Kayaking, Kiawah Island, and The Angel Oak

One morning we did a fun 2 hour kayak tour. We had two guides; the lady being Molly.  One of their other guide's name is Tyler.  How crazy is that!

 

After kayaking, we drove over to Kiawah Island.  It's not your typical beach town.  Once you get on the Island, you drive for another 20 minutes through beautiful neighborhoods full of mansions.  We finally found our of destination-The Kiawah Island Golf Resort.  Scott did not golf, but they have 5 different courses.  The Ocean Front course has amazing views.  They've hosted the Ryder Cup and some PGA Events.

 

 

We stopped see the Angel Oak on Johns Island.  It is an Oak Tree that is 300-400 years old.  The tree is 65 feet high and it shades an area of 17,000 square feet.  The largest limb has a circumference of 11.5 feet and is 89 feet long. It really was amazing!

 

 

 

Driving to both of these places was just gorgeous!  The trees were like a canopy over the road.  I loved it!! 

Magnolia Plantation

We toured The Magnolia Plantation while in Charleston.  The Gardens were beautiful even though many of the flower still hadn't bloomed.  

 

 

A little alligator was sunning himself on the rock

To take this picture, I was still on the trail, but I moved closer to a tree to get the whole bridge.  I heard a rustle in the leaves and when I looked down, there was a big snake.  Yuck!  Tyler was impressed though

 

This was the Bamboo Garden

After we did the Gardens, we went on the walking Audubon Swamp Tour.  I liked it, but a few places felt a little eerie-you're walking by yourself on these trails right next to the swamp and you don't know what animals-alligators or snakes-lurking close by.  

There were many Egrets nesting at this time.  At this nest, the Dad kept flying off to another tree and then would bring back the flowers and sticks, pass them off to the mom, who was making her nest with them.  They did it over and over.  It was neat to watch.

An alligator is on the wood piece out there and you can see several nests in the trees.

A black Heron and her babies

There were a few other tours that we did not do: the house tour, rice field boat ride, and From Slavery to Freedom tour that went by the slave cabins.  They also had a petting zoo, cafe, and gift shop.  It was neat to be there and I'm glad we did it.  

Downtown Charleston

We spent Tuesday in downtown Charleston.  It was so quaint and gorgeous and clean!  I just loved all the old houses and buildings.  We walked up and down Market Street and King Street.  We took a horse drawn carriage tour that was so interesting.

 

There are several carriage tour companies and only so many can be in the downtown area at a given time.  Once we were ready, our tour guide went to a building to see which route we'd have.  There are three different ones and we got route 1, which we thoroughly enjoyed.  We went by the Charleston Water Park, Battery Park, down Rainbow Row, and by so many amazing houses with great history!  I don't remember it all, but it was very interesting.  We saw places where George Washington stayed, where others stayed that had signed the Constitution, where Generals stayed and saw the first canons of the war on Ft. Sumter and so on.  Here are some of my favorite places:

 

I love the shutters and flower boxes. 

This is one of the last cobblestone streets there

The next two are of Rainbow Row.  All the houses are painted in a different pastel color. My pictures don't do it justice.  These were all taken while in the moving carriage.

This mansion was given as a wedding gift from a father to his daughter back in 1875 or so.  It was $75,000, which was so much then.  Today it was recently sold for 5 million and then had 4 million dollars of work put into it. 

This is the Calhoun mansion.  This front door and entry way were in the movie, "The Notebook"

These next pictures are from the Waterfront Park.  The grounds were so beautiful.

 

This is the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge.  It's 2 1/2 miles long and very popular for people to be walking or running over.  This picture was taken from the park.

We also shopped at the Charleston City Market.  It goes for blocks and blocks and has cute little shops. 

Everywhere we went these ladies were making Sweet Grass Baskets.  They were beautiful, but quite expensive.  One of the big bowls in the picture below was over $200.

 

It was just so much fun being downtown and seeing all Charleston had to offer. 

Folly Beach, SC

Last week Scott and I had our trip to Charleston.  We actually rented a cute, little house in Folly Beach, SC about 15 min. from Charleston.  We were not right on the beach since I knew we wouldn't be at the beach that much-we had lots to do in and around Charleston.  The house was on a nice lake and one morning we had ducks and ducklings in the yard. 

 

We only went to the beach twice and both times it was around 7:30 in the evening.  It was chilly then, but we still enjoyed ourselves.  I love the beach anytime!

 

We saw several jellyfish on the beach.  We learned later on our kayak tour that this kind does not sting.

 

 

 

 

I'll be posting more about our trip in the next few days.