After Savannah and Macon we headed to Charleston for two nights. I’d rented an AirBNB that was a little camper, located about 15 minutes drive from the downtown Charleston area.
We had a great two days there. I’m doing highlights now, because it’s been too long to do more, but I want this here for me and perhaps for you!
Dinner: FIG. Amazing. Highly recommend. I got reservations early for this one.
Dinner: The Grocery. Also amazing, and not busy enough. This place was really great and needs more buzz—so many people had never even heard of it!
Brunch: Husk. Loved our brunch—I couldn’t get dinner reservations at Husk in Charleston so I thought brunch might be good instead. It definitely was, though the peach pancake was out of control and I’m so glad we were sharing it rather than one person eating it. SO sweet! The cheese grits were unnecessary but the best cheese grits of my life.
Brunch: The Early Bird Diner. This was near our AirBNB.
Drinks: Prohibition. Loved this place—the drinks were good, the ambiance was cool, the bartenders were dressed with suspenders.
Sightseeing: We went to the McLeod Plantation and it was really interesting. I chose that plantation because it told the story of the place from the point of view of the people who worked there: the enslaved peoples, and then later, the formerly enslaved people and the children of those who were enslaved. I feel like this is an area of our country’s history that we often try to pretend didn’t happen, or didn’t matter much, or frankly, doesn’t affect things today, when from the things we learned on the tour, it obviously still does. I didn’t want to just ooh and ah over what rich people got for themselves by owning other people and forcing them to work for nothing. It was a great tour, and I highly recommend.
Otherwise, for sightseeing we just walked around all over the city. The Battery, College of Charleston, King Street, and all over.
Camper thoughts: the hosts were wonderful, the bathroom situation wasn’t so great—it was not a regular toilet but something else-a marine toilet? and it worked okay, until an incident the last morning that I’m not going to talk about.
After Charleston, we drove to Edisto Island and Edisto Beach State Park. I’d had fond memories of camping at the beach with my family as a kid, and thought it would be fun. It WAS fun, but it was very hot and our campsite was not at all shady. We did have a tarp that we set up that helped a bit. We were within walking distance of the ocean though, which was very lovely. We spent some time in the water, but ended up getting more red right away than expected and our beach day wasn’t quite as fun as we’d hoped.
Sightseeing: We went to Botany Bay Plantation. There isn’t much left of the Plantation except a stretch of totally untouched beach. Oh, and this bird that slowly walked in front of us while we were trying to drive.
Food: We ate at the campsite some, but we had dinners out. We loved Whaley’s Restaurant and shared a fried seafood platter there. We also ate at the SeaCow Eatery for dinner and it was fine.
Then we drove to Clinton, South Carolina to visit my parents. We stayed there for two nights also (everywhere on this trip was two nights.) My mom and dad had some sightseeing planned as well, and we walked around Presbyterian College the first evening, played games, and then spent the next day in Greenville wandering around Furman University, up to Paris Mountain State Park and to downtown. Downtown Greenville has changed so much since I was younger—I never even really went there when I was young because there was no reason to. Now it’s very lovely. We ate lunch at Tupelo Honey, walked around the Reedy River, and looked at an electric assist bike shop.
Our final stop on the trip was Atlanta to see my friend April. She didn’t really have enough space for us so I’d found a place within 15 minutes drive of her that was a teepee. Yes, a teepee (through AirBNB). It definitely seemed to have air-conditioning, and access to bathrooms so I though it would be okay. It ended up being amazing!
There was a huge backyard with two different teepees and a camper—ours was in the corner away from things. The hosts were really nice, and there were animals all around—7 chickens, a dog, a cat, a rabbit, and a fenced in area with goats and ducks! It was such a fun place to stay. I couldn’t recommend it more—we didn’t even take advantage of everything, but if you lived nearby it might be a great staycation as well.
Brunch: Murphy’s Restaurant. I’d been there before because it’s an excellent brunch place within walking distance of April’s house.
Museum: Atlanta History Center. We didn’t get to explore the grounds as much as we’d hoped because a huge storm came through! But it was really interesting and definitely worth a visit.
Anyway! That’s it for the trip! It was a very nice time. I think Louie and I wished we’d been able to do something a bit less hot and more mountain-y but it was great to see family and friends, eat some wonderful meals, and enjoy almost two weeks of vacation.
