Our vacation the last half!

We had such a wonderful time in South Carolina!

On August 11th, Jenny kept the kids, and Rob and I took Gary's car and headed to Charelston for a morning of sight seeing. It was Amazing!!

1st. we went to the visitor's center and found out some of the "Must see's" in our alloted time frame. (the kids and Jenny and Gary were meeting us at 1:30pm for a ferry ride to Fort Sumter)

We first walked down Historic Meeting Street, where we stopped and had breakfast at a cute little dinner that was recommended by the lady at the visitor's center counter as a local favorite. Boy was it yummy!

After our breakfast we walked just a few blocks to the "Slave Market" (so named because it was donated land with the stipulation that a market be placed there, and that it be used for all people including freed slaves to sell goods.......meaning it "belonged" to the slaves, therefore "Slave Market") There were so many locals selling handmade goods, and the coolest thing was the african women and men that were making Sweet Grass Baskets, this is a skill that slaves brought with them, and the only two places you can get an authintic sweet grass basket are southern Africa, and Charelston S.C. I really wanted one but they aren't cheap! $80 for the small ones and $300+ for the bigger ones....but they are so intricate, and it really is an amazing skill!

An original Cobblestone street!

We walked through all of the shops, and I got a little handmade rose out of palmetto leaves (the tree on the state flag) from a little boy for $2. After that, we decided to take a horse drawn carriage tour of Charelston. It was a really neat way to get a feel for the town and see little glimpses of alot of things in a short time, as well as learn more about the history.

A Shot of Rainbow Row

Amazingly restorted million dollar homes!

A home that was in the proccess of being restored, isn't the acrhitecture amazing??

after our Carriage ride, we only had about an hour left, so we made a quick stop by the Proverst Exchange and dungeon, we saw some things but not nearly all of it!

On our way back to the car to meet the family, we stopped by the oldest graveyard in Charelston and walked through and looked at some of the gravestones dating back to the 1700's

there we older ones, but we couldn't get in to the area at the time.

First Baptist Church Est. 1682!

At 2 we met the kids and Jenny and Gary and took a 30min ferry ride to Fort Sumter (for those like me, who are history inept, Fort Sumter is where the first shots of the Civil War were shot to from just across the Harbor) The island and all the old history were really neat to look at and read about! Then we had another ferry ride back to Charelston.

Once back to Charelston we went to the Swap Fox resturant and had some really yummy southern food. Rob had an Oyster Po'Boy, and I had Shrimp and Grits in a lobster sauce, and we tried a Charelston original called She Crab soup which was to DIE for! (so good we got some to go and took it home with us!)

It was a wonderfully long day, and there is so much of Charelston that we didn't see and can't wait to go back and explore! what an amazing vacation!