{Family Vacation} Charleston & Myrtle Beach, SC

As I mentioned in last Tuesday's post, it just dawned on me recently that I failed to share the details and pictures from our family vacation that we took to Charleston, SC back in April. Since I love to have all these posts to look back on, I figured it was time to get these pictures in a post, so without further ado, here's a little recap on our family vacay...
Tuesday, March 31 Due to make-up snow days, I ended up having to work the day that we were supposed to head to Charleston. Not a fantastic way to start a vacation but it makes you anticipate it more. Fortunately for me, that day we happened to have a field trip rescheduled, so I was able to sneak away a little bit earlier than I would have otherwise. Since I ended up home shortly after 1, we were able to load up the car and hit the road by 2. The drive from our part of North Carolina to Charleston took about 5 hours. We ended up stopping a couple of times on our way there for the typical bathroom break as well as an ice cream run. Nothing signals vacations like ice cream. Any of you girl's with me on that? In the end, we made it to our rental home sometime after 7. 

Since it was late by the time we ended up unloading the cars and settling in, we decided to just grab dinner at Applebee's and return back our cute little plantation house to call it a day. 

Wednesday, April 1 Having all went to bed pretty early the night before, we all woke up bright and early Wednesday morning. Our first stop was to grab breakfast at Bojangles which just happened to be around the corner from our little cottage. It truly was in the best location ever. When breakfast was over, we made our way to the heart of Charleston to take a carriage tour. Despite arriving early in the morning, there was already a several hour wait, so after paying for our tickets, we headed to the open air market to do a little browsing and spent the remaining time letting Harper pet the horses at the stables. 

By noon, we were on our carriage ride and touring the Battery and King Street. (If you've never been on a carriage ride in Charleston, you take one of four routes of the city. Unfortunately, you don't actually know which route you're taking until you're on the carriage!) 

My favorite part of the whole tour was all of the beautiful architecture. So many details go into buildings here in the south. 

After our carriage tour, we headed to Chick fil a to grab some lunch and then spent the remainder of our afternoon doing a little shopping at the outlets. For once, I didn't walk away with anything for myself but Kevin did find some great buys and I managed to stock up on some cute spring and summer things for Harper. So it was a win-win. That evening we spent some time resting and relaxing as a family before grabbing a late dinner at Cracker Barrel. 
Thursday, April 2 Thursday everyone slept in while my mom fixed everyone breakfast. Around 10 us girls decided we'd go out and do a little shopping while the guys headed out to Patriot's Point. I was all excited about doing a little more shopping up until I backed into some brick steps with my car as I was backing out of the driveway. In my defense it was the narrowest driveway ever and my sister was supposed to be watching on that side of the car. Yet she got to talking to my mom and forgot. As she said, "woah, woah, woah", I heard the distinct sound of crunching metal. I refused to get out of the car while they checked the damage. Thankfully it was minimal but I still cried and didn't dare look at Kevin's face. But thanks to the amazing hubby I have, I got a big hug and "It's gonna be ok. It's just a car." Though I question whether he truly meant it. haha

Thursday evening we did a harbor cruise. It was the perfect weather and the seas were smooth. 

As a side note, my best friend was leaving for a cruise that day and while on the harbor tour, we happened to go pass her cruise ship. We even spotted her. The whole time Harper was shouting "B", "B"! 

Friday, April 3 Friday morning we woke up with all intentions of heading home but since Kevin's family was at Myrtle Beach, we decided to go that way home and swing by to see them. They were completely surprised! We spent most of the afternoon hanging on the beach with them. 

Around 5 we headed out, but not before swinging by our favorite pizza joint, Sir Pizza, to grab a bite to eat for dinner before returning home! 

Here's to our next vacation!