Erin Hope

I have been wanting to attempt to do my own "portraits" of the kids for quite awhile. When Erin put on her current favorite dress and was willing to let me snap away I took advantage.

This summer she has taught herself to swim underwater. She is taking the piano and loving it! She went to Vacation Bible School and loved it. Got her first library card and was so proud. Is starting to read and loves doing her school work. She loves the color green, stick on earrings, Hannah Montana, and her American Girl doll Julie.

So here is Erin, age 4.

A Few of My Favorite Things

So for my final and last Charleston post (I promise!) I have some of my favorite things to share. I hate to go on and on but there is so much to show and tell! On Saturday mornings there is a farmers market/art show held in the park across from the Francis Marion Hotel. We wandered around and looked at everything before choosing what to have for breakfast. The fresh fruits and vegetables looked so good, if only we had access to a kitchen, Bill would have been cooking up a storm. It was fun to look anyway and there were plenty of non food items as well. We found great soaps that we brought home to everyone and a couple of other little treats.

Again, I felt like a food critic! We settled on crepes and found a spot on the lawn of the park under a tree - it was a very hot day.

The kids would have been all over these berries. This is about how much we go through in a week. But the best treat of all were these doughnuts. The little doughnut machine was so cute. You could watch the batter being poured, dipped in the fryer, and then travel along and flip over into the little bin. It is obviously popular as there was a line all the time, but for good reason. They were fabulous. I almost went back for more but restrained myself and at least tried to get something else. Which led me to the crepes where even though I got strawberries I still needed a little chocolate, yum!

A fun place to shop was what is known as the Slave Mart. We learned on our tour that it is named this because this is where the slaves would shop for food and goods for their owners homes. Now it is an open air market that has about four buildings you can spend hours wandering though looking for gifts and fun little things to bring home to your kids.

Our last night was definitely one of the best of our trip. We had pretty much hit all the great spots to eat as confirmed by the concierge. Our last dinner we headed to Charleston Grill via rickshaw. The concierge called to make sure we could get a table and let them know that we were celebrating our anniversary. We were truly spoiled. We had a great cozy little table and were treated to all kinds of samples the chef was working on. We were also treated to a special dessert bottle of wine and this adorable Happy Anniversary sign. The best part was the dark chocolate easel that it sat on and I promptly ate!

If that wasn't enough of a great romantic night it got even better. Our friend the concierge (again - he was a great guy!) recommended that we go the the Wentworth Mansion which has a restaurant and have an after dinner drink. The Mansion is now a full service hotel and you can take your drink to the top of the Mansion and enjoy it out on the cupola. Talk about romantic. We could see all of Charleston lit up under a clear starry night and we had the cupola to ourselves.

I had to take a picture of the Rickshaw drivers tattoo.

This was such a cozy little booth at Charleston Grill tucked into an alcove. I'm telling you we were seriously spoiled.

These are from the cupola. Sorry for the blur but I wanted to show the view.

Our last morning after we went to the Calhoun Mansion tour, we went to Fleet Landing for lunch. It was just what I needed before heading home. Fleet is a 1940 Navy building on the harbor. It has been refurbished into a restaurant. I needed one last dose of sea air so we sat outside and enjoyed a great lunch and our last uninterrupted meal for quite awhile! All could think about here was how we need to bring Kyle back to eat here when we go to Folly next summer.

And my last favorite thing was my company. I took this goofy little picture of us sitting in one of the gardens. It is probably my favorite. We are always running as most parents are. Every evening is filled with kid activities and Bill has a very demanding job often working 70 hours a week. Having a week alone together no matter where we went would be the most treasured gift I could ever have.

Thank you to all of our family and friends for helping us get away together. We deeply appreciate all of your time in staying with the kids, doing laundry, and driving everyone everywhere. I didn't have a care in the world because I knew everyone was in good hands.

To the best husband a bride could wish for. Thank you for great conversation filled with lots of laughter. I loved every minute we were together. Thank you for the best 15 years and to many, many more.

Gardens & Houses

I took tons of pictures on our trip, not that unusual for me. Having a new camera really made it fun. I am still learning how to use all the features and this was a great opportunity to try them all out. God love Bill who never once said "come on, let's go" or "you've taken a picture of every house down here". And I love my camera! Over 400 pictures on this trip with no kids was a lot of pictures. But I am having so much fun playing with them in Photoshop and learning about that whole world. So here are a few that I have not done anything with in Photoshop yet otherwise it would be Christmas before I posted them.


Ethan is really into architecture right now so I took plenty of the houses and the detail on them. We walked the Battery three times. It is so beautiful to have these houses on one side and walk along the water. I love the ocean, the smell of the water and the feel of it in the air. I love old houses like these so it was the best of both worlds for both of us.

Our walking tour ended at the Battery during low tide. There were dolphins swimming right by the shore. I have never seen them that close it was so neat. That I don't have pictures of, I was too busy just standing there in awe. So here are a few of my favorites from our walks and the gardens of the historic homes. Enjoy!










Rainbow Row (below)



Rainbow Row

Cobblestone streets...

with iron work everywhere

Favorite garden pictures....

Love these palms below.

I believe this is Crepe Myrtle (?). It was all over the trees. Our tour guide said it flowers for about 4 months and you will see it in different colors.

Help, what is this? Some sort of fig? I saw these in a couple of the yards of the homes we toured.

And my favorite picture from all the gardens is this little pink flower. Not so much because of the actual flower but how the picture turned out.

This is a lily from the fresh flowers in the hotel lobby. They smelled so good.

Can't remember the name of these but I love the color. Blue in a garden is one of my favorites.

Another lily, we had these Rubrum Lily's in our wedding.

Thought these were neat. I've never seen them before and have no idea what they are!

Charleston's Museum Mile

Here are some pictures of our miles of walking and touring the historic houses of Charleston. We ( specifically me) had to be careful walking on the above sidewalks. This was an accident waiting to happen for a klutz like me. The Museum Mile has the most on one walk to see. It still took us a couple of days to get to what we toured and we didn't go to everything. It sounds corny but this trip was much like a second honeymoon. We toured all of Newport, Rhode Island mansions and the Biltmore in North Carolina on our honeymoon. We were in our element in Charleston with all of the history and great places to eat!

So here are some of the places we made it to.

The Heyward-Washington House was a home of Thomas Heyward, signer of the Declaration of Independence and a home George Washington stayed for a week visiting.

This is the back of the house and the kitchen building. Kitchens were always detached from the house to prevent any chance of house fires.

Slaves did the cooking and the laundry in these two rooms.

Laundry Tub

The Nathanial Russell house was home to a Charleston merchant in 1808. This house was beautifully restored with gold leaf crown molding.

I had to go to the Powder Magazine and get these pictures for Lindy and Paige. We had just read about the magazine in the Felicity American Girl books from the Revolutionary War. They really got a kick out of seeing the kegs of gun powder just like they were described in the book.

Built in 1713 this is Charleston's oldest building.

The Calhoun Mansion is not on the official Museum Mile because it is still privately owned yet open for tours. The movie The Notebook had scenes filmed here when it was empty between owners. The woodworking was unbelievable. The current owner has all of their art and collectibles displayed throughout the house. Quite a lot to take in! They must employ someone full time to dust, I have never seen so much stuff!

The Edmondston-Alston House built in 1825 is also a beautifully restored home with an incredible view of the harbour. We waited for our tour to start on the porch. I tried out the joggling board which was fun.

Just the door is beautiful.

This church is just a few doors down from our hotel. We stopped in one day and took a quick peak. All of the stained glass was incredible.

The Joseph Manigault House was the only house that allowed photography. The house belonged to a wealthy rice-planting family. It has been restored and has furniture displayed from the Charleston Museum.

Love this molding detail and this was my favorite china pattern I saw in any of the houses.

Probably my favorite house was the Aiken-Rhett home. Built in 1820 and lived in by the former Governor Aiken it is preserved. The carriage sits in the stables, somewhat falling apart, but feeling like someone just climbed out. The slave quarters were really neat. The tour was audio which was nice because you can take your time. This is one we will definitely be bringing the kids back to.

We really had a wonderful time exploring all of these homes. We took a walking tour on Sunday that was fabulous. We got so much insight on the South, the man who did the tour was a wealth of information. I'd like to send Kyle down to talk with him for about a week! Seriously, next year when we are at the beach I will be sending Kyle and Ethan on this tour with Bill. I don't think the girls will be quite ready for it, but they would love the carriage ride tour. The tour was one of the highlights of our trip, so many great stories.

Well, that's about all on our trip. I have a few more pictures of some places we ate and some other sightseeing. Will try to post if I get a chance! Enjoy.