Charleston

Day 29 - Greenville, SC - Cloudy 60's:

On our way from Greenville to Charleston we made a pit stop at the BMW factory in Greer, SC. The last time we where in South Carolina the factory tour was sold out, so we decided to make the trip back and tour the factory. It was a great experience to see a fully automated car plant. We got to see how the BMW X5 and X6's are made, painted and hand assembled. Of course Heather's Christmas list was updated and now includes a 2010 BMW X5. I'll see if Santa has any available in the color she wants. From here we drove to Charleston to meet up with Heather's college roommate Kristin and her new husband Dave. We had visited them not too long ago and so we were looking forward to reconnecting!

Day 30 - Charleston, SC - Sunny 65:

Today was a beautiful day and we headed into downtown Charleston to explore the city. We decided to take a ferry over to Fort Sumter. The ferry didn't leave until 2:30, so we walked around the city and explored the old slave market, the exchange building and city hall. We caught the Ferry at 2:30 and took the 30 minute ride over to Fort Sumter. This was the spot where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. On the island 85 Union soldiers were able to hold off Confederate soldiers for 34 hours but had to surrender because their reinforcements could not make it into the harbor. The Fort was almost completely destroyed during the day and a half fight. It started as a 50 foot high wall almost 6 feet thick, and now only stands one story high. There are still many canons on site and even canon shells embedded into the Forts walls. We only had an hour on the island but it was neat to see something so old and historic. Once back on the mainland we headed back to North Charleston and had a great dinner (made by Kristin) with the new Mr. and Mrs.

After dinner they took us over to the James Island Holiday Festival of Lights. It was an amazing holiday light extravaganza, where the town turns the state park into many holiday light designs. Each lighting display is sponsored by a local company and they ranged from Christmas themed to animals to a golfing Santa. Many of the displays were constructed to look like they moved hence the golfing Santa...he actually had a back swing and you could see the golf ball fly through the air and land on the putting green. Some of the highlights where jumping dolphins in the water, a man fishing, Candyland, marching toy soldiers, sharks and many, many more. It was an amazing site and can tell you that the pictures don't really do it justice. After seeing all the lights we walked around a smaller section where we could roast marshmallows...they were delicious. We also managed to sneak away and get Dave a Grinch tree ornament that he really wanted.

Day 31 - Charleston, SC - Rainy and Cloudy 70's:

It rained all night and all morning in Charleston. Apparently they do not have a very good drainage system (it is an old city) and the whole downtown flooded to the point that Kristin couldn't even go to work. Fortunately, Heather went to school today and observed another classroom so we weren't heading into the city. This time she went to a high school with 3,300 students. After she got home, around lunch time, the rain stopped, so we decided to take a ride over to the Magnolia Plantation to explore the gardens and home. We got there and decided to take the nature tram around the plantation and see if we could see any alligators. The nature tram was great and we learned a lot about plantation living and how they made most of their money by exporting rice (not cotton, like most people think). We didn't see any alligators and not even much wildlife except for some birds that just migrated for the winter. We then made our way into the house for a tour to see a Southern Plantation. We learned that the current house was the third house to be built on the property. The first one burned down and the second one was destroyed by the Union soldiers during the civil war. Mr. Drayton returned form the civil war and was almost broke (he was land rich and money poor), so he sold off 1500 of his 2000 acres and moved the current house from a vacation spot down the James River and reassembled it here on the plantation. After the house tour we decided to call it a day because many of the employees where saying bad weather was on the way and even some tornadoes. We made it back to Kristin without any incidents and decided to head back to Magnolia the next day to explore their year-round gardens, petting zoo and horticulture maze.

Day 32 - Charleston, SC - Sunny and 60's:

The rain cleared up by the time we made it out of the house and so we headed back to Magnolia plantation. It turned out to be a great afternoon and we walked around the gardens and lakes to see the blooming flowers. It is a unique garden in that they have flowers that bloom in all seasons. They are all throughout the garden so that their claim to color year round holds true. Although there were blooming flowers, we are sure that it's truly amazing in the spring when everything is in bloom and coming to life. After lunch on the shores of the James River we made our way over to the maze to see if we could lose each other. It wasn't very hard and so we completed it very quickly, but it was fun anyway. Up next was the petting zoo. Heather wasn't very into the petting zoo because from the moment we made it though the gate a huge turkey was stocking her for food. Heather did last longer the I expected but once the duck started chasing her it was too much and she need out. I stayed a bit longer to check out the peacocks, deer, bobcats, foxes, ducks, and snakes. It was pretty cool to be able to actually pet a deer. As it was getting late we made our way back to Dave and Kristin's. They took us to a local chain restaurant where to Dave's delight they have a trash bucket set into the table. It was pretty neat just to be able to throw stuff away at the table...we had a great dinner before heading back to the house. We did a few Wii Competitions once we got back and got into the holiday spirit watching the Santa Clause 2. We said our goodbyes and headed to bed....