleep the entire way with no problems, but I couldn't stop worrying about all the ‘ifs’ that could have happened. On our way to the airport, I literally felt a bit sick to my stomach worrying about the flight. BUT, all of my worrying was for nothing. Lydia slept like a little angel the entire way out there and hardly made a peep in between all the transfers from the airplane seats, car seat, and cars to get us to Jeff’s house.  I can’t even tell you how relieved I was about it.

We got to Jeff’s house on Easter Sunday, and I was a little bit sad to not spend it with Dave. But, I got to be with my family that I hardly ever get to see, so that made up for it. It was fun to go to church with Jeff and see what his ward was like. There were some really nice people that we met, and it was great to be with my whole family on Easter. That afternoon we had an Easter egg hunt for the kids in the backyard, and they had a great time scouring the yard for eggs. 

These two cousins got to spend some great time together. They are only one month apart.

The weather for the days we were there was amazing, and the view from the house was gorgeous. Jeff has a pretty awesome house – it has a big green grassy area in the back that leads out to the most beautiful lake. We got to go canoeing and fishing while we were there. We never caught a fish, but it was fun and relaxing to try. 

I seriously felt like Pocahontas. I kept singing in my head, "Just around the riverbend..."

Most of the time we just relaxed at home, but we had one day where we drove around exploring some things that were close to where Jeff lives. We went to a strawberry farm and had some REALLY tasty strawberry ice cream.  

Her shirt says, "All I Want Is Ice Cream" and she was trying to get my ice cream the ENTIRE time. Haha.

Autumn and Dylan loved these rocking chairs that were just their size at the strawberry farm.

Me and Autumn getting our best silly faces on.

Then, we went to Chimney Rock State Park. The drive to get there was absolutely gorgeous, and the view from the top of the rock we hiked up to was stunning. You could see Lake Lure from the top (where they filmed The Last of the Mohicans), as well as endless rolling hills of green trees. It was pretty awesome. 

We also drove to downtown Spartanburg to see the hospital where Jeff works. It was neat to see that. After that we went to eat at The Beacon, one of the restaurants on the TV show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. It was SOOO tasty. I got a grilled cheese basket with hush puppies. I’d never eaten a hush puppy before and boy, was I missing out! They were delicious. The most exciting event of the night though was when I was eating and holding Lydia on my lap and she had a MONSTER blow-out. It was nasty. We called it the "beacon blowout". Haha. With some good old elbow grease provided by my sweet mom, that outfit actually came clean.

Before...

....and after. Sick.

I wish we could have spent more time at Jeff's house, but before we knew it, it was time to pack up and drive down to Myrtle Beach where we would be meeting up with the rest of our family. We knew we wanted to spend one day going to Charleston, so we decided to go on our way to Myrtle Beach since we were already driving and it was quicker to get to Charleston by the freeway from Jeff's house instead of the highway from Myrtle Beach. It was SOOO great to see Dave again. I had missed him so much. We started at the Angel Oak tree. This was pretty awesome to see. This tree is over 1400 years old! That is OLD!!! It has some crazy long twisty branches. I've never seen anything like it before. 

Crazy huh!?

We also went to see the USS Yorktown, a WWII aircraft carrier. Guess whose idea that was?? Haha. It was pretty crazy. The ship was ENORMOUS, and was still in pretty much the same condition it was in during WWII. Dave was in heaven. We saw the kitchen, the doctor's office, the dentist's office, mess hall, airplane runways, and a bunch of other cool stuff on the ship. There was even a Medal of Honor museum on the ship, which was cool to see. Dave wanted me to make sure that I mentioned as I was writing about this part, that this ship had a pivotal role to play in the Battle of the Phillippines. Haha. Lydia was being a very naughty baby during our time on the ship, so she and I had to leave early with my mom and drive back to Myrtle Beach. Dave stayed with my dad and explored the ship a bit more.

I was trying to calm her down and get her to take a nap. It was useless, but we got to sit on this bench for awhile. It was on one of the ship's decks and it was nice to sit and feel the breeze blow on my face. 

Here is Dave sitting at the helm of the entire ship. I guess you could call him Admiral Dave. :)

The next day we spent relaxing around our AWESOME beach house. It had 8 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms which meant each family got a bedroom and bathroom to themselves, and two of the babies got their own rooms as well. It was great to have so much space.

Beach fun!

Myrtle Beach has about a million mini golf courses lining the highway for miles and miles. So, we figured that to get the full Myrtle Beach experience we had to play at one of them. We decided to go to a Treasure Island pirate one. The course wasn't as cool as it looked from the highway, but it was still fun all the same. I even got a hole in one!!

 Myrtle Beach also has thrill rides all along the main drag of the boardwalk. Jeff had been on one of them before and told us about how much fun it was and told us that if we wanted to go on one then it should be this one. It was called The Skyscraper. This was my favorite thing we did the entire trip. It was the craziest, most awesome ride I have EVER EVER been on.

See those little tiny things at the top? Those are our feet!!

They loaded us up in these little seats and then sent us zooming around in circles SOO fast. It was INCREDIBLE! I wish we could have ridden it every day. I rode it three times and still wished it was more.

One of the days we were there we spent at a place called Broadway At The Beach. It was just an outdoor mall along the waterfront with cute little shops. 

The kids loved this fountain. Garrett especially loved to scream at the water. If you look closely, you can see his face screaming at the water. Haha. So funny.

The seafood lovers in my family went out for all you can eat crab legs at a local seafood buffet. I stayed home with my sister and my brother to watch the babies since none of us like seafood. Dave sent me a picture of his crab legs and I almost threw up in my mouth. 

This is the most darling video you'll ever see. These little cuties were just jabbering away at each other and trying to hold each other's hands. I am so glad that Lydia has a cousin so close to her in age. They are going to be best friends! 

Here is a funny video of my mom trying to entertain Lydia. Lydia was so totally not amused, but my mom was having a great time, and we had a great time watching her. :)

The next day Dave, my dad and I took another day trip to Charleston. There were so many things we wanted to do in that city and we didn't have time to do them all the first time we went. It was a long drive, but well worth it. It was a fun memory that we shared with my dad that we will always remember. We started off with Fort Sumter, the birthplace of the Civil War. The confederate shots that fired on Fort Sumter were the shots that started the Civil War. It was a really cool site to see, and such a must for my history buff husband. :)

We learned that South Carolina was the first state to adopt a state flag. The flag on the left is the first type of South Carolinian flag. The flag on the right was the flag that was flying over Fort Sumter when it was attacked.

Cool to think that cannons like these were being fired here during the Civil War!

 We had to take a boat ride out to Fort Sumter, and we got some pretty awesome views of Charleston there and back.

After Fort Sumter, we wandered around downtown Charleston for a bit to look at all the pretty houses. There were so many beautiful old houses with charming little gardens around them. We loved just taking in all the cute little houses.

Dave LOVED the "single house" architecture that is so common in Charleston. The old property lots were so narrow that houses had to be built long and narrow. With the weather being so hot and humid in Charleston, the front door actually is a false door, leading to the outdoor terrace that was a place to sit to catch the breeze.

We stopped at this place, which turned out to be a bust. We thought it would be so neat to see the old slave mart where they would auction off slaves, but it turns out you had to pay to get in, and there was nothing original in the place. So, we quickly left after taking a picture next to a very scenic garbage can. 

This is an old church in Charleston that George Washington visited when he came to tour Charleston! How cool!!

Here is a video of the church bells ringing. We only caught the last little bit unfortunately, but they were pretty.

This is the oldest theater in the country - it was the first one ever set up in America. Isn't it cool looking??

Here's a look at the theater from the stage. 

 After walking around downtown, we decided to eat lunch at this restaurant Dave had looked up called Poogan's Porch. It was well known for its southern cookin' and it had such a cute atmosphere we decided to try it out. We were SO glad we did. The food was amazing! My dad and Dave tried fried alligator for an appetizer, and then we got some fried chicken and pork chops for our dinner. It was so so tasty - the best fried chicken we've ever had. We found out that Poogan was the name of the dog who used to hang out on the porch of this house all the time, so they rightly named the place Poogan's Porch.

Cute atmosphere, huh??

We only had a few hours left after lunch before we needed to head back to Myrtle Beach, so we decided to go see Fort Moultrie. We didn't like it as much as Fort Sumter, but it was definitely worth seeing and we're still glad that we went. 

There's a view of Fort Sumter from Fort Moultrie. I loved the palm trees that surrounded Fort Moultrie.

Some WWII bunkers at Fort Moultrie. They were decorated as they would have been during WWII. Dave was so happy. 

We finished our day in Charleston with a quick walk/drive around the coast and saw some more of the cute houses. We were sad that we had to leave already. We could have easily spent a few days in Charleston and still not had enough time to see what we wanted to.

Dave couldn't wait to eat Charleston Chews while in Charleston!

Here is a video of Downtown Charleston. The houses were SO pretty!

On the way out, Dave found his 400th geocache.

On the way home, Lydia was entertaining us with her new funny sounds. She would blow raspberries, then fake cough, then scream talk and then repeat the sounds. She probably did this for 30 minutes straight. It was hilarious.

So so funny!!

Our last day at Myrtle Beach was a beach day which I was unfortunately unable to enjoy. I got hit with the "female flu" that had been getting all of the females in our group. It started with my sister-in-law, then my other sister-in-law, then my mom, then me. Two of the babies got it too. It was horrible. Horrible. Horrible. And a pretty crummy way to spend your last day of the trip. I literally spent the entire day in my bed thrashing around. BUT, it was much better that I was sick that day instead of our Charleston day or the next day when we were supposed to fly home AND Lydia never got it. So there were definitely some tender mercies going on. The rest of my family had a great time at the beach though, and got some pretty fun pictures to prove it.

I love that girl more than anything.

The trip was over much sooner than we were ready for it to be, and before we knew it we were packing up the condo and driving to the Charlotte, NC airport to leave. We had a fun drive back up to Charlotte, driving through some small southern towns along the way. We made a stop at the Charlotte Mint, but it wasn't that cool. It hasn't printed any money since 1861, so they didn't have much to show. They turned it into an art museum with only one little tiny section about the mint history. So we checked out the small mint history part, and then we were bored, so we left. Haha.

Dave is showing us a thumbs sideways, signifying that the mint was kinda cool historically, but pretty boring in reality.

Jeff dropped us off at the airport and we had a QUICK dinner at the airport Chili's, and then we were on our way home. Lydia slept like a dream again with no problems whatsoever. We got lucky to have such a good traveling baby.

We had a BLAST in South Carolina!! A big thanks to Jeff and Ash for hosting us and for thinking of so many fun things for us to do. We loved it!!