4th of July - and another state down.

Ryan and I were feeling a bit anxious for a trip, and with 4th of July coming up we were going to have a long weekend. I decided to try Priceline and see if I could get us cheap tickets for somewhere we were wanting to go, and I did. I got us cheap flights to South Carolina, one of the states we hadn't gotten to yet. We didn't really know much about South Carolina, where we wanted to go or what we wanted to do, so I got tickets to the capitol, Columbia. We also decided to take an extra day off work in order to lengthen it out a little. I found a cheap hotel and cheap car rental, so that was great.

As soon as we flew in and got our car we headed to Charleston - what a fun little town. We spent our first day just walking around the downtown area - seeing all the historic houses and such.


That evening we walked on the beach, which was also very nice.


The next day we played on the beach for several hours. I LOVE boogie boarding. I don't do any tricks or anything, just ride the waves. I could (and did) spend hours - I just love the ocean. We had tried for a while to find somewhere to go diving, but apparently there isn't a lot of diving there.

After washing up we headed to the Magnolia Plantation. If you are ever in Charleston I highly recommend going here. The grounds are huge and you could easily spend a whole day here. They have a fantastic petting zoo, we enjoyed our tour of the grounds and learning all about the family and the rice plantation, walking around all the grounds was also fantastic (there was the huge house, the gardens, old slave quarters, a maze, etc.), especially the swamp (which had alligators, turtles, and tons of birds)- we loved it.
The petting zoo

The swamp

Plantation House and some of the grounds


Sunday was actually 4th of July. After church we drove back to the Columbia and on the way stopped at Congaree National Park - which is actually a swamp. Most of it can only be accessed via boat, but they d have some boardwalks to allow you to walk through the swamp. I wouldn't say it was my favorite national park, but I loved that it was free, not crowded, and really quite pretty.


Later we went to see the temple

and the capitol building,

went to 2 fun city parks,

and then went back to our hotel - a good way to celebrate the sabbath and our nation.

Monday, before we had to fly out we went blue berry picking - so fun and we got blue berries for $1 a pound!



We also went to the state museum which is a science and history museum. I am pretty sure I have never been to a science museum I didn't like - I really had fun.

I am not sure if I will ever make it back to South Carolina, but I wouldn't mind - what a pretty state (although I was surprised just how incredibly flat it is - I am a mountain lover.)