Charleston, SC

We headed down to the Charleston SC area to visit Colleen's cousins and uncle who had rented a beach house in nearby Folly Beach, SC.  It was also Avery's first time visiting South Carolina!

We left Friday after work and arrived Friday evening.  Friday night we spent some fun time the first evening with the cousins (Christine, Lori, and Charlene), Scott (Lori's boyfriend) and Uncle Greg.  (Uncle Greg flew in from Davis, CA.  Charlene is a senior at UCSD and flew in from San Diego.  Christine lives near us in Raleigh, and Lori lives in Charleston.)  We got up early the next morning and walked down the beach to a see the Morris Island Lighthouse.

Morris Island Lighthouse.  Photo by Jim Dahlem

Morris Island Lighthouse.  Photo by Jim Dahlem

It is now 1/4 mile out in the ocean.  Back when it was built in the late 1800s it was on land 1/4 from the water's edge.  The natural erosion and shifting sands has moved the coast that much!  (It was last turned off in the 1960s and abandoned by the state, a private organization is maintaining it and trying to stabilize it.)

We then all spent some time at the beach and we walked up and down enjoying the beautiful weather on Saturday.

We also saw a neat deck in the shape of a boat

Later we went to lunch at a nearby beach joint.  We enjoyed tasty mimosas

Jim enjoyed a unique and very very tasty dish: Cap'n Crunch French Toast:

And Avery of course enjoyed her finger foods!

Then we headed into the city and spent a lot of time just walking around enjoying all the sites.

The city is very historic from the colonial times.  Important battles in the revolutionary and civil wars took place there.  Walking around the hidden narrow alleys, cobblestone streets, old graveyards, and buildings that are hundreds of years old is really neat!  Here are some pics that Jim took with his camera (in addition to all the other ones on this blog)

We were jealous of all the people taking historic trolley rides and horse-drawn carriage rides too!

Avery also really enjoyed looking at all the sites around town

(We love her curls that are forming!)

We later went down to the waterfront and saw some neat sailboats

(Jim said the last one looks like the Nautica logo)

We also saw a bunch of dolphins swimming near the pier

The next morning we enjoyed watching the sunrise over the ocean from the front porch



Avery and mommy, in deep thought as the sun breaks the horizon.

 Avery even enjoyed the rocking chairs on the porch!!!

 She was even smart enough to rock back and forth to try and get the chair moving!

We then strolled down to the Lost Dog for brunch by the beach (very good and very popular place).  Avery didn't mind the 45 minute wait for a table, unlike the big rockers back at our beach house they had baby-sized chairs outside for little kids to wait:

It is a dog friendly place, and inside are hundreds and hundreds of pictures of dogs adorning the walls. Once we did eat, Avery did it southern style and enjoyed the grits!  (We decided grits are prefect baby food, it is already the right consistency)

Then we checked out an art fair in the park nearby before we packed up and headed back up to NC on Sunday evening.

St Patrick's Day

We went downtown for the St Patrick's Day parade on Sunday March 13th.  We went early to get a good spot and while we waited for the parade to start...

....Avery enjoyed a relaxing hour sitting out under the shade tree by the State Capitol

After the parade, we ate lunch at The Busy Bee restaurant downtown, up on the roof-top seating area.

They have really good tots and mac-n-cheese there, plus a great beer menu.  It comes highly recommendeds a place to go eat or have a nice cold one!

Avery crawling

Yesterday, Avery started crawling for the first time.  It was only a few crawl steps, but she is definitely crawling now!

She also got her 10 months pictures, here is one of our favorites!

Avery Elizabeth, 10 months

This weekend we are going to a beach house near historic Charleston, SC (Colleen's cousins have a house rented on the beach).  We also have a tripped planned to Key West in April on Colleen's spring break, we are excited for both trips and we will be posting pics and stories about them.