Southern Charm

One of the things I wanted to do this year was enjoy some time with my kids before these three, too, are all grown up and leave me like my very selfish older three kids have done.  Who said they could grow up and have their own adventures?!?!  Also, I've been homeschooling for 18 years and I've always wanted to take school on the road.  This year we were able to make that happen a little bit.

Because we had a good friend spending a semester in Atlanta we decided to head that direction.  I also totally love Charleston when my sisters and I had our sisters weekend there, so I knew I wanted to take Josh there and explore a little more of the south.  And finally, we've been mulling over the idea of purchasing some sort of rv/camper and so we decided to rent a small rv and have a test run to see if we like them.  Thus, our September trip became a way to satisfy so many desires.

One thing about Walmart is that you know wherever you are you can get what you need.  Also, they have giant parking lots and are RV friendly, so we made a lot of Walmart stops for groceries and extra supples.   Turns out in, in South Carolina and Georgia the Walmarts sell Krispy Kreme donuts!  Those are fundraiser-worthy and imported all the way from Portland back where we come from, so it was hilarious to me to see boxes of them on display at every single Walmart we went to.  Those people are living the life, I tell you.  (and no, we didn't buy them).

Day 1 was our flight day - we landed in Atlanta and grabbed an Uber to a hotel in Decatur.  LOVED Decatur.  Fun little town.  We went to eat at a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant around the corner that specialized in chicken sandwiches.  As in fried chicken.  As in the best sandwich I have had in my entire life and I don't even care that much about fried chicken.  It wasn't greasy, it was flavorful - it was amazing.  Mine had Georgia peach jam, goat cheese, and arugula in it.  Oh man.  We talked about those sandwiches for the rest of the trip.  We meant to go back but didn't quite make it.

Day 2 was RV pick-up day.  Our kids were tired and three hours off schedule, so we left them in the hotel to sleep and we ubered off to pick up the RV rental.  We rented through Outdoorsy which is like AirBnB for Rvs.  A nice lady named Greta rented her RV to us.  We spent two hours as she showed us all the ins and outs of her 24 foot Mercedes Sprinter-base rv.  It was nice, but a little overwhelming at first.  We hustled back to the hotel to pick the kids up before check-out time and left for our grand adventure.

We made a short stop to see some clients of Josh's who used to live in Mendocino but had lately relocated to an Atlanta suburb.  It was fun exploring their 9 acre property and the girls and I met them for the first time.  Such nice people.    We next continued towards Columbia, South Carolina...or the little town of Hopkins, SC for our first night.

We went to visit a friend from Fort Bragg.  This sweet lady served 9 months of a mission in our ward and we loved her dearly.  Logan was two years old when we met her and so she had never met our younger three kids.  It was so fun to catch up after so many years!  We stayed in her house instead of the RV just to avoid running the generator and have A/C because it was HOT that first night.

We had to leave the next day but before we did she took us to the only national park in South Carolina just 5 minutes from her house - Congaree National Forest.  It is a swamp and it is fascinating!  We learned about a lot of really cool things, and had an up-close and personal encounter with an owl!  I now know what cedar knees are.    FYI if you are familiar with the Swamp Fox from the Revolutionary War, this would have been swamp he was hiding out in.  Yuck!

See above?  There's a great horned owl in there!

cedar knees

After the swamp forest we were on our way to Charleston, SC!

We stayed at a KAO in Mount Pleasant.  From there we spent three lovely days exploring Charleston!

We went to Magnolia Plantation and Garden.  It was lovely.  They had a very fun petting zoo with tons of animals to touch.  Faith fulfilled a life-long dream of petting a deer..

The gardens were beautiful!

We also enjoyed the WARM ocean.  Due to storms further away, the water was not as blue as usual, but that didn't stop our kids from enjoy their beach day on Sullivan's Island.  

And downtown Charleston had numerous delights - gorgeous houses, the waterfront, Rainbow Row, amazing food...we saw it all!  We learned about the submarine H.L. Hunley used in the Civil War -and found a reproduction as we were waiting for the bus.  It sank and killed the entire crew on EVERY single one of it's test missions (including the inventor Hunley himself) but was resurrected and returned to surface.  It had one successful mission when it attacked a ship, but did not survive the attack and also sank.  You can see in the placard there is room for 8 people to row and one to man the weaponry and steering.

We really loved Atlanta with the Hathaways.  Kids had a grand time together as always.  And I am so grateful for a friendship that has now spanned decades.  Decades!  Good thing the kids and husbands get along well too!

We visited the amazing Georgia Aquarium and fell in love with the whale sharks. 

These girls were absolutely amazing for the entire trip!  They put up with rain storms and a leak over their bed which meant modifying their sleeping arrangements for a night, and strange foods that they aren't used to and road schooling.  

Savannah was lovely.  We visited Fort Pulaski and really enjoyed the history and the beauty of this Civil War monument.  

We also loved all the squares around downtown Savannah.  Every two blocks there is a new one filled with those gorgeous oak trees dripping with Spanish moss.  Josh and I think another trip to Savannah is in order to get the full measure of its beauty!

When we left Savannah we tried a Waffle House.  We were underwhelmed but it had been a fun thing to talk about our entire trip - "there's a Waffle House!" so we figured we couldn't pass it up!

  We did learn that chopped pecans in a waffle....amazing!

We saw alligators.  Here behind a fence, in the wild as we walked by a pond.  I did not realize that South Carolina and Georgia had them to such an extent.  Apparently Florida is not their only home.  I forgot Devon talking about alligators being found in her neighborhood.  What fun.

You know the south is famous for its BBQ.  We went here with Devon.  I went back with Josh.  I'd go again.  Just tell me when!

Savannah warranted another beach day because the week of rain that the weather app promised disappeared and it was too beautiful not to.  This time we tried Tybee Island and it is a darling little place - recommend 10/10.

We ate a lot of meals sitting like this!

And a lot of meals like this - this was seafood in Charleston!

Slave housing at Magnolia Garden

Some of things I didn't photo - we took Kenna to Peachtree City because it is her dream to live there.  Golf cart paths are everywhere and people drive them to school, to the store, to everywhere.  

We went to Centennial Square in Atlanta, site of the 1996 Olympics.

We had dinner at a fun Colombian restaurant in Marietta, GA that was so yummy - also Marietta looked like a fun place to visit.

We forgot to trial boiled peanuts.  Dang it!

We tried grits.  And ate crab - a first for the kids.

We are now expert RVers - well Josh is.  I only drove for like 30 seconds and I never did the hookups.  And we learned for this kind of trip it's not the best way to travel.  RVs are better for setting and staying for awhile (and bring a second vehicle for day trips).  

I didn't get a good photo of this shirt but I felt like it pretty much said it all!

After two weeks we were ready to come home but I have to say we LOVED our adventure and would go back in a heartbeat.  Such a beautiful place!