No Kids Allowed! South Carolina Part 2: Savannah, Georgia and Charleston

I have a deadline! I want to finish journaling about S. Carolina before we go to Texas so I don't fall behind. I feel blessed to have 2 back to back trips. This post is about Savannah, Georgia and Charleston. 

Savannah, Georgia

Since Andrew and I were in the area we figured we should take advantage of our proximity and made a day trip to Savannah, Georgia on Monday, October 13. Savannah is an hour drive from Hilton Head. We had lunch at a seafood restaurant called "Driftaway Cafe." Andrew had cod and grits and his plate was clean at the end which is always a good sign. I had delicious tacos. Not fishy! Avoid the southern potato salad. The cat that roamed the restaurant and sat on tables was a turnoff. Someone at the table next to us brought their dog. During our trip we saw several dogs being pampered and pushed around in strollers. Our waitress had a thick southern accent and was exceptionally friendly. People were so warm the entirety of our trip. Nobody could believe we came all the way from Utah.

After lunch, we took our time checking out downtown Savannah. Water backs right up to shops/restaurants and it was pretty. We did some window shopping. At a cookie store, they were giving out free samples and the "peach cookies" spoke to Andrew. He bought some to savor later. Andrew also made a friend due to his stylish shirt. Savannah was a cool city! 

Charleston, South Carolina

We checked out of our Airbnb in Hilton Head the morning of Friday, October 17 and drove to Charleston. We went directly to the restaurant "Boxcar Betty's" and got there when it opened at 11am. 

We tried "Boxcar Betty's" earlier in our trip and fell in love with it. We made going again a priority. Fresh off our red-eye flight and after a long rental car debacle, we were starving. We stopped at "Welton's Tiny Bakeshop Bakery" in Charleston which has 4.9 stars and a couple hundred reviews. The hot honey ham croissant was exceptional. The apple danish was pretty good. The cinnamon roll was lacking... In fact not to toot my own horn, but I think I make a better cinnamon roll.

The second time we went to "Boxcar Betty's", we knew what to order and both had the "Chicken Not So Waffle" sandwich with fries. Boxcar Betty's is a fast food fried chicken place. The waffle sandwich has bacon jam, maple syrup, pimiento cheese, chicken, and tomato. I miss it already!

After filling our guts, we headed to USS Yorktown and saw a ginormous aircraft carrier. While there, we learned that the crew of the Yorktown was made up of approx. 380 officers and 3,088 enlisted men. It was massive! 

On top, there was a runway for all the fighter jets. I learned Andrew desperately wanted to be a fighter pilot. Glad that ship has sailed. I also discovered that Andrew's grandpa, Grandpa Ditto, was stationed on an air craft carrier during WWII. Andrew was in heaven exploring this place. We stayed 2 hours. They sure make you pay a lot of $ to be there. In addition to paying $56 for entry tickets, we had to pay for parking. If you are claustrophobic, this ship is not for you. We climbed lots of narrow stairways. People were a lot shorter then. The stench of oil was overpowering on the ship. In order to access the carrier, we had to cross an impressive bridge in Charleston! It's tall and according to Google 2.7 miles long. We'd walked 15000+ steps that day, so didn't trudge across the bridge but that would have been interesting and lots of others were doing it. It would have been a 5 mile roundtrip walk.

Charleston was magical. We were immediately greeted by several horse drawn carriages offering tours. The city is old and has lots of history. Our time was limited and the tours weren't cheap, so we instead checked things out on our own on foot. Some of the streets are cobblestone. Andrew pointed out multiple times the gas lit lamps lighting up the city as we strolled the streets. We spent a good chunk of time wandering through the city market. It was like a flea market. We got some souvenirs. We found "Callie's Hot Little Biscuit" which is famous. Obviously, we had to try it! Not all the biscuits were out of this world, but there were some real winners! They were fresh and hot and melted in our mouths. The shortbread biscuit was the best. The regular biscuit was probably the least impressive to us.

We also walked to Rainbow Row and Riverfront Park. Rainbow Row is an area downtown that has colorful historic homes. They're cute! It was hard to get a good picture with parked cars, traffic, and people around. Andrew saw a home for sale near there and suggested we buy it...

We ate dinner at Lewis BBQ in Charleston which had exceptionally high ratings. We both had brisket sandwiches. The buns were memorable. The fries weren't worth getting (and I'm a fry person)! It was expensive and good, but I guess you could say I'm a brisket snob. My brother Jeff and BIL Chris both make brisket and I think their brisket is better. Andrew agrees. Lewis BBQ meat had more of a savory flavor than sweet.

After dinner, we were worn out. We drove to our hotel and spent the evening playing "7 Wonders Duel" which I won twice in a row. After being the loser at mini golf and pickleball, it was time. It was convenient to stay at a hotel about a mile from the airport because we had an early flight Saturday morning. I would love to spend more time in Charleston someday! Visiting a plantation and Sullivans island are on the to-do list.

Souvenirs

We brought the kids home seashells and hats. Andrew and I picked hats for ourselves too. James and Andrew's hats were on clearance! My hat is purple (of course) with the S. Carolina state flag on it. And no, we didn't forget about Penelope. Andrew also got the Georgia cookies and a t-shirt. I picked out 2 t-shirts. We got my parents a Charleston magnet, my dad a t-shirt, and a Nana and Papa rainbow row hand towel. I didn't expect a present from my parents upon our return, but they gave me a necklace memorializing my losses--the twins and the other baby I miscarried before Penelope. The necklace is gold with 3 circles and each has hearts. It made me cry. In fact, while on our trip I was emotional one night and told Andrew I would love a necklace to remember my babies and then boom, I got one. I've worn it everyday since.

Mine is gold and has 3 different charms/circles

Back At Home

Our kids didn't miss us. They were spoiled and did lots of fun things. They decorated Halloween cookies, went to a pumpkin patch, rode their bikes to Arctic Circle for ice cream cones, and more. I'm trying to write my parents a thank-you card and it's hard to adequately express how much it meant to us that Andrew and I were able to run away on this trip. It was sooo good for my soul and helped to have my mind on other things. The alone time with Andrew was remarkable.

Our kids looked so grown up when we returned home. Penelope is even cuter than I remembered and was a great "helper" folding the laundry with me which made me belly laugh! Isabelle had a lot to fill us in on and has been talking continuously. And James basically looks like a teenager (is he even taller after 1 week?) and eats like one.

We got back to Utah and it feels like winter. I've had to pull out my warm socks and wear a jacket around the clock. Take me back to S. Carolina, the beach, and the mid 70s temps!! Thankfully Texas will provide the temporary warmth I'm seeking later this week.

No Kids Allowed! South Carolina Part 1: Hilton Head

We went on a true vacation. No children. I feel rejuvenated. It was relaxing and incredible. Very healing after going through a miscarriage the week before. Thank you to Andrew's work for having such an excellent perk--a vacation fund! We get $2,000 a year that has to be used for travel. Well shucks, we can do that. Major thanks to my parents for taking care of our youngsters so we could go on this escapade. Visiting South Carolina has been on our bucket list and we see why people love it! What a gorgeous place! We flew out of SLC on Saturday, October 11 and returned on Saturday, October 18. 

After taking a red-eye flight, we arrived in Charleston at 8:30am on Sunday, October 19. I had the day mapped out full of recommendations. We were pumped.

It was raining buckets when we arrived! Roads were flooding. The rental car hydroplaned a time or two. We heard downtown Charleston was closed due to the bad weather and that it had been pelting rain nonstop for a few days. We were disappointed to say the least. Lots of the things we intended to do required mother nature's cooperation. Thankfully, all the crummy weather left after day 1. We had ideal weather the rest of the time. The humidity we've heard complaints about wasn't really a thing. October is a nice time to visit.

We were still able to go to church in Charleston since that's indoors! I love wards outside of Utah! People were friendly and I relished the closeness felt amongst members and the vulnerability in relief society. Funny story... we landed not long before church. We changed out of our sweatpants/dirty airplane clothes in the car of the church parking lot right before the meeting. I used the visor mirror in my car to put on some makeup to hide the dark circles under my eyes. I don't sleep well on planes.

Giving up that the weather would turn, we made the 2 hour drive to our Airbnb condo on Hilton Head island. This post covers activities we did and the food we ate in Hilton Head!

Here are some things I learned about Hilton Head...

• There are butterflies all over the place! They're so pretty! I mostly saw orange and yellow butterflies.
• There are many signs that say beware of alligators. This one was right outside of our condo.

• There are miniature stop signs for bikers on bike trails. Well, on google maps, the tiny stop signs appear and show like they're stop signs for cars on the road. They're not. At first it was a little confusing when the maps would say, "At the stop sign, turn right." We didn't have a stop sign!

• Turtles like to hangout and bask in the sun! We saw several.

We spent 5 nights in Hilton Head. Our condo backed up to Folly beach. We spent our last night in Charleston.

Activities

• Beach. There was a quaint boardwalk that led us to the water. We tried to soak up as much time as we could near the ocean. We walked the shore at sunset, did a sunrise run, and basked in the rays of the sun while reading. We both managed to get sunburned. Just call Andrew Rudolph. I wasn't able to swim for most of our trip, but when I finally could I didn't spend much time in the salty water. It wasn't quite like the broiling showers I'm used to.

Important question.... What did I read at the beach??

"Everything is Tuberculosis" By: John Green

"Letters for Emily" By: Camron Wright

"The Poisonwood Bible" By: Barbara Kingsolver (Started this on the plane home and haven't finished yet.)

Would recommend them all!

Follow-up question... What did we read together?

"A Deadly Education" (The Scholomance #1) By: Naomi Novik

We like to read aloud together. Can you guess who picked this fantasy novel? Our tastes and interests don't overlap much. Jaw drop... Andrew didn't pick a Brandon Sanderson book. We aren't done with "A Deadly Education" yet, but will continue reading it.

Tangent but... What did we watch there?

We finished the show "Lincoln Lawyer" season 3. Unfortunately we have to wait a few months before the next season comes out. We also caught up on the latest episode of "The Great British Baking Show." Team Jasmine!

We didn't get to announce excitedly that we're having a baby on the beach. Instead, this a picture of the babies that aren't joining us. I was able to get over 35 pictures of my ultrasounds from the radiology department at the hospital and I'm so grateful I get to see and remember my babies.

• Kayaking to see dolphins. Lots of reviewers online suggested a dolphin tour and a friend who visited the island recently told us it was worth doing. We decided to take watching dolphins to the next level and do a kayaking dolphin tour. Andrew said that even if we didn't see dolphins, we could enjoy kayaking still. I think he jinxed us. The views were breathtaking. We were in a double kayak and are both tall. I'm surprised I didn't lose my oar after many collisions with Andrew's. The tour guide told us that only 5 out of 100 tours haven't seen dolphins. We beat the odds... After 2 hours we still hadn't seen anything! Right as we were almost back to the dock, we saw faraway fins. Unfortunately we couldn't follow them because it was nearly dark. Still a pleasant experience seeing these views. I woke up with sore arms the next morning. Andrew won the lottery and saw 3 dolphins on a beach run one morning without me. I got to see the video though.

• Sea Pines Forest Preserve. Seeing an alligator was high on Andrew's list and we got to! We strolled around a swamp. It was secluded, shady, and beautiful! We saw squirrels, a lizard, and the best part was when I spotted an alligator! The alligator was slow moving and lazy and didn't seem to want to show us much, but we watched it for awhile. We also saw moss on trees and so much algae covering the water.

Can you spot the gator? He didn't seem to like us..

• Legendary golf. Hilton Head takes mini golf seriously. There a few courses and they have 36 holes! We opted to do the 18 hole course. The ambiance was fun. At night, they light the course up and go all out with water features. Andrew got not only 1 but 2 holes in one! We clearly should have done the "championship course" instead of just the " professional" one. I learned my lesson... Stop betting. I lost by 11 points which resulted in me having to take the middle seat on the airplane ride home. The jokes on Andrew though because on our first flight the row only had 2 seats (no middle seat) and the second flight there was an empty seat by us. Phew, I dodged a bullet. The golf course had a bible verse at every hole which was unique. We saw several churches there! 

• Renting bikes. We could rent bikes where we stayed. We explored the island and rode a 15 mile route. The island is flat, but there is a bridge. The path we took required us to cross the bridge, and boy was it steep. I had hoped we'd have our own lane to cross the water, but we shared the road with cars whizzing by at 55mph. At least it was a wide bike lane, but there wasn't a large margin for making mistakes and we weren't wearing helmets. We always do at home, but the cheapskate in me couldn't justify $20 more than we already paid just for helmets. As we started the incline, I just went for it. No turning back now. Our rental bikes didn't have gears, but that didn't stop us. I didn't dare pause to take a picture at the top of the bridge of the gorgeous view. Couldn't risk it. We lived to tell the tale, and my butt felt that ride for a couple days.

• Pickleball. The complex we stayed in had pickleball courts! We had a great time competing with each other. Andrew is better than me much to my chagrin. I claim he's lucky. He did admit I make better shots than him. I did manage to beat him one game though! We played over 10 games and went to the courts a couple of times. There was "open play" each morning and a large group gathered to play doubles. After seeing us play for over an hour, another couple invited us to join the group the following morning. We were warned that "all levels are welcome from 2.0 to 5.0 and not to worry, pickleball players are pretty nice. Nobody would be mean to us." Clearly, we are professionals-not.  Almost everyone in the pickleball club were retirees. This little pep talk made us chuckle for days.

Food

• We went to the "Frozen Moo" ice cream shop TWICE. We couldn't resist. They have 91 flavors. The InstaGraham (graham cracker) and Savannah Bannah (peanut butter, banana, with chocolate chunks) were our favorites.

The "Sundown Saloon" impressed us. The burgers were to die for! It was a bar.

"Bella Italia" pizza was yummy but not knock your socks off good. We did get to eat the leftovers for a couple of days which was nice.

"Hudson's Seafood on the Docks" is famous at Hilton Head. A little more expensive, and very picturesque. Right on the water! They serve seafood and you guessed correctly if you predicted I passed. Andrew had the seafood pasta with fresh shrimp and clams.

SKIP "Cactus Street Cantina." Expensive and unimpressive. Not sure why it has such high reviews and not the Mexican food we were craving. I also had a bit of a breakdown while at the restaurant so just not a great experience overall. The staff was very cheery so I'll give them that.

One night we tried the new Oreo Reese's which was fun! Also sampled BBQ Doritos on the beach which made my nose run but I liked them enough to buy them back in Utah.

Still to come... Our daytrip to Savannah Georgia and our time in Charleston!!