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.

Charleston Trip, Part I

Mark is proud to be an American. Fort Sumter Museum

I have fallen waaaayyyy behind in my blog. Lots going on and little time to get everything done. That's just life, right? Today is actually FEBRUARY 1, 2009.

Judy next to palmetto

Greg and Renee on boat to Fort Sumter

It has been really fun reading everbody's holiday blogs and viewing all of the great pictures which accompany them, and I hope Don and Hope forgive me for not writing much in my last blog, but I think the photos were just fine; I was so occupied with coughing while they were here and trying so hard not to cough while we were out at dinner...that I can't even tell you what the conversation was about.

Mark relaxing on the porch of the cabin

We ended up doing a lot of crossword puzzles together

Unfortunately for me, my cold persisted throughout our long-anticipated vacation to Charleston, South Carolina. It did improve by the middle of the trip, but I had about 2 days where I was probably not the most popular person on the plane, car, bus or boat. Sorry fellow travelers.

The Valaskeys at Fort Sumter

Anyway, I think that Van, Judy, Greg, Renee, Mark and myself were all just thrilled to be going somewhere--anywhere--that was warm and did not have snow, that we didn't really care about some sniffles and hacks.

In the cabin

Van and Judy on the tour bus

We departed for Charleston from Milwaukee on a very cold Monday morning. Although we had a little bit of a delay in Atlanta, we definitely considered ourselves very fortunate to get to our destination in a timely manner; if you recall, many holiday travelers were finding themselves stranded at airports for hours or even days due to inclement weather across the country.

Mark in an old artillery storage area, Fort Sumter

That's me with Charleston Harbor in the background. Taken at Fort Sumter.

Upon arriving in Charleston, we did feel a little pressure to get to our cabin. We were staying at James Island County Park, which is located just outside of Charleston, and when Judy made the reservation, we were advised to get there at a certain time otherwise we would have to call a park ranger to let us in. Judy was also told that the local festival of Christmas lights show would be going on at that time too, so we thought "oh well, that's nice...maybe we can check that out some night since we'll be so close". Little did we know. After spending more time than any of us would care to admit in the car rental parking lot trying to figure out how to start our rental minivan, we were on our way to the park. When we were about a mile or so from the park, we became entangled in a very, very long line of cars. Cars on the way to see a light show. A light show that was set up in the very park we were staying at! To make a long story short, we did get to see this huge light show while we were in Charleston; in fact, we ended up seeing it everyday, as we had to drive through most of it to get to the side road where our cabin was.

This was one of my favorite displays. There were probably over a 100 different displays.

Van and Judy relaxing on the boat

Fort Sumter with Charleston in the background

A view of Charleston from the harbor

Although the whole light show thing did put a damper on our scheduling of nightly activities (this thing had been going on since Thanksgiving, but they just get inundated with onlookers every night--perhaps because they don't have snow to get that "Christmassy feeling"?!), our cabin was very roomy and cozy and located in a really nice spot.

This is what our cabin looked like

Mark doesn't always want to cooperate for pictures

Our first full day in Charleston was spent sightseeing. We took a boat to historic Fort Sumter and got to spend a morning of sunshine and wind at this place where the Civil War erupted in 1861. Although the walls are not nearly the size they used to be (from 3 stories to 1), it was still a very moving place, with shrapnel still stuck in the walls, canons poised out towards Charleston Harbor, and the loud thwapping of a myriad of flags blowing in the strong winds.

Artillery shell lodged in the wall of the fort from the Civil War

Flags at Fort Sumter

Upon returning from the fort, we boarded a tour bus and had a very enlightening tour of the city of Charleston. Although our guide became a little long-winded about the Hunley submarine (which was obviously something he was really into), he did an excellent job pointing out places of historic interest and answering various question. We also made a small pit-stop by the harbor and Judy purchased a couple of sweet grass flowers made by a couple of the locals. Our tour guide also purchased a couple extra and gave them to us ladies on the bus. Very clever man. I immediately told Mark we had to give him an extra nice tip.

Judy buying sweet grass flowers

Mark and I on tourbus. I had just finished a major coughing fit from my cold, so I look particularly haggard

One of many old homes in Charleston. Please note the incredibly decorate ironwork on the porch and railing. I became quite drawn to all of the ironworks in Charleston.

The Bulldog at The Citadel

That night for dinner we went to a famous southern eatery called Jestine's. It was delicious and we all enjoyed partaking in a traditional southern dinner. Homemade mac and chese, fried okra, fried chicken, pecan pie, etc etc etc. Not a bad home, huh?

Let the Holidays Begin...

I do not intend to write very much in the next few blog entries, as so much has gone on and I just want to post pictures anyway. I will try to enter captions as necessary with pictures. Please enjoy the first "phase" of holiday extravaganza, which began with a visit from Don, Hope, Kenny, Beth and Stephen.