Road Trip Part IV: Cousins and Charleston

As fortune would have it, a group of my cousins was in South Carolina at the same time we were, celebrating my Aunt LaNelle's birthday. On Tuesday morning and stopped to see them on our way to spend the day in Charleston. It was so great to see them...it had been years...15 or 20? Sadly, some of the family had already left but here's a picture of those who were there:

Meg, Maryanne, Shelly, Michael and Aunt LaNelle (Uncle Mike, where are you?)

Aren't they cute?

Charleston was fabulous. We visited the Old Provost Dungeon and took a horse and carriage tour of the city. We did a lot of walking and enjoying.

The bridge into Charleston

Many, many pictures of Charleston architecture:

Cobblestone streets and Bluestone sidewalks!

Our horse

Road Trip Part III: Surfside Beach, SC

Ahhh, finally at our beautifully beachy destination. It was perfect...we were in the only hotel on the beach, nestled amongst beach homes and quaint little restaurants.

The view from our room (above)

We spent our days beachcombing and playing in the waves. We discovered melt-in-your-mouth crabcakes at a little beach restaurant called Nibils, and we slept with the balcony door open at night so we could hear the waves. It was heaven.



On Monday morning we went a few miles up the shore to Myrtle Beach. We were happy not to be staying there. ..very high-rise-hotel-and-tacky-souvenir-shop-y. Of course, what kids can resist tacky souvenir shops? Not ours. While Theo and Ben chose their souvenirs carefully, Eric and I tried our hardest not to buy matching satin "spring break '08" short shorts. We were strong, and in the end we resisted.

Myrtle Beach

E resisting souvenirs

We then spent an hour of family fun in the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum. Funny how you never even notice these places until you have little boys. When you overhear yourself saying "Hey...why don't we go to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum" you know that you've crossed a line in life. A point from which you will never return. We were all satisfyingly horrified and grossed out by the exhibits. Who needs the MOMA?

Road Trip Part II: The Great Smokies (no, not from a drive-thru in Kentucky)

On the second day of marathon driving, we spent the afternoon exploring the Smoky Mountains. What a great time! Theo announced that one of his dreams is to hike the Appalachian Trail. We made a pact to do it when he's old enough and before I'm too old. In other words, soon.

Road Trip Part I: We Took the High Road

It seemed like a great idea at the time...a reenactment of the family road trips of our youth...a chance for our own kids to see the ocean, see mountains, get bored in the backseat, fight with each other, and miss all of the scenic places because they're too busy with the toys in the car. Yes, the nostalgia factor was huge when we decided to take this trip.

But in the days leading up to it, we started to realize that maybe spending 48 hours in the car together was a bit much. Maybe the glorious road trips of yore weren't so glorious for the parents involved.

We put on our best Clark Griswald faces and plowed forth with our plans, deciding that if our parents had survived so would we. And you know what? We did! We had a GREAT time! We loved every (well, almost every) minute of it. Theo and Ben were fantastically well-behaved. Apparently they have gypsy blood in their little veins, because they didn't complain ONCE during the whole car ride. They read books, played with their GameBoys, hunted down license plates, listened to music, and had an all-around great time in the backseat.

They were adorably true-to-character. Theo compiled a test on various facts about the many states we'd be driving through: state birds, state trees, state mottos, etc. We were each required to take the test before setting off on this journey. We each failed miserably, but were allowed to go along on the trip anyway. He also designed a system for filtering rainwater into drinkable water. And pondered the laws of pressure. And gravity. He was busy.

Ben took a lighter approach. He happied himself with hours of singing along (loudly) to the ABBA CD playing on his walkman. And in an octave higher than even ABBA would be able to bear. Let's hope he doesn't discover the BeeGee's any time soon. He read to chapter three in the 3rd Harry Potter book, and laughed out loud at the humorous parts. He had a good time, and as long as we fed him every two hours or so, he was happy and so were we.

There is so much to see when you're passing through eight different states. Except, we soon realized, when you're on an Interstate Highway. The scenery was beautiful, but every town looked the same from the highway: Super8, TacoBell, Wallmart, Subway, McD's.

We were craving local charm, and lamented not having more time to take the backroads and get a real feel for the states we were passing through.

This is the mood that sent us off the highway a bit during one particular food stop in Kentucky.

Here's what we found:

Yep, a drive-thru tobacco store. AND LOOK AT THE LINE!

Having had our fill of local taste and flavor, we headed back to the Interstate.