Charleston Trip, Part II

I definitely am not doing this wonderful vacation justice. I hope everybody understands that I've just been really busy and that is why these postings are taking an abnormal amount of time to be completed.

The top picture is of Mark and I standing next to a very scenic road by the bay. I also intended to post this picture of Renee standing underneathe a rather impressive chandelier which actually was located within a fancy strip mall in dowtown Charleston. I think the mall itself was built around some historical hotel, but I forgot the name.

Van and Judy after a yummy breakfast

On Christmas Eve we began our day by enjoying a very traditional and scrumptious breakfast at a fantastic little diner called Jack's. Our server was extremely hospitable and the cook (who was also the owner) did an amazing job making our large order of biscuits and gravy, grits, hashbrowns, pancakes, bacon, etc. in addition to making all the other patrons who came into the place. He had no help, but did it with total ease and efficiency.

Can you spot Mark?

The green water is actually comprised of millions and millions of individual plants.

A statue in the garden maze

After breakfast, we drove several miles outside of Charleston to Magnolia Plantation. One of Charleston's oldest families, the Draytons, founded the plantation and gardens in 1676. It is the oldest public public gardens in America (opened in 1870) and has survived the American Revolution and the Civil War. Although we were not there at a time when plants and flowers were thriving, we all really liked touring the home, walking through the huge gardens (where we did get to see some blooms, and walking through the Audobon Swamp Garden (which is also where the movie "The Swamp Thing" was filmed!).

Judy and Renee on the porch of Magnolia House

This is taken from one side of the porch. It was enormous!

Of course, all of the Valaskeys are immediately drawn to any animals, and there happened to be a very, very friendly cat named Sylvester who followed us about for awhile. Apparently the plantation has 7 cats, but Sylvester is the most outgoing and approachable and is allowed to go anywhere on the plantation; including in the gift shop, where there is a special crib for him to sleep in, and the old home itself. We loved seeing the white and colored peacocks strutting around and laughed at the sight of a flock of very nervous guinea hens flitting about. We did see some cool egrets and herons in the swamps, as well as some turtles sunbathing, but were bummed about not glimpsing any sleep alligators.

Renee petting Sylvester in one of the old cabins

Our Christmas Eve meal was pretty non-traditional. We opted to get our Carolina barbecue fix and ordered from a place called Melvin's. Was it amazing!! We ordered quite a large amount of food (again) and managed to celebrate this special day with a very memorable, sticky meal. We spent the afternoon and early evening talking, playing cards, eating, and, well, having a good ol' time. We attended a very inspirational and moving service at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church. The building was beautiful, the singing was phenomenal, and there was a lot of "drama" with candlelighting, bells tolling, and kneeling at the stroke of midnight.

Greg tests the depth of the swamp by dropping a stick

Van at the tree where Rev. Drayton used to compose his sermons

Part of a tomb at Magnolia

Christmas morning was a guided walking tour of Charleston. Although we all were loving being out and about on a very warm, sunny day...I'm afraid we weren't that crazy about our tour guide who was a little long-winded about things that didn't seem that interesting. I was able to take a lot of very cool pictures, however, and we all did hear some good stuff from her gabbin' too.

While we were walking, churches all around us were ending Christmas Day celebrations. Here are some joy-filled people leaving a service.
Me next to some statue

Rainbow Row

Look at this stunning ironwork!

That afternoon, we stuck around our cabin at James Island Park and had some downtime. Van took a much deserved nap ( he was the captain of the rental car and had to drive all of us yahoos around) and the rest of us took a walk together around some of the park trails. What a treat this ended up being! One of the trails led us to a large pier. While walking on the pier towards the water, we all paused because we heard this constant "popping" sound. Upon inspection of the ground which was peppered with small holes, we saw that there were thousands of small crabs cautiously peeking out at us and scurrying to and fro. It was very difficult to get a good shot of these little guys because they were so easily spooked and moved so fast! I forgot the name of these little cuties too....

Can you see the little crab next to the hole?
Renee takes cover after a blue crab came a little too close...

A little girl said you could put a blue crab to sleep by rubbing its belly

While I was dinkin' around trying to manuveur a good shot, the others had gone ahead to the pier where there were 2 groups of people gathered. A young family was at one end of the split pier doing some saltwater fishing and the set was a few young men doing some saltwater crabbing--but they weren't going for the little guys we had just passed, but the exquisite looking blue crab. These wonderful people were so nice and so very tolerant of our touristy inquisitiveness; they answered questions, showed us their catches, and indulged my picture-taking obsession. I just loved this part of our trip; it was so random but so special and felt that it was an authentic South Carolina experience.