The Low Country

I don't think a lifetime would have been long enough to enjoy all the charm and history of this wonderful city. Morris and I made a quick trip down to Charleston, SC "The Low Country" this weekend and loved every minute of it.

We visited Middelton Place-one of the many gorgeous plantations in Charleston. The grounds and gardens were beautiful, we were a little to early to enjoy the azaleas but we did get to see the last remains of the camellias.
We were able to stay with our good friends, the Henriods, from UCLA. They were excellent hosts and tour guides.

This is the main house on the plantation, it is pretty amazing, especially the waterfront view of the Ashley River.

Side note: The Ashley River runs along one side of town and the Cooper River on the other (I think) well anyway pretty much everything in town is named Ashley something or other. I think that means I need to move there or at least visit time and time again.

One of my favorite things we did and a must do if you ever visit the city is take a horse drawn carriage ride.

The tour took us through historic downtown Charleston and gives you a little background on the homes and architecture. It really was great.

Another must do when in the south; eat something and everything fried (except for the peanuts, they boil those so they actually end up being more like beans, I was a fan-Morris not so much). So fried lunch is what we did. We had our first taste of Hush Puppies (fried cornmeal dough with jalapenos), actually they were pretty good. Fried baked potatoes, fried shrimp, fried fish, I think they even fried our coke. You get the point, basically a heart attack.

Charleston is a great walking city. We walked all over downtown and saw some other sites that were not included on our tour.

We saw Rainbow Row...

Waterfront Park, Mt. Pleasant Bridge, Fort Sumter (from a distance), The Battery area and shopped in The Market.

Oh lovely beach, how we have missed you.

The Carolina beaches were so pretty and such a welcomed site after a long winter. We walked around Folly beach and drove around dreaming about owning one of the many beautiful beach homes for sale.

We took a walk along the sand to the Morris Lighthouse, I really think we are meant to live here; a river and now a lighthouse just for us.

The whole weekend we were Gator hunting. We had heard rumors of gators in these parts but we didn't see any until Sunday afternoon. As soon as we went outside to get some proof he snuck back into his pond.

He really is there, just between Morris and Joel along the bank of the pond.

P.S. This is right in the Henriods backyard. Yes, this is correct they have gators in the backyard.

Oh and Morris had a little girlfriend the whole weekend. It was pretty cute to see the little crush Clara had on him and how excited she was to be near Morris, I think he secretly loved every minute of it.

Here is the close up of the alligator.

Thank you Henriods for the wonderful weekend, we loved it.