Charleston!!!

After Chris was done with his work in St. Simons and Fernandina Beach, he stopped by Wilmington Island to pick me and the kids up and we headed to Charleston!  We got there right around dinner time and went straight to a restaurant that was recommended to us by my sister, Fleet Landing!  We put our name in and since we had about a 30 minute wait (with reservations!) we walked down to the boardwalk to see some sights in the area.  WOW!  We.  Love.  Charleston!  Talk about a beautiful, CLEAN, charming and amazing city!  Just driving around downtown looking for the restaurant, we were figuring out how we could move there!  Here I am with the kids on the boardwalk... LOVING the scene!

Just a typical pedestrian street in Charleston...

After dinner, which we LOVED, we headed to our hotel which was in Mount Pleasant, just over the big bridge in Charleston.  We absolutely loved our hotel, too!  The Holiday Inn Express and Suites in Mt. Pleasant exceeded all our expectations!  The rooms were EXTREMELY clean, we got a double suite so the kids had their own room, Chris and I had our own room with a door that closed and we had a huge play area and a small kitchen.  When Chris left for work the next morning, I got the kids up and ready and waited for some long time friends to come meet me at the hotel!  Hank and Susan Ashby were college friends of my mom and dad... Hank and my dad were roommates for a long time... he was a groomsmen in their wedding and they have stayed close ever since.  Growing up, we used to go on beach trips with the Ashbys every year to New Smyrna Beach and St. Augustine Beach!  Awesome memories with this family.  Their daughter, Kristin, is around my age and she just had her first son about 5 months ago.  So I was thrilled that they could come see us and meet me for a quick park play date and visit.  We all headed out with the double stroller (since I had no car!) and I was so excited to see we were walking distance to an amazing park!  We sat at the playground for awhile and visited while Park played.  They had to leave shortly after to let Chase, Kristin's little boy, get home for his nap time but the kids and I stayed out on the pier for HOURS that afternoon!

Here I am with Ms. Ashby at her grandson, Chase, at the park.

 And me with Kristin and all the kiddos!

Park and I - I was IN LOVE with this place!

We hung out on the pier for a long time and saw lots of people fishing.  One man caught one with sharp teeth and Parker was in awe!  He was nice enough to let Parker touch it and see it up close.

At the pier.  This was THE PLACE for stay at home moms in the area to go to.  A true locals place!  I met several other moms while hanging out and Park made several friends!

That evening, we took a boat ferry across the river to eat dinner!  We were in a MAD RUSH since Chris didn't get home til 5, we caught the ferry at 5:15 and got to Charleston around 5:45.  Funny story, we made it to the ferry dock right at 5:15, but we didn't realize we had to walk down like a quarter of a mile on this dock to get to the ferry boat!  I RAN as fast as I could and saw the ferry had already left the dock!  We had been talking up this boat ride with Parker for days, so I did what any sensible mommy would do!  I screamd and waved my arms at the ferry boat and begged them to come back to get us.  Which, of course, they did!  Anyway, we then had to walk to our restaurant, eat, and walk back to the ferry by 7!  So, to say the least, the entire evening was rushed, but we had a blast.  We got to see some dolphins jumping up in the water while on the ferry - it was amazing.  I've seen a lot of dolphins, but never this close in the wild and jumping up in the air!  It was really awesme.  Our rushed evening wasn't helped by the fact that as we were maneruvering the stroller down the bumpiest road in Charleston, Parker thought he would jump out and pretend to be Superman!  This ended with a VERY scraped up knee that actually bled for a really long time.  He had to keep a paper towel on it the entire time we were at dinner.  Poor kid!  

The next day, I took the kids down for breakfast at the hotel, then decided to venture out and try to walk/jog across the bridge from Mt. Pleasant to Charleston.  Um.  Wow.  That was ambitious! This is the picture I took as I started my walk!  They have an entire lane with a baricade devoted to pedestrians and bicyclist so I felt safe... for the most part.  It was a little scary at times!

When we got to the other side, we ended up right next to a train yard!  And wouldn't you know that a train was coming right then!  Park was so excited to see a train that close up!  The engineer even blew his whistle and waved at us!  Growing up in Waycross, Ga - where these is LITERALLY  train every 2 minutes (not joking), trains are no big deal to me.  But to see them throught the eyes of my precoius boy is truly amazing.  You can see his eyes just fill up with excitement as it approaches, as all the cars pass and of course - his favorite - the caboose!

The train enginner waving at us!

I started to doubt my ambition to walk across the entire bridge when I got to the end and saw this that I had to go back over!  Wow!  It's about 2.5 miles each way.

Me with the kiddos before our walk back over the bridge to our hotel... you can see Caroline was over it!  Turns out she had a horribly stinky diaper... which I just changed on the side walk!  Then it turns out Park had to pee  SO - I stood around him and he peed off the bridge.  Classy - maybe illegal - but the bridge drops you off in a little bit of the ghetto so there was no way I was going to try to find a bathroom for him!

 At the top of the bridge... it was such a beautiful day!

When we got back to the hotel, we were HOT so we decided to go play by the pool for a bit.  The water was FREEZING, though so we just played on the steps.

On our way back home that evening, we stopped at Chick Fil A, our favorite fast food place, and let Caroline eat her very own kids meal for the first time!  She loved it!

I am praying that Chris gets more jobs in Charleston becuase I am already planning our next trip there!  

We had an awesome time!