Spring Break: An Overview

We only have the boys every other year for spring break and have traditionally traveled to San Antonio and stayed with friends. This year, those friends are in between houses and are living in a small townhouse. No room for us.

So in looking for warmer places to go I started researching South Carolina. I wanted access to the ocean. I somehow stumbled upon Beaufort.  It was near Parris Island (Marines train there and for 2 summers their Marine Band came to play at Sturgis Falls), not too far from Savannah, and not too far from Charleston. Done. I found a condo that would accept dogs too, as we wanted to take them along with us. However, once I researched a rental van, the decision was made to leave them behind.

When we go on vacation with the boys, there are always elements of historical relevance peppered into the mix, or, as in the case of our Gettysburg trip last summer, history is the main focus.  Even when we went to San Antonio, we visited the Alamo.

San Antonio 2010

We left Iowa on a Friday evening at about 7:00 pm and drove. And drove. And drove.  This is what Eric and I do on long car rides. We drive straight through. It saves a lot of time and money (no hotels). We made it to our townhouse at about 2:30 pm on Saturday.  We unpacked, we napped, went to the grocery store, showered and relaxed.

Sunday we went into downtown Beaufort and walked around downtown and drove around the area. We also headed to Hilton Head where we found a beach for the kids to dip their toes into the Atlantic for the first time.

 Monday we went to Charleston. It was rainy and cold for St. Patty’s day. We stopped by the Charleston Museum, oldest museum in the country. We wandered around downtown and ate a late lunch at an Irish pub, after watching a Pipe Band play several songs when we walked in the door. We then went to Ft. Moultrie to see some history. We toured the fort and found out how to get to Ft. Sumter. Since it was cold, we decided we would make the 80 minute drive again on Thursday.

Tuesday was supposed to be even colder and wetter than Monday, so we didn’t plan much. It ended up not raining, but it was pretty chilly. We decided to get out of the house that evening and go bowling.

Wednesday we got up a little early and headed to Savannah. I was very excited about seeing this city. We parked at a train museum, where Eric started drooling immediately, and crossed the street to the museum/visitor’s center where we purchased passes for an on/off bus tour of the city. It was beautiful. Eric couldn’t believe the history in the city. I thought the planning of it was ingenious and the trees and houses were breathtaking. I fell in love with all of the wrought iron.

 

In an effort to get back to the train museum in time to see some things, we probably didn’t see as much of Savannah as we should have. But trains are IMPORTANT people! We were able to ride on a hand cart, and ride on a coal train. It was actually a really fun experience.

 

On the way out of town, I took my friend Krista’s advice, and we stopped at Leopold’s Ice Cream. As you can see by Tyler’s expression, it was DELICIOUS! It’s probably good I don’t live closer, or I’d be 500 lbs.

The deliciousnous of Leopold's Ice Cream can not be contained.

Thursday we went back to Charleston so we could go to Ft. Sumter. We picked up our tickets for the boat ride and headed out on the water. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were treated to several dolphin sightings.  We got to Ft. Sumter and had a great history lesson provided by a park ranger. We then wandered about the fort, soaking in the history. For those of you who may not know, Ft. Sumter is where the Civil War began.

 Ft. Sumter used to be 3 stories tall until it took the impact of  73,000,000 tons of iron in battle.

We left the afternoon free so we could drive to Kiawah Island and spend more time on a beach. It was very windy and a little chilly at 63 degrees, but it was beautiful. We collected some shells and Eric built a fort, and put some new toy soldiers on it.

Friday we went horseback riding at Camelot Farms on St. Helena Island.  The boys had never been on horses before. They had a blast. 

Clockwise: Shoes, Apache, Kid, Wizard

We then went to Hunting Island State Park. It looked like Jurassic Park from the road, with all of the Palmetto trees. However, we also decided to go up the lighthouse, all 167 steps, and the view from above was all pine trees. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent in Beaufort. We went to retrieve our free chocolate sand dollars from a candy store and passed this national cemetery on the way. So after the chocolates, we backtracked. It was pretty impressive.  We then went back downtown and went through a few of the stores. The kids played at a play ground while Eric and I sat on a “porch” swing and enjoyed the sun and sound of the water.

National Cemetery in Beaufort

The next morning we packed up and headed home. It was a much longer drive home due to the GPS wanting to send us through Atlanta, and by the time I discovered that, we were an hour into the trip. We backtracked so we could go through Lexington instead. Note to self: always travel with an atlas in the car. The temperature on the car read 80 degrees somewhere in South Carolina, and by the time we pulled in the driveway at 5:30 am on Sunday morning, the temperature now read 17 degrees. Iowa was punishing us for leaving.