Charleston, SC

So, for my Spring Break, which was March 9-15 (yeah, I know) we decided to head to Charleston, SC. It was beautiful. We actually didn't go until March 12th and up until two hours before we left, we didn't have a hotel room. Jordan was confident in Priceline and that we would get a great room at a great price. He was right. We were able to stay at the Wild Dunes Resort on the Isle of Palms (great name, right?) Let's just say that it is a valet only type of place. Good thing we got the room at a great price! Thank you, tanking economy! Anyway, we got to the hotel around midnight and just crashed. Caleb was quite the trooper because he was subjected to sleeping on the floor for the weekend.
On Friday morning, we awoke to great weather-overcast, cold, and windy-perfect for a beach vacation. For breakfast we enjoyed a feast at Burger King and headed to downtown Charleston. Quick side intervention-the Isle of Palms actually has very little as far as commercialization goes, so most of our adventures took place in Charleston, Sullivan's Island, or Mount Pleasant. I am confident that I would love to live in all three. Back to our story. So after our grease filled breakfast that would end up making me sick for our entire vacation, we went to the Children's Museum of the Low Country. We had a great time. We spent two whole hours exploring. Then we went on a big walk down to Market Street where the slave trade use to take place. We also walked by some beautiful and historic homes in Charleston. Then we went to lunch at Sticky Fingers and I definitely recommend this place. Jordan was able to get ribs, which, as some of you know, is a major thing as it makes me sick to see any kind of meat on the bone. Izzy, Abbi, and Caleb all had BBQ sandwiches. But I had the best meal of all. I had a stuffed baked potato with BBQ pork. Yum! Later that night we went to see the then new movie, Race to Witch Mountain. We went to a really fun place called Cinebarre were you can order dinner right before the movie starts and they bring it to you during the show. The kids thought it was loads of fun and I kept thinking what a great idea someone had. I mean, how many dates have you been on that included dinner and a movie. I must say that we had no idea where we were going, but it was fun and the pizza was surprisingly delicious.
Saturday we had more amazing weather. So it was another day for the indoors. Today our breakfast was a step above Burger King because we went to IHOP. I actually love IHOP because they have the best hash browns around. And it is super cheap. Then we went to the Charleston Harbor Aquarium. The best part of the day actually occurred right before we went inside the building. We were standing outside looking at some dolphins swimming in the harbor (yet another reason to move there) and just enjoying ourselves. Next to the aquarium is a musuem for Fort Sumter which has ferries that take you to the fort (it is on an island). Anyway, one of the ferries was getting ready to leave and blew its horn. The kids almost jumped out of their skin. Wow, I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time. So we went in and enjoyed looking at the fish and other wildlife that was in the aquarium. After the aquarium, we had lunch and went back to our hotel for a little nap. Well, Caleb and I took a nap. Izzy and Abbi thought it perfect weather for swimming, froze, and came back for a warm bath. Then we all went to the beach to search for sea shells and sand dollars. Jordan and I were freezing, but our three little monsters were having fun splashing in the ocean. We watched the movie Bolt in our room that night and just relaxed.
Sunday we went to the Mount Pleasant Ward. It was small, but had a lot of youth and children. Then we went to Chili's for lunch. Caleb was in love with the endless basket of chips. Then we took a drive down Sullivan's Island to Fort Moultrie. Caleb was in heaven. For those of you who don't know, Caleb is pretty sure that he is a pirate, so the cannons, guns, and boats were enough to make him think he was in heaven. Jordan even purchased a tri-corner/pirate hat for Caleb and he wears it everyday, yes even a month afterwards. Well, it being Sunday it meant that we had the best weather of our trip, literally. So we went back down to the beach where at a hot 70 degrees, our kids stripped down to bathing suits, or underwear if you are named Caleb, and they were swimming in the ocean. Jordan and I were just praying that they didn't go so deep that they would need rescuing. The rest of our day was quiet, meaning naps. We also played a little tennis and had some pizza for dinner.
On Monday, we made the trek back to NC after another wonderful IHOP breakfast.
As a bonus, Jordan has a conference at the Wild Dunes Resort the end of July for a few days. I am looking forward to actually being able to enjoy the beach and plotting a way to get Jordan to take a job some where around there.

PS Melissa, there are a few shots of my haircut. For those of you not living nearby, I chopped about 6-8 inches off my hair about a month ago. After several years of having fairly long hair, I am loving having it gone. I think I might go shorter next time.