Charleston, SC

The Boone Hall Plantation, which is still a fully functioning plantation,  was the first stop on our journey to Charleston. Although it may look familiar, it was not featured in Gone With the Wind or Forrest Gump, but was shown in The Notebook. It was amazing. So dreamy.

The house was amazing and although we only got to go through the 4 different rooms on the bottom floor, the details were amazing, the $50,000 piano was a sure center piece, and the Christmas trees in each room were great.

Juanita Greenberg's was the place for lunch, recommended by some friends (it was delicious minus the part that we could have made it by ourselves at home).

Our next stop was out to the USS Yorktown. We were excited to see this, no only because it's a really cool aircraft carrier, but also because the USS Yorktown saved Steve when the USS Franklin was destroyed by a Japanese air attack in 1945. 

While on the ship we had the opportunity to sit in a F9F Cougar, ride in a flight simulator and got very motion sick, and held on for dear life during a space shuttle simulator.

The view was great and we loved exploring the ship. Remember the my love for the Golden Gate Bridge? I loved the Arthur Ravenel Junior Bridge just as much.

After our tour of the USS Yorktown we still had a few hours to kill before our dinner reservations at The Boat House, so we took some time to walk around the area of really nice homes and happened upon Rainbow Row and a secluded dock where we watched the cargo ships float by (....those are my favorite).

We had gone to The Boat House after our Stake President had recommended it and I had planned to get Scallops for weeks, which I did, and they were delicious and Samuel got the steak and crab cakes. We did have the chat before hand that no pictures of food would be taken because the food was so expensive here. So much so that no one else deserved to see it. Kidding. Although it was a fun experience, I don't think that we'll be heading to expensive sea food restaurants anytime in the near future. When in Rome, right?

Although our Civil War trip was a couple of months ago, the main reason we wanted to head to Charleston was to be able to see Fort Sumter. We saw where it ended and figured that we had to see where it started. 

(cannons from the 1860's)

(Plus, there were still 3 rifle cannon shells in the east wall)

Although it was raining, we decided that fighting for parking probably wasn't worth it, so we walked the mile to get to the Confederate Museum on Meeting Street. It wasn't too bad considering there weren't very many people out on the streets and we had stopped to get a bag of sun chips to eat along the way. 

We knew that this Confederate Museum was going to a little bit different than the others when we handed them the money for the entrance fee and it was placed in a Tupperware in a brown lunch bag and that everything had been donated, including the chamber pot, and nothing was preserved. It was great. It looked like a little museum that a bunch of little grandma's opened up... Oh wait. That's exactly what it was.

As we were walking down the street to the museum we passed so many delicious looking shops with fudge, ice cream, and Moon Pies. Naturally we had to stop in a few and get my picture taken with the Moon Pie Moon. And purchase 2 regular and 2 double stacked Moon Pies. And plenty of  other candies.

After the mile walk back to our car we headed to our last destination before heading out of town: Swig & Swine. Although we don't drink and completely skipped the Swig part, the Swine part was amazing. I ordered pulled pork, coleslaw, and baked potato salad while Samuel ordered homemade sausage, southern hash, and coleslaw. Although we ate several different places, this way by far our favorite. 

Hooray for another great vacation.... and hooray that Christmas is in 4 days.