a quick trip to Charleston!

Last week I realized that the kids were off from school Monday (President’s day) because of a teacher work day

So I thought we should all do a mini vacation Sunday-Monday (after church) so Dan suggested Charleston SC and I found a hotel for a good price downtown, I booked tickets for Fort Sumter and the plan was to visit the aquarium too – they are right next to each other.

So after church we settled in the car and drove almost 5hrs down there

(I got sick over the weekend, but took ibuprofen and dayquilt thruout the day, Bjorn got sick Sunday with the cold too, but the show must go on!)

Once we got checked into the hotel we went for a walk to find a place to eat, there’s many churches in Charleston, I think the nick name is a holy city because the skyline has so many steeples!

I found a flyer for a seafood place called Hyman’s and found out once we got there it was a FAMOUS place, that lots of famous people have eaten there

These name tags were all over the tables, pretty cool!

Dan and I were trying to explain who Dolly Parton is, and of course Dan tried to delicately tell Bjorn about her- you know whats! ha ha

-that’s NOT why she’s famous Mr.!! she’s a great singer/songwriter

This was on the back of their card

Monday morning we drove around a bit before going to the aquarium, I was all stuffed up, so even with the windows down I couldn’t smell the ocean..

There’s a rainbow row of houses on one street, really many streets had such neat architecture

Then it was time for the aquarium!

Dan bought two trays of stingray food and we petted and fed the stingrays, it was so cool!

their texture was so different and they were cute and fun how their mouths are underneath them so we had to put a tiny fish between out fingers and have it stick straight up then lay out hand straight down in the water but up against the wall and she would grab it, they were so eager flapping their fins, we got splashed quite a few times!

There was a hurt bald eagle on display too- sad to see some animals caged in, but they are helping it, so…

they had a big turtle help center too, one turtle had lost a fin/flipper but was doing fine.

Then next door to take the ferry to Fort Sumter, there was a tiny museum and this HUGE flag hanging on the wall

20 x 36 FEET!!

The original one was rolled up in a glass case underneath.

and I found a quilt too!

Then we got to take this ferry, 45 min out to Fort Sumter, which was a big part of the civil war, a man made island out in the bay of Charleston.

We walked around a bit and an hour later the ferry took us back

The kids thought it was more fun to play in the sand

Bjorn found a “snowshoe crab”? shell on the beach there.

There were specific instructions to not take anything off of the island, so of course we left it- though I think they meant the stones from the fort…

All in all a great trip!

The GPS on the way home, took us on tiny country roads in NC, it was just weird! we made it home just before 11 last night, Bjorn is still sick and so am I….