Since school is back in session, I’ve got to start menu planning again.
Monday – Pesto Tomato Ravioli, Garlic Bread, Sal,ad and/or veggie
Tuesday – African Beef Sandwiches in the slow cooker, salad, chips
Wednesday – Crockpot teriyaki pork, rice, veggie
Thursday – Chicken shwarma in the slow cooker, carrot and celery sticks, roasted potatoes
Friday – Mel’s Diner Chili, cornbread, veggie
Saturday – Eating at a wedding
Friday was our last day at the beach. I once again got up and was out the door by 6:30 am. This time I went to the pier to watch the sunset. Boy, was I glad I did because it was gorgeous!
AAfterwardI went to the hotel next to our condo complex because they had a Starbucks. I was hoping to use my coupon and Wifi. The coffee shop served Starbucks but was not an actual Starbucks, so they couldn’t accept my coupon. :( I ordered a tall latte and ended up with a venti instead. I didn’t complain.
After stopping at the coffee shop, I took pictures around Folly Beach. Before returning to the condo, I stopped at the Lost Dog Cafe. The breakfast burrito I got was so good! I also got a caramel latte with peanut butter whipped cream. Yum!
Once I was back in the condo, and everyone was up for the day, we spent the rest of the morning at the beach.
After we returned to the condo and had lunch, the Imaginative One and I walked to Sugartime to get him some ice cream. Then we went to the ear. He enjoyed watching one of the fishermen pulling up their catch.
Then it was back to the beach for the afternoon. Once I got down there, the kids decided they did not want to play in the ocean, so I took them to the pool instead. I got in the pool with them for a little while.
We left the pool area when the four (niece, nephew, Imaginative One, and Wee One) of them decided to play some sort of weird congo dance game.
My in-laws’ bathroom had a whirlpool in it. The kids decided they wanted to use it, so they got into the whirlpool one at a time. Even though it was dinner time, the Imaginative One was lying there while reading a book about space. We let him sit there longer, so we did not have to hear him complain about the dinner. (He did just that because he didn’t want the chicken.)
After dinner, we all went to the beach and took family pictures. (I will post the pics of our family and my mother-in-law and father-in-law but not my sister-in-law’s family.)
Once the pictures were taken, it was back to the condo to pack up because we was going to leave for Atlanta. the next morning
Click on the frog to see more pictures of Day 8.
I’ve been promising the Imaginative One homemade cookies all week. However with the stress of not knowing exactly what my assignment is for the upcoming school year, I’ve been nursing a headache off and on all week.
Let me explain, I am an Intervention Specialist which is a fancy title for special education teacher. Our middle school has an incredible amount of students who need services and I’m talking about those who were in the school district last year. Plus who ever is new to the building. It seemed like every time I walked by the office there was another parent registering their child. Okay sometimes it was the same parent because I went past there within a five minute period. So I’ve been two scenarios for next year. Both are fine but one requires lesson planning for next week. The other does not. Do you see my stress?
So right now I don’t have a caseload (no one does). Guess what? I’ve decided not to stress about it because next week we are going to go over expectations, consequences, and the student handbook. It will be okay!
Tonight I decided to bake the cookies because chocolate is good for you. Right!?! After I made these, the Imaginative One put his seal of approval on the cookies. So they are that good!
Chocolate Chip CookiesStars of the recipe:
Directions:
Since I used cookie scoop for my cookies, I baked 57 cookies with the dough.
Since it was lightning when I woke up, I did not go for a walk on the beach. I stayed on the balcony and watched the waves come in. No sunrise pictures were taken on day 7 because there was no beautiful sunrise :(. I do have a picture or two of the clouds, though.
After everyone got up for the day, we headed to do some geocaching; if you don’t know what it is, Google it. While we were at the first park, I got to take pictures of the Bridge and watched a family crabbing. That was cool!
After we left that park, we headed to another park to get a geocache. I stayed in the car because there wasn’t any cool scenery to take a picture of. By that time, we were tired of the bugs eating us. So we headed to Piggly Wiggly and got some bug spray.
Hubby and I both wanted to eat at the ‘Wich Doctor for lunch, but it was not open until noon, so we headed out to the beach that overlooks Morris Island Lighthouse before hitting up that local joint. Once we got to the beach, we found my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and nephew. They had been fishing out there all morning. My nephew caught his first ocean fish! We saw dolphins swimming in the water while we were at the beach. That was cool seeing their fins while swimming.
We took our usual pictures with the Morris Island Lighthouse as the backdrop. The Imaginative One and Wee One were not so cooperative when I tried to get their picture together. Argh!
Once we left the beach and got to the car, I discovered my foot had red ants. With all his random knowledge, the Imaginative One told me not to put water on my foot because it would make them attack more. I brushed them off and immediately put the topical Benadryl on my toes that were bitten.
We did end up going to the ‘Wich Doctor for lunch. Hubby tried their pizza, and I got a Greek tuna salad sandwich with olives and capers and pickled green bananas, carrots, and daikon. A local told us that it is a favorite local restaurant. :) The food was delicious.
While waiting for our food to be cooked, the boys and I went to get them shaved ice. They were promised shaved ice the night before, but we could not get it because of the rain.
The rest of the day was spent on the beach. I once again cooked supper for the whole family. This time I made sloppy joes. The hamburger was still not fully defrosted even though it had been in the fridge for almost 24 hours. I was able to work around it this time, though.
After dinner, the Wee One and I went for a walk on the pier. We watched a young adult throw peanuts into the air and the seagulls catching them. They even gave the Wee One a peanut so he could feed the seagulls.
After we walked on the pier, we went to Sugartime and got some treats and ice cream. It was nice to spend quality time with the Wee One.
After we got back from our walk, we sang “Happy Birthday” to my father-in-law and sister-in-law. Then we enjoyed the brownies that were baked to celebrate their birthdays.
More adventures later . . .
Click on the photograph of the Wee One and Imeto see more pictures of our day.
I could not get my rear out of bed on Wednesday. The walk with my mother-in-law the night before tired my body. I did get up in time to get pictures of the sunrise from our balcony instead of the beach. That was fine because I have a telescopic lens, so I used that to get closer-of the sunrise.
After everyone was up for the day, my nephew, Hubby, and the Imaginative One went for a bike ride. The Wee One and I went back to Black Magic. Got me a Shark Attack smoothie that was out of this world good. We then went onto the beach but stayed there for a little while because the Wee One didn’t like that none of the other kids were with him.
After Hubby, my nephew, and the Imaginative One returned from their bike ride, we left for Angel Oak. It’s a tradition to visit the tree and get pictures. I brought my tripod and set it up where I thought it should have been. However, I was wrong by a few feet. By the time they told me, I was getting ready to take it down anyway. People laughed as I ran across the canopy to get into place. We got some great pictures, though.
The plan had been to eat our picnic lunch at Angel Oak, but the mosquitoes were biting us. We had to hit a Piggly Wiggly for some topical Benadryl and Starbucks. Their espresso machine was not working, so I got a coupon for a free drink. Which reminds me that I haven’t used it yet.
We ended up going to St. Johns’ Island’s park. To get here, we drove on Bozo Lane and then Dunmovin Drive. (I have a picture of the street signs at the intersection.) Afterward ate our picnic lunch and listened to thunder in the background.
Once we hit the Bridge, it started storming Mt. Pleasant. We still went to the park and played under the Bridge in the play area. The boys were apprehensive at first because of the rain but discovered playing under a bridge during a rainstorm. Was fun. Even Hubby even played a little bit.
Once we were finished at the park, it had stopped raining, so we headed to downtown Charleston. We wanted to go to a few historical churches and walk around. As we were walking around, I went to Bakehouse again. The cashier remembered me from a couple nights before, so that was cool.
We went to the Provost Dungeon first but decided not to go on the tour because the Imaginative One was tired of museums. We then walked down Broad Street and noticed t bunch of people on the one side of the road and people talking about a miniseries for CBS being filmed across from the church we were heading to. One of the leading actors was Cam Gigandet from the first Twilight movie. We watched for a few minutes but then went into St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. George Washington worshiped there on May 8, 1791, and Robert E. Lee also worshiped there. In the graveyard, John Rutledge, the first governor of South Carolina, is buried there.
Afterward, watching some more of the filming and then walked around looking for the Circular Church. Once we got there, the Imaginative One was not happy to be in another graveyard. Oh, well! We made him walk through it.
Then it was onto St. Philips Episcopal Church. It is famous for ghost stories, and a cannon stuck in the steeple. Charles Pickney, signer of the Constitution, and Edward Rutledge, signer of the Declaration of Independence, are buried in its graveyard.
AWeheaded back to the car and walked down Philadelphia Alley, aka Dueler’s Alley. It was a hidden, out-of-the-way alley full of history and ghost stories.
Once we got the car, we headed back to the condo. I was scheduled to cook dinner that night. I cooked tacos. We ran into a problem, though; the meat was frozen solid. I put it in cold water and slowly removed the defrosted meat. We never got it completely defrosted. The next day the half we put in the fridge was still frozen. Crazy!
My niece spent the night with one of our relatives, so only boys were around. They had fun playing in the condo because we could not go out to the beach because it was raining.
More adventures tomorrow. . .
Click on the photograph of the Angel Oak to see more photographs of the day.
I got up early on Tuesday and took a walk. The sunrise was absolutely gorgeous! So totally worth getting up early to see it.
We had decided to go as a family to see the Battery and take our traditional pictures of the cannon. I almost missed it all because of having to go to the bathroom. I knew I shouldn’t have drunk the second cup of coffee, but it was so good. There is nowhere on the Battery to go to the bathroom. Let me repeat, there are no public restrooms. Argh! A lady and her husband heard my plight and decided to help me find a bathroom. She and I walked over to an inn and asked them for some southern hospitality. Fortunately, the lady did allow me to use their bathroom.
I missed all the kids alone on the cannon but got pictures of all 4 grandkids with the grandparents. (I will not post those pics out of respect for my sister and brother-in-law.) I also used my tripod to get pictures of the whole family and me. The problem I had was I couldn’t get onto the cannon without crawling onto it. (I was wearing a dress.) After picture taking was done, everyone went their separate ways. We walked a little down Rainbow Row and ended up in the Edmonston-Alston house. Hubby and I enjoyed that. The Wee One did not enjoy it as much.
We then went to my favorite restaurant in Charleston – Hominy Grill. The boys were not so thrilled with the food. I’ll take that back; they liked the French fries but not the mac and cheese because it had pepper on it and the applesauce because it was lumpy. Hubby and I ate until we were stuffed. I had a Dirty Biscuit, a southern-style biscuit, a fried chicken breast, and sausage gravy. I had it with okra and tomatoes and marinated cucumbers and onions. For dessert, I had a slice of upside-down peach cake.
After returning to the condo, we laid down for a while and took a satisfied belly nap. Everyone else in the house was gone, so it was quiet.
After everyone returned, it was back to the beach for the children. They had fun jumping around in the waves.
Hubby, my father-in-law, my niece and nephew, and the boys went to a minor league baseball game – Riverdogs – that evening, and my sister and brother-in-law went out. So it was only my mother-in-law, and I went to Cory’s Grilled Cheese for dinner. I had Cory’s Famous cinnamon raisin bread, provolone cheese, bacon, and honey mustard. So delicious! I also had their summer slaw, Asian slaw with ramen noodles.
After returning to the condo, my mother-in-law and I walked along the beach. It was nice to talk with her. She is such a giving person. Soon after we returned to the condo, the kids, Hubby, and my father-in-law, came back from the game. Somehow the Imaginative One got a foul ball and gave it to the Wee One. Hubby is still unsure how it happened because all the Imaginative One was supposed to do was get some water.
Then it was off to bed. More adventures later.
Click on the mason jar pic for more pictures of the day.
Monday started with a walk on the beach with Hubby. I looked like a tacky tourist, as the Wee One would say. I had on my bathing suit, a cover-up, a thin fabric cardigan, and my photography backpack, and I was carrying around my lens cap insulated coffee cup. We walked up and down the beach, enjoying the sunrise.
After our walk, we ate breakfast as other people woke up. Eating on the balcony while watching the ocean waves come in and out and listening to the waves crashing against the beach was a real treat. Paradise.
My nephew and the Imaginative One ended up getting up and wanting to take a walk, so I took them out for a little while. The Imaginative One kept wanting to see sea life, so he looked around in the tide pools. He didn’t find anything too exciting for them.
Once we got back upstairs, almost everyone was stirring, so they got ready to go out to the beach. I hung around the condo for a while since I had already been on the beach twice that morning. I ended up going down and staying there for almost an hour. During that time, the Imaginative One wanted another walk, so we walked past the pier and saw seagulls and terns attacking a bag of chips. We discovered the chips were not even opened when they started eating them.
My mother-in-law’s cousin and her grandson visited us on the beach. N. is the same age as my niece and the Imaginative One but got along great with my nephew. It was great seeing my mother-in-law’s cousin – she is a true southern accent and all.
We were told about this great little hole-in-the-wall grilled cheese restaurant, Cory’s Grilled Cheese, located near the Piggly Wiggly. We needed a few more things, so it was a good excuse to leave the beach for an hour or so. We could not find that restaurant what’s so ever. The restaurant was not located near the Folly Beach Piggly Wiggly. It was located near the James Island Piggly Wiggly, a big 7-mile difference. We ended up at Jack’s Cosmic Dogs. Oh, my goodness. The food was out of this world good. I had a Galactic Dog with chili, slaw, and cheese on it and drank Tang with it. Yum! Hubby got a grilled brat with bacon, cheese, and spicy ranch to dip the fries in. The boys and I devoured a whole basket of plain fries. They were that good.
It was back to the condo for a while. We visited with my mother-in-law’s cousin for a little while and then played on the beach/in the ocean for a little while.
I had a second cooking class that evening, so Hubby drove me to that. This time I was actually going to be cooking. We were going to make cheese straws with caramelized onion dip, pork wraps, baby bok choy, shitake mushroom stir fry, potato salad, and pecan crumble over vanilla ice cream. Yum! Since we got downtown half an hour before the class, I asked him to drop me off so I could take pictures as I walked to the class. That was fun.
I stopped in a local café, bakery, and coffeehouse (Bakehouse) for a cup of Joe before the class. While waiting for my cinnamon roll latte (which was the bomb), I spoke to the cashier. It seems that a lot of Ohioans came down to Charleston because whenever she spoke to a tourist, the majority of them were from Ohio. LOL!
As I walked, it was lightning and thundering in the distance, so it was cool to watch. I did not take any pics because it is extremely hard to take pics of lightning without a tripod, and there were buildings in the way.
The cooking class was fun and relaxed. We all had different stations, so I helped make the potato salad. After we all cooked, we sat down and enjoyed the fruits of our labor. The lady next to me was a social worker for the D.C. school district, so it was interesting to talk shop with her.
Hubby picked me up and took me back to the condo. By that time, it was bedtime. More on our adventures later.
Click on my picture to see pictures from our Super Trip Day 4.
Just so you know, we stayed at the beach with my in-laws (mother, father, sister, and brother) and my niece and nephew.
On Sunday, I was the first person up so I could see the sunrise. It was not as spectacular as it was by the end of the week. After the kids got up (niece, nephew, the Wee One, and the Imaginative One), the Imaginative One and I went for a walk on the beach. While walking, I talked to a local who was out taking pictures. He even took my picture. Then the Imaginative One and I got rained because of a pop-up rainstorm.
I then got ready for church but ended up not going because of a mix-up in times. One place said the church started at 9:00 am, and the other said it started at 11:15. I realized the mix-up sometime after 10. I decided to walk down to the church anyway, just in case. Since I missed the church service, I continued walking, ended up at Black Magic, and ordered a chocolate croissant. It was delicious, but they gave Hubby a moldy cheese Danish on the day we left, so I don’t recommend this place for pastries.
Since we had some time, we took the boys to the Piggly Wiggly to buy groceries. Hubby was having fun trying to find local goodies to eat. Whenever I turned around, he was putting new items into our I had a list in mind and deviated a little from the list.
We returned to the condo and quickly ate lunch because Hubby and I had a date. We were going to go to a cooking demo at Charleston Cooks. We didn’t know what they would make, so when I saw shrimp, grits, and chocolate pecan pie, my heart skipped a beat. My hubby was unhappy because he loves grits but is not so sure about shrimp. He tried the shrimp and actually loved it! (My mother and father-in-law had the boys.)
After the cooking demo, we walked around the market. We knew if we did that with the Wee One, he would beg us for everything and anything.
Then it was back to the condo. As the rest of the family was making dinner, we noticed something on the beach because a huge crowd gathered around it. Since we couldn’t see what it was, I ran/walked fast down to the beach with the four kids to be nosy. I’m glad we were nosy because it was a live horseshoe crab. The Imaginative One really loved seeing it.
We were going to have dinner, but since I was still mostly full from the cooking demo, I ate a yogurt parfait with the family since we were all sitting down for dinner.
After dinner, the boys went to the beach with the aunt and uncle while Hubby, my mother-in-law, and I walked on the pier. We got to see the sunset, which was absolutely beautiful. It was a perfect end to a great day.
Click on the picture of the pier to see pictures of the third day of our Super Trip.
On Saturday morning, we got up early and went down for breakfast. We ended up being early, which made our two sleepy children unhappy. Luckily there was a lobby with couches, so they laid down until breakfast was ready. Before we left Charlottesville, we stopped at Bodo’s Bagels. It was jam-packed, so that was a sign of a great place to get breakfast. We got bagels and honey pecan cream cheese. The Imaginative One loved the plain bagels so much that he had two on the ride down to Folly Beach.
Stop #2 was Appomattox Courthouse. The location of Lee’s surrender to Grant at the end of the Civil War. This significant event in our history occurred days before Lincoln was killed. Tears rose in my eyes as I saw the reconstructed McLean house where the peace document was signed.
Before we got there, we had to drive through the backcountry of Virginia. At one point, we even were in the geographical center of Virginia. Some of the roads reminded me of Oz, with the cornfields on either side of the road. We stopped for gas at this little country gas station. It was called Duck Corner, and it would quack whenever someone opened the door. The boys loved this. I had to apologize to the clerk because the boys wanted to hear the quacking.
Oh, and the Imaginative One complained about his stomach hurting while driving down those roads. Luckily I had packed peppermints, so I told him to suck on that. There was no car sickness that day. Mommy saved the day.
We only spent an hour at the Courthouse. I could have spent much longer, but we were on a tight schedule. Our favorite things were the living history people. It was interesting to talk to Corporal Robert Fields from Pennsylvania. He kept in his character the whole time we talked to him.
We also met Jeff Toalson, who has taken letters written during the Civil War and put them in order and in a book. I got the book called Send Me a Pair of Old Boots & Kiss My Little Girls. These are letters between husband and wife Richard and Mary Watkins. I’ve read about a fourth of the book but had to put it down because it was hard to keep putting it down and then picking it up. WI will read it whenI have time to dedicate to reading it. It’s that good.
After we were finished with Appomattox Courthouse, we traveled to Folly Beach. Outside Raleigh (Lynnwood), we stopped for lunch and a little playtime. Soon afterward, we were back on the road. When we were at the South Carolina border, it started to pour. It was so bad that we could barely see in front of us. We stopped at the welcome center, and the boys and I didn’t get out because of the puddles and how fast the rain was falling. Hubby needed to check on his bike rack, so he got out and was soaked. The rain stopped as quickly as it started.
The boys were restless at that point. They wanted to be at the beach, but we still had a few hours to go. At one point, Hubby and I decided to rock out to Pink and put on a performance to Get the Party started. I even had motions and danced in my seat to the song.
Finally, I saw the Bridge and knew we were in Charleston. Only 20 minutes were remaining until we were at the beach. Those 20 minutes took forever, especially with the boys being loud in the backseat. But we made it at about 7:45 pm that evening. After we got there, the boys got to walk in the sand and dip their feet in the ocean. They were so happy to be there. No one went to bed until 11ish that evening.
Click on the picture of the McLean House to go to other pictures of the day.
We just returned from an awesome trip because it lasted for 11 days – 6 of which were at the beach. On the other 5 days, we visited and traveled from one place to another. We listened to the boys say, “I’m bored!” or “What state are we in?” or “Ohio. Indiana. Missouri,” or “I want to go back to the beach!!!!!!” The third statement was about the license plate game. The Wee One loves that game! :) We also listened to books on tape, such as Drizzle, Encyclopedia Brown, and the Henry Winkler Hank Zipper series. Most of all, we made memories we will cherish.
Day 1 was the travel day to Charlottesville, VA (Check out my post about why we chose that city). We wanted to leave by 6 am to be able to do a tour of Monticello. The official start time was 6:05, so that was a good start to the trip. We hit fog when we hit southeastern Ohio to West Virginia. In fact, the Imaginative One said the bridge that separated Ohio from West Virginia was like a tunnel, not a bridge.
We made an excellent time during that leg of the trip. We got to Monticello (our first stop) by 2 pm. The Imaginative One loved Monticello. His favorite parts were where they kept the ice, Jefferson’s reading apparatus that held up to 5 books, the dumbwaiter, and the polygraph machine. Hubby and I were impressed with Jefferson’s bed in the wall, the closet at the end, and the closet above the bed that had air holes, so there was ventilation. We were also impressed with his front parlor, where he greeted guests. The clock was amazing, and the maps were interesting. The Wee One took away from the whole experience that Jefferson liked to read.
After we left Monticello, we went and checked into the hotel. Hubby needed a nap, and the boys were very loud, and squirrely so I took them swimming while their dad took a nap. Once we were done swimming, we got ready and went down to the University of Virginia rotunda to do a virtual cache (geocaching – Google it).
While at the rotunda, we got a hold of my sister so she could take a picture of us at the virtual cache. The boys thought sticking their behinds out at the camera would be funny. I don’t know if she captured that or not.
After taking pictures at the University of Virginia rotunda, we went to the Pedestrian Mall and met up with Jo. We were late because of Hubby’s geocaching and because we got turned around at one point. We found the Hawaii license plates in the parking lot where we parked. To read about our adventures at the Pedestrian Mall, visit this blog entry.
Click on the Thomas Jefferson Statue to see pictures from our first day on the Super Trip.
