This post comes from the luxury of our desktop computer in lovely Lafayette. We're home! For now, I'll stick to our final week of travels, with a follow on post about our first week of reacclimation in to normal life.
June 15 to June 22
Our last week! Where did the days, weeks, and months go?
Our final week was split between Charleston and Savannah. We had originally thought we would choose one or the other, but our research revealed fervent and bipolar opinions about which town is better - People are either Charleston, or Savannah fans, but never both (like the A's or Giants, 49ers or Raiders, Bruins or Trojans). To be able to weigh in, we decided to split our time between the two areas.
If you were to have us sum up the area in two words - Hot and Mossy. It hovered around 95 degrees and 90% humidity during our stint, which, according to the locals, was just warming up. How do they put up with it? It's oppressive and dictates daily life. Apparently they hate it too, just deal with it for 8 months of their lives. Even at night the sticky air just settles around you like an invisible wool blanket.
Draped from nearly every gnarly old oak like the beards of ZZ Top is Spanish Moss, and I love it. The moss lends a somewhat eerie yet peaceful character to the landscape, and is surprisingly hard to capture well in pictures. It is so much more interesting to see in person (I suppose like most things).
Charleston: (June 15 to June 18)
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| Our lovely little home with curious African decor. |
Fort Sumter:
In one last effort to torture our children with our violent past, we took a morning trip out to Fort Sumter, the catalyst of our Civil War. It's a small island in the waters just east of the Charleston peninsula and is only accessible via ferry, which doubles as a convenient way to see the town from a different angle.
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| We're a sucker for adorning ourselves in period pieces.... |
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| Another cool Autumn pic |
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| I'm nearly certain I was looking up something historically important like.... was it this hot in 1861 as well? |
Charleston Town Wandering:
Charleston is a really quaint town with church spires everywhere. It's quite charming.
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| We found ourselves at a nice pop up street fair. Good food, good gifts. |
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| We picked up these handmade engraved art pieces. |
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| The Charleston Central Market is a fun stroll that runs several blocks with lots of handmade straw baskets, bowls, and other clever trinkets. |
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| Just some random shots around town. One of the main streets in town is East Bay. Of course the photo op was compulsory. We loved that so many of the old homes still have real gas lamps adorning their entries. They also have a curious entry door that goes from the outside, to the.... outside. Many of the homes have beautiful window boxes. |
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| Anything for the perfect shot. Autumn cannot pass up a lone Vespa in silent repose.... especially when the backdrop is old colonial homes. |
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| Rainbow Row |
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| During our wanderings, we bumped in to a young couple that was going around town taking pictures of themselves facing different walls. We took a queue and pilfered their idea. |
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| Did you know the pineapple is the international symbol of hospitality? I didn't until we sought out this icon of a Charleston fountain. |
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| It also doubles as a wading pool. There are actual signs giving permission to do so. Admittedly, the water looked a bit grimey for my taste. |
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| Another fetching spot along the waterfront. |
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| This cemetery is right smack dab in the middle of Charleston city and looked like the epitome of Hollywood creepy. I mean check out that moss and caddy wampus head stones of various size and shape. |
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| Southern BBQ. Yummy. |
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| We walked in to the tourist center and asked the lady for the most iconic street in Charleston with moss and such. Her initial reaction was to send us to the handful of tourist spots in downtown. When we reiterated our goal was to find a place only the locals know about, she stuttered, and then her eyes lit up... "You've got to go to Wappoo Rd!" It did not disappoint. It's incredible that this street is lined on both sides with regular homes. One of them was on the market for $400K. |
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| This is how hot people walk. |
Folly Beach:
Charleston is a beach town. Well sort of. The beach is a convenient 25 minute drive from downtown. It's a lovely east coast beach.
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| Somewhat felt like sitting on the surface of the sun. Good thing we still had our Home Depot umbrella from D.C., and we found a beat up umbrella on the side of the road to complement our shade requirements. These are the perils of travelling the world without the comforts of a garage full of beach gear. Gotta make do with what you have. |
Beaufort:
Charleston and Savannah are conveniently 2 hours apart. However, when you have to check out by 10am in one town, and can't check in until 3pm in another town, we needed to find something on the way. Fortunately, there is a tiny old town at the midpoint - Beaufort, pronounced "BYOO-fert" (as in "beautiful")
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| A slice of southern Americana. |
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| Upper left: One of many porch swings we saw in the south (within the year, we will have one at our house - I promise). Lower Right: we have never seen a house with more American regalia than this masterpiece. The other side was equally plastered in Red/White/Blue. |
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Left: Future Potus; Middle: Future Broadway Star; Right: Future Natgeo* Photographer
Any guesses? |
Savannah - June 18 to June 22
Two things defined our final stint in Savannah: Family, and Sunsets & Sunrises
Let's take a quick philosophical tangent and talk about friends and family. When we were violated in France back in April and we elected to change course back to the States, I was very upset that we couldn't finish our world tour abroad. I was in a deep funk for several weeks. In hindsight, this tragedy was probably the best thing to happen to us and this trip. Like hardened steel, we grew stronger as a family. But moreover, our journey along the east coast was mostly defined by reconnecting with old friends and family - something we couldn't do in Eastern Europe. Our time here in Savannah finished on a perfect note, spending quality time with my cousin Stephen and his wonderful wife, Julie, and their three children, Ella, Eliza, and Evan. Our families blended so well.
Our cottage in Savannah was actually on a resort island called Tybee Island about 25 minutes East of downtown. Our budget couldn't afford a beachfront property, but we lucked out to find a place overlooking a tidal marsh that created the perfect stage for a terrific nightly sunset show. We will always remember Savannah as the home of the best sunsets and sunrises.
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| That's our 2 bedroom cottage at the front of the dock. We're in low tide now. High tide saw the water up to the grass. |
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| Most common mode of transportation for the locals... Golf Carts! |
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| First Sunset from our Balcony. |
Fossicking for Shells:
Bryce was determined to collect himself some shells. The tide off the Savannah shore is pretty extreme, and during low tide it exposes a large swath of beach to extract crustacean homes. It just so happens that the best low tide as at 6am. That meant Bryce and I had an early morning date. What a wonderful time that was...
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| As we approached the beach during sunrise, this lady was taking a break from an early morning run and taking it all in. |
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| Bryce was scanning a tidal pool for wee hermit crabs. |
Captain Mike's Dolphin Adventures:
Later in the morning, we boarded a ship to spot dolphins off the shore. The coastline in this area is chock full of dolphins (keeping the sharks at bay apparently).
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| Bryce was not pleased with the safety precautions. |
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| Yep, lots of dolphins frolicking about. They would often play tennis with the fish they ate. |
Beach Afternoon:
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| Bryce and Eliza; Zane and Ella - Both pairs inseparable after about 30 minutes of getting to know each other. |
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| Eliza caught a shrimp. She's not afraid to get her hands dirty (or slimy). |
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| This was a particularly funny sunset. As the sun dropped past the cloud we thought it was over. Then it started reappearing below. It was like two sunsets in one shot. |
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| That's our pier and dock extending out to the deep water channel. |
Bonaventure Cemetery:
On our way in to Savannah town to meet with the Stephen Peterson clan, we stopped off at the Bonaventure Cemetery, a picturesque spot with mossy oaks over centuries old graves.
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| This place was on our way to the cemetery and stopped us in our tracks. It was the quintessential slice of americana, complete with trailer, tree house, sharing library, mossy oaks, and antique trinkets everywhere. |
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| Was really eye catching to see the trees overhang the graves. |
An Afternoon with the Petersons:
My cousin Stephen has been stationed (Army) in the Savannah area for a year and became our personal guide for the afternoon. We took a bus tour then headed of to his home in the suburbs for some good ole fashioned home cooking.
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| Like no other city we have visited, Savannah has a really nifty layout with 22 squares situated in a perfect grid pattern. Different squares had their own character and architecture surrounding them. |
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| Family picnic in Chippewa Square (made famous as the location of the Forrest Gump bench scenes) |
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| Can't go wrong with a nerf gun battle. |
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| Zane's Birthday cake. In true form, cousin Stephen subjected poor Zane to fake sparkler candles. Well done. |
Guess Who?:
This day, June 21 is Zane's birthday. While it wasn't the perfect targeted surprise for Zane, it was a wonderful surprise nonetheless... Our new friends we met in New Zealand, then spent Bryce's birthday together in Tokyo, just so happened to be in Savannah this week! Can you believe that? Ali, Wesley, and Griffon (no James this time) joined us for breakfast. What a small world. More friends, more memories.
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| We truly hope this is not the last time we see each other. |
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Back on Tybee:
Zane wanted one more afternoon and evening on the beach, so we headed back to the coast.
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| Last Afternoon on the dock. |
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| High tide on the marsh |
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| Quick stop at the souvenir beach shop. My greatest regret of the trip was not buying that hat. |
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| The Tybee Pier is pretty |
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| Zane's happy place for dinner - Poke and Avocado Toast. (Oh, and really powerful air conditioning) |
Final Sunset of the Trip:
The Stephen Peterson clan made the one hour trip to meet us for one last sunset on Tybee Beach. This time we chose the South end, which gave us the best of both worlds, ocean frolicking with sunset views. This was a wonderful and memorable evening.
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| All for now, Pleepleus II. |
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| Was hard to hold back the tears... |
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| Julie taught me how to cast a fishing net. |
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| I caught this little guy, a blue crab |
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| Hey, Hey... Back off buddy. |
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| Bryce was in heaven catching jellies, crabs, minnows and anything else he could find in the tidal pools. |
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| Life is Good |
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| Last sunset of our grand adventure. |
Our Verdict - Charleston or Savannah:
We think we're Savannah people. Between having family there, and the depth of options of the Savannah downtown, it just seems like there is more to offer for us. But in the end, you can't go wrong with either (just don't go in Summer...)
All for now... Next Stop: Carl Rd, Lafayette, CA
PS: Do you know what Sand Gnats are? Hopefully not, and hopefully you'll never need to know. As we bid our relatives a fond farewell, our legs began to itch and burn, if by magic. These invisible devils apparently micro slice your skin and leave you burning for several hours. Geez, how do people live here.
* Autumn found this classic nat geo issue in a random used book store in Beaufort. We couldn't leave the store without it.
