Charleston, South Carolina

When George and I crossed over Rhett Butler Blvd just outside of Charleston we knew we were in the ‘deep south’.  Fried food of every shape, color and taste, humanity of every color and nationality surrounding us, ‘ya’all have a nice day’…was the greeting of the day, seagulls, plantations everywhere, horse and carriage rides, confederate army memorabilia and enough charm to win over this yankee girl!  I was so excited to get here because Charleston has been on my ‘bucket list’ forever. 

Outside view of French Marketplace

Birthday boy in front of stones from Giant Causeway in Ireland....been there done that!

Our first day of tourist things was on Halloween Day, which just so happens to be my wonderful husband’s birthday, so he got to pick wherever he wanted to go that day.  He picked going to the Patriot’s Point Naval & Maritime Museum.  https://www.patriotspoint.org/explore  It was the perfect day, no clouds, sunny, 80 degrees and a warm breeze off the ocean.  First we toured the USS Yorktown battleship. All I can say about it was it was BIG and it was in WWII and didn’t get to retire until 1986.  We walked, climbed, walked, and walked and then climbed through more doorways all over that immense ship. 

Next it was off to the USS Clamagore submarine that was also dry docked there.  Walking through a submarine tour is tight, smelly, dark and I knew I could NEVER be in a submarine longer than 10 minutes…and I’m not even claustrophobic.

Inside view of submarine

Last, but not least, was the USS Laffey Destroyer.  I breezed through that ship because I just lost interest in ships at that point.  I saw too much military, stairs, navy, testosterone, etc. etc. for my liking.  After that exciting day of touring I took him out to an Irish Pub for dinner.  He was one happy camper…my birthday boy mission was accomplished!

The next day while we were in downtown Charleston going through all the stores, streets, etc. we walked our little legs off.  So much to see and do downtown that we decided to call it a day and come again another day. 

French Marketplace

Courthouse

 

  

The next day we took a carriage ride to see and hear all about Charleston. 

One of the fun things we saw while in the French Quarter was all these trucks, etc.  The tour guide said they were filming a TV series here.  Noticed on one of the trucks there was a sign that said CBS, asked him if he knew what series and he said he didn’t know…bummer.  Towards evening we took a walk in the French Quarter of the downtown area to see all the historic homes.  

 










 We learned why these homes were built with the side of the house facing the street with the house’s width facing the other home in front.  It was because when these were built in  the 1800's there was little land to put them on and the homes were taxed by the dimensions of the front facing the street.  Clever I may say, to build homes sideways as to not pay taxes.  Most plantation owners had a home in town to enjoy the breeze off the ocean during the summer months. 

I just had to go to a plantation while there, so we decided to go to the Middleton Plantation.  https://www.middletonplace.org/

The house was all brick and not like you imagine in the ‘Gone with the Wind’ movie. 

The gardens were what made this plantation famous.  He had over 100 slaves build a terrace that went from the front of the house down to the water’s edge, ponds, rose gardens, reflection pond, private lawn areas and the list just went on and on.  

He wanted this garden to be the best in all the 13 colonies.  I was thrilled to see my first swamp pond.  It even had its own alligator (didn’t get to see him though).  This plantation grew rice for their crop of choice.  Didn’t know how hard it was to grow rice…I’ll really appreciate eating it from now on. 

Terraced lawn that goes down to the rice field

Many hours of wading in knee deep water that had snakes and crocodiles was a present danger while working.

Adam and Eve would have loved these 'fig leaves'!

They even had a slave house and a list of all the slaves that worked on the plantation with a short history of the slaves’ lives.  Very different than what I have experienced in the west. 

Slave quarters

Our last day here we drove to Isle of Palm Beach.  All these summer cottages lining the beach were fabulous.  Of course, most were built with the garage on the bottom floor so that when hurricanes come and flood the bottom floor the living quarters are hopefully dry.  We walked on the long beach and picked up seashells and just enjoyed sand between our toes.

Don't you just love tee shirt shops

One of the things advertised in the tourist brochures was Moon Pies.  They had a general store that sold them with other memorabilia of the famous Moon Pies.  Since I have never had one, I proceeded to purchase three.  After eating one I quickly discovered that my high expectations were quickly crushed.  Not what I expected… round vanilla cookie with a marshmallow filling with chocolate coating on the outside.  George had his and felt the same.  I guess it’s a local thing from childhood that makes it special down here.  FYI: won’t be buying any in the near future.

Did I love Charleston…yes…would highly recommend it!  Would I like to live there…not so much. I can happily check off another city from my bucket list.

Would definitely come back for the southern food!!!

Happy Travels Ya’all,                                                                                                                           

Peggy (plus George and Coco)

Universal Studios - Orlando, Florida

What do you do on a coolish, cloudy, rainy day in Florida?  Why go to a fun place to hang out with 50,000 other strangers having a fun time in a fantasy world.  It sure worked for George and me.

Universal Studios in Orlando is NO Disney World but it fills a spot in the tourist world of lots of roller coasters, cartoon characters and movie memorabilia.   The park is separated into two separate parks.  First one we entered was Universal’s Island of Adventure.  While walking through we saw Doctor Seuss Land, The Lost Continent, Jurassic Park, Doctor, Marvel Super Hero Island, Lucille Ball memorabilia museum, Despicable Me parade, Sponge Bob parade and miles and miles of gift shops, restaurants and photo opportunities. 

My main goal was to get to Wizarding World of Harry Potter before all the crazy tourists got there first.  The most popular ride is Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.  After loading onto little seats we were whisked off to see Harry Potter and friends in the castle while flying through the air, speeding after Harry and friends on broomsticks via modern 3D imagery.  Waiting 60 minutes for a four minute ride….will you question my sanity?

We passed this Butter Beer wagon and had to have some, of course.  Do you want to know what butter beer tastes like?  Of course you do, it actually is cream soda with whipped cream on the top…now you know.

 We also passed up going on the Jurassic Park River Adventure.  Can you figure out why?  The high for the day was only 67 degrees and the sign at the entrance said “YOU WILL GET WET”….no brainer in that quick decision after looking at the boat being totally drenched.

Then we were off to Universal Studios Florida side of the park.  If you like roller coasters, this is the place to throw up.  Everywhere we turned there was another one with lines of crazy people waiting to be tossed and turned upside down and sideways.  In my younger years I would have been one of those crazy people for sure…but my stomach just can’t take it anymore…darn.

Next it was off to the ride about how disaster movies are made with volunteers from the audience helping in the fun and then on to Transformers saving the day 3D adventure; we were experiencing all they could throw at us.  My favorite attraction on this side of the park was the Horror Make-up Show.  We sat watching old horror film clips of what horror was like starting in the 30’s to the present day.  Then they had performers come out and show us how they can cut a person’s arm off, including blood, without hurting her (volunteer out of the audience).  The performers were also comedians which made the show quite enjoyable and turned out to be my favorite in the whole park.

We ended the day with pouring rain (we had brought our raincoats and umbrellas, so we were doing great) so we decided to go to the Despicable Me Ride. 

Mercy, it took us 80 minutes to go through that line for a five minute ride.  The 3D ride was very charming while sitting in a car that giggled and rocked back and forth while watching a video in front of us.  It can’t get any cuter than three adorable little girls, bright yellow Minions with goggles entertaining us.

I am sure our children and grandchildren are totally embarrassed!

 

Stick a fork in me though….I was done for the day and it was getting dark.  Both of our spirits may be young but our bodies didn't get that memo.

Will we go back again…probably not.  It really is a place you want to experience with children or grandchildren but it was great to spend a day being a kid at heart. What a great place for us old folks to experience living one day without a care in the world except trying to decide what souvenir we wanted to buy, what rides to be thrilled on or how to stop the evil villains from destroying the world.

Happy travels,

Peggy (and George and Coco)

Historic Williamsburg, Virginia

Did you know that Williamsburg was the capitol of our great nation for a short while in the early 1700’s.  We were not planning on going to this little town but a gentleman from OH, that we met shortly in a museum in DC, said we just ‘had to’ go there because it was so fantastic and we would really enjoy it.  So, after seeing everything we could see in DC and without much hesitation we headed Kemosabe down the road to VA, about an hour and half south of DC to park at a campground there for five days.

Upon arriving at Historic Williamsburg -  www.colonialwilliamsburg.com
we paid our admission and hopped on the shuttle bus not knowing exactly what we were going to see. 

We were very pleasantly surprised to see a town that has been recreated to look like it was in the 1760’s.  Now I know what you are thinking…yeah, yeah, lots of places are little towns made to look like old towns.  This one they did up right and what impressed us the most was that it didn’t have the ‘touristy, commercial’ feel that we so often see.

The original houses, churches, courthouse, palace, taverns, storefronts in about a six block radius had gone through many years of ownership, disrepair, destruction and misuse.  In the 1920’s the people in the surrounding areas decided they needed to preserve this special town and started buying up the property and houses and restoring them.  If a building was torn down, then they rebuilt one on the original foundation from blueprints or pictures that they found in the archives.  Not all the buildings on the street are open to the public; they were never restored on the inside, just the outside.
 

 

Reconstructed from original blueprints the old courthouse

All the people who ran the shops, did work in the livery stable, shoe shop, blacksmith shop, garden store, millinery shop, general store, courthouse, restaurants, etc, were all dressed in period costumes.  One of the fun things you can do there is rent a period costume for the day (which a lot of the children did). 

 
 

They also have carriage rides, forming of the militia guard (including musket firing and cannon shooting), and my favorite…a speech by Thomas Jefferson himself. 

 At 4 o’clock we sat at a public outside meeting place to hear him talk about the revolution and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  He talked as if he was talking to us in 1776 (he was a professional actor with great oratory skills). 

Old Tom was very believable and he talked for over half an hour nonstop.  He opened the talk at the end with questions from the audience.  It was interesting because the issue of him owning slaves and writing the “all men are free” declaration came up and he answered it very eloquently and in true 1776 style. 

Two fun things we did was go to the tavern for a demonstration by actors (in costume) on how plays in the late 1700 were banned by many of the original states and what that meant to the citizens living in Williamsburg and how the actors continued with their acting careers and plays.  At one point the acting company had to move to Jamaica for six years to remain in business.  The reason plays were banned was because money was very tight because of the economy, with the war with England, which was going to cost a lot of money and they didn’t want the good citizens to spend their money ‘foolishly’.

Next, it was off to a county courtroom where they asked for any volunteers to act and read from scripts of actual accounts of citizen that came to court in the 1700’s.  George and I volunteered to be fellow judges (you didn’t have to know law in those days to be a judge, just prestige and money…has that changed any in over 300 yrs?).  We heard each citizen place his claim and then we four judges had to agree or disagree to the head judge’s judgment on the case.  It was very fun to experience firsthand the ‘reenactments’ and how it would have been back in the 1770’s.  One interesting fact:  a criminal, no matter what his crime, was only sentenced to a maximum of one year in jail, and then he was let out.  If he did it again…same sentence…no long term prison sentence back then.

King George signing those rascals to the jail.

Our last thing we did was go to their museum and spent our last hour there.  We went through it pretty fast because I can tell you I’m about ‘museumed out' after spending 11 days in DC.  Only item I bought at Williamsburg was a hand fan…boy, could have used it in DC!  Visit their website:  www.history.org


All-in-all I’m glad we stopped off at Williamsburg, it gave me a different perspective on how living was like in VA in the 1770’s.  And the BEST of Williamsburg was no ‘gaudy’ tourist trinkets.  They had shops that sold things, but they were shops like the general store that only sold things that you could buy in that era.  

 






 Do you like our new look?











The millinery shop had hats that were made on site, shoe shop had shoes made on site, children’s toys were only those toys found in use in that era, the garden area only sold seed and plants grown in their garden, general store only sold root beer and ginger beer that was bottled in original 1700’s looking bottles and candy of that era.  So, yes, I thought they did a great job of keeping the town authentic and I would recommend this place to anyone visiting DC or the surrounding area.

Dressmaker

Silversmith shop

We went one day into Norfolk, VA to see the biggest Naval Facility in the US and take the tour.  They never let us off the bus, so just pictures from the bus. Then we stopped into the Douglas McArthur (WWII famous General) Museum and I was in and out in about 15 minutes…just can’t do it anymore folks!

Then it was off to Virginia Beach and had a great seafood lunch and then walked on the beach for about an hour.  The beach front area is very touristy and lots of gaudy tourist shops, bars, clubs, high rise hotels. I enjoyed visiting the ocean again…I missed the ocean.  We haven’t been on a beach to put our little feet into the warm salty water since we were in MA, above Boston.

I am so glad that I sat next to the nice gentleman in DC because if I didn't hear about Historic Williamsburg I would have missed out on a gem that both George and I thoroughly enjoyed.  The saying 'go for it' could definitely apply to this adventure.

Happy Travels,                                                                                                                         

 Peggy (George & Coco too)