The Chronicals of Vacation: Sand, Sun and Ice cream

So I have had some trouble starting this post. Mainly because half of you will be reading this for if not the 2nd time, then the third.

So this post is for my family and my Oklahoma/GFSI friends and those of you who just want to read it again. If I were smart I'd just copy and paste from Steph's blog but then what would be the fun in that? Read on for funny stories, pictures and videos.

*Author's note: this will be a long summary divided into chapters of our trip. Please feel free to use this to kill some time at work (What? I never do that!) or curl up with a blanket and a Jamba Juice. I miss Jamba Juice.

The Start to the Beginning
Early Saturday morning, we packed up our suitcases, picked up Karen and Justin, and Trevor and Stephanie and headed for the east coast, destination: Edisto Island, South Carolina. (This completes #6 on the list go on vacation with friends. Though not the real reason why we went.)

Why Edisto? Well we knew we wanted to go to South Carolina because we drew it out of a hat.

And Myrtle Beach would have been too crowded in the summer. So we picked Hilton Head Island, however. my mom being suckered in by a "super nice lady" forgot to ask if it was on Hilton Head Island. It wasn't....but that's ok because Edisto (though tiny--approx 50 sq miles and 2500 residents) was relaxing and close enough to Charleston to make this vacation spot almost perfect.

Karen was kind enough to share her family with us. We stopped in TN halfway into the trip for some delicious home-cooked meals, home-made ice cream (just the beginning of our desserts) a free night, a clean shower, a crocheted/knitted (I don't know the difference) wash cloth, and cookies to go. Gotta love that southern hospitality.

And then we were off once again for our much needed vacation.

Edisto Island

The only road to the island.

We and when I say "we", I mean Trevor, because that's just the way he is, struck up a conversation with our next door neighbor and learned that an Alligator named Brutus usually came to visit us during the hottest part of the day. Unfortunately, we never even got a glimpse of him, however, we did get to eat, yes, EAT one of his family members in Charleston. EXCELLENT I might add. I was tempted to kill a fat pigeon for bait to eat some more of that delicious gator.

Sunday night, we were excited to see the ocean. After all we live in Kansas and not too many large bodies of water reside here. I've decided I need to purchase one of those machines that have different sounds of nature so that I can fall asleep to sounds of the ocean.

I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure we got ice cream.

We did spend a couple of days on the island and at the beach. I didn't build a sandcastle because it was hot and I was lazy. (We're going to Oregon in September, so I'll be sure to build one there and cross it off the list.) And the sand....my gosh.....the sand. It stuck to my body like bubble gum stuck in your hair. I could not just wipe it off. It was embedded into my skin. There was a day when I got back to shower, I took my swim suit top off, sand and pepples and tiny shells literally poured out. It was frightening. After I showered I had to sweep the bathroom floor, it was like I brought the beach indoors.

Here's a funny clip from our picnic at the beach. Karen is deathly afraid of birds due to totalling her car because of a bird. ANYWAY, we were eating on the beach and a seagull lands near us. Justin her husband (is very aware of this known fact but proceeds to throw this gull a bite of food.) I didn't react fast enough to catch it all on tape. But 5 other seagull friends came in for some tasty treats too. They were circleling our heads and I was getting a little paranoid that one was either going to land on my head or poop on it. It's happened before. So turn up your volume on this vid because you can hear Karen in the background.

Speaking of birds...we almost hit a vulture. Karen if you are reading this scroll through. I kid you not, the wingspan was a frightening 5 ft. Besides the hideousness of it, I came back intrigued and I couldn't stop looking at the below picture. I didn't get a picture because we were in the car and going too fast when we saw 4 or 5 of them perched on a fence. THEY ARE HUGE.
I'm not sure if they were these exactly but per Wikipedia they do reside in the area we were in. Check it out.
The only thing that makes me think these weren't the exact kind was the fact that they looked like humans hunched over on the fence...and I mean humans because in my mind they seemed to be about the size of a human sitting down. And they were black. And gross.

Moving on.

My favorite tour of the trip was the Kayak tour. My shoulders ached....throbbed immediately afterwards and into the night though not sore the next day, probably thanks to P90X. But besides touring around parts of Edisto and other smaller islands nearby and we got to see beautiful birds (not flying close to my head) crabs....thousands of crabs and their homes, and dolphins!!

This we did not see on the kayak tour but it is a nasty crab.

Justin came the closest to the dolphins.
I did not have enough man power to get my kayak there fast enough.

Charleston
The forecast all week showed rain everyday. So each day we expected the worst. Monday we woke to cloudy skies and humidity like no other. We headed to Charleston not wanting to head to the beach in case of rain. The lush environment made us feel like we were in a different country. And Charleston's downtown....it's like no other I've been to. It's beautiful! So much history! Full of entirely too much to do. Blair and I went there on our honeymoon and we still did not cover everything. It might be a vacation spot we'll hit more than a couple of times.

We did a lot of walking that first day. The majority of the walking I felt was just to get to food. We ate rather large meals every meal and I was famished for each of them.

We hit up lunch at Poogan's Porch.

The Legend has it that:

A native Charlestonian, Zoe St. Amand, who lived at the Charleston house on 72 Queen Street for a number of years prior to her death, has been spotted in various locations at various times. Sometimes at night, guest of the Mills House Hotel catch a glimpse of an old woman in a black dress waving from a second floor window of the restaurant. Police have been notified and upon investigation have found no one inside. Employees of Poogan’s have also seen glimpses of Zoe. Pots and pans have been known to crash inexplicably in the kitchen and hostesses in the past have witnessed visions of an old woman in a long black dress walking around and then disappearing. Paraphrased from The Ghosts of Charleston, by Edward B. Macy and Julian T. Buxton III.

I think I spot Zoe in the mirror~!

And:

Poogan’s Porch is named after a dog. A scruffy neighborhood dog, Poogan spent his time wandering from porch to porch alternately lounging around and begging for table scraps. Poogan was a good ol’, down-home, Southern porch dog. He became the guardian of the newly opened restaurant and presided over the renovation process. When the doors opened for business he greeted the first customers. The restaurant’s family cherished him and in his honor, the owners named the restaurant after him and his favorite resting spot— Poogan’s Porch. He died of natural causes in 1979 and the building is his monument.

(If you're ever in the neighborhood or a 2 hour perimeter) you must take a detour over to Poogan's. Perhaps the best southern food in the state. And serves some tasty gator-!

We left on full stomach's just in time to enjoy more stories of Blair and Justin's "imaginary" slave, Nat. (He was actually Robert E. Lee's slave) But nonetheless, thanks to 'Nat' I received popcorn and drinks served to me during our movie night at the condo.

Justin spots while Blair moves the cannon.
I think this is one of my favorite pictures.
Hilarious!

We stopped in for some ice cream at Maggie Moo's because we love that ice cream and because the place was air conditioned. And then ended the day in with some good Italian food and more ice cream! And a ghost tour (that wasn't as scary as the last one we went on--but I think it's because there were kids in it this time.) Oh well. It was still interesting and we learned about a ghost story on Edisto Island. As well as the legends at Poogan's.

We came back to Charleston on Thursday also. The Hathaways and the Goertzen's hit up Fort Sumter while we toured USS Yorktown. A fascinating trip into the past. That too wasn't long enough but I'm so glad we got to go.




We ate at Hyman's Seafood that day. The food was good, the atmosphere was better. This was the most exciting thing:

Yup, it was like I ate with Metallica.
Okay, maybe not.

We headed back to the island for a walk on the beach and more ice cream!!






Savannah
We headed towards Paula Deen's restuarant Lady & Sons as soon as we got there, roughly 10:30 am. They put us on the list to be seated at the next available time, 9:15pm. Needless to say we did not stay to eat that late. Paula, if you want me as a customer, you're going to have to make it easier to eat there!

We hit up the carriage tours, saw "the most beautiful street in America." Poured out more buckets of perspiration. Hit up a couple of art museums, one was a tour of a house but was dedicated to the art program. By this time Blair was not feeling well and I was getting tired of being on a tour by myself. So this wasn't my favoriate day nor my favoriate city. I enjoy Charleston 10 times more. But it was cool to see the house. Pictures weren't allowed.

Front of house

Back

Slave quarters and Carriage house

The End of the Beginning
I think I covered the majority or at least the high points of the trip. There were so many good times and memories that we shared. I wish ALL of my friends could come but perhaps another time. Please click view all on the slide show if you're interested in seeing more of our exciting excursions from Edisto Island 2009.

And the next time you're in town or just stopping by....we're always up for ice cream~!