As a reminder, we drove to Charleston, SC and boarded a Carnival Cruise to the Bahamas. It was amazing and we are both totally game to go on another cruise! I'm going to try and break our vacation up into 3-4 posts. I might be done with them by December. (Kidding. Sorta.) In the end I'll share our pros and cons of cruising and the things we wish we knew before we left!
We started off our vacation by stopping at Nate's parents to drop off Tripp and Libby. We hung out there for a day and then started the 15 hour drive to Charleston around 3AM. We even managed to hit Augusta around lunch time, so we stopped at Chili's and I was able to see some of my old favorites! By the time we got to out hotel in Charleston, we both crashed. We stayed at the Days Inn in Mount Pleasant. They have a special stay and cruise rate which was around 70 dollars. We had that rate for both nights we stayed and were able to leave our car there for the week and take a taxi to the pier. This was much more convenient than driving to the pier, paying 100 dollars to use their parking for the week, and walking with your luggage tot he drop-off point. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Our first full day of real vacationing was spent in Charleston. First on our agenda was the tour of Fort Sumter. For the two of us, the cost was 38 dollars with the military discount. We waited in the air conditioned building (which is right next to the aquarium, which would be another great place to kill some time) until the ferry returned from the first tour. Once on the ferry, we sat on the top deck, which is where I happened to get my first sunburn of the trip. The trip is about 20 minutes each way with amazing views of the harbor, Pickney Island (at least I'm pretty sure that's what it is called), and the USS Yorktown which is at Patriots Point on the Mound Pleasant side of the harbor. We even spotted a few dolphins swimming around!
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| The Charleston Harbor bridge. Mount Pleasant is on the right. |
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| The USS Yorktown |
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| Lovely Charleston |
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| Pickney Island |
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| Fort Sumter |
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| Original Civil War cannons |
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| View of Charleston from Fort Sumter |
After the tour, we headed to downtown. I opted not to carry my camera around, however in retrospect, it probably wouldn't have hurt to snap a few on my camera. We wandered around for a bit before stopping for lunch at Bubba Gumps. We originally looked for a local place but found out that Bubbas gets all their seafood fresh from the harbor anyways. Nate and I love Bubba Gumps!
Sufficiently stuffed, we toured downtown and eventually stumbled on the Open Market. The Open Market is a loooooong building that spans a few blocks filled with local vendors selling everything from t-shirts, purses, photography prints, woven grass baskets (a Charleston tradition), and other random knick-knaks.
Even though there was plenty left to do, like carriage rides, ghost tours, and other random tours, we decided to just end our day at the beautiful Waterfront Park. It really was lovely with plenty of benches, open grass, and a fountain you could go wading in. The whole park was backed by these beautiful old brownstone-style houses and the view of the harbor and the Atlantic was amazing!
I think Nate and I would both love to go back to Charleston. Everything, and I mean everything is old and beautiful and full of history. We only caught just a small part of it.
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Take me with you next time. :)
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