Charleston - Festival of Lights

We arrived in Charleston around noon today.  It was a beautiful warm day with the temperature hitting 24c.  We loved not having to wear a jacket.  After getting settled into our hotel we went out exploring and getting an idea of where we were in relation to the things that we had planned while we were here.

We enjoyed an early dinner at a local bbq restaurant.  We had delicious smoked chicken.

Afterwards we headed to James Island where I had read about a "Festival of Lights" event that was taking place during the month of December.  It's a park on the Island that had 3.5 miles of "lights" decorating the drive.  It was absolutely amazing.  We were able to park and walk around to enjoy the lights and then later drive through the park to see the rest. Sadly it started to rain which limited how much walking we were able to do.

The pictures don't capture the absolute beauty of the glistening lights, but I want to keep this as a memory of a beautiful visit.  We arrived at the park at around 5:00 and stayed until 8:45.  We drove through twice and were amazed at how much more we saw the 2nd time around.

Sand sculpture

Escaping winter 2019

The time has arrived for us to leave for our vacation in Charleston and Myrtle Beach. We had a nice day yesterday celebrating Ralph’s 60th birthday. Ralph enjoyed the company and having Laura and Jay and the family down for a visit as well.

We went to bed early in anticipation of getting up before the sun comes up and packed our truck and hit the road before the morning traffic. We were on the road by about 4:30.  We were surprised at how busy it was at the border and experienced a 30 minute delay crossing.

We had a beautiful sunrise this morning and enjoyed amazing weather during our drive. The temperature was lovely as well sitting at 13c.

While driving we have been listening to an audio book by Lis Wiehl called the Newsmakers. It’s a great way to pass the time. We started listening to it at around 9:00 am and listened to it all the way to Charlotte. It’s nice for Ralph to enjoy it as well. We also packed a thermos of coffee which enabled us to keep our stops to a minimum. It worked out really well.

When we arrived in Charlotte we checked in right away at the hotel. We had a lot of construction along the way which probably added an extra hour to our drive. That’s ok though as it allowed us to finish the audio book we were listening too 😉. 

After checking in we went to Harry’s Grill and Tavern and enjoyed a nice relaxing dinner.