Family Vacation to Charleston - Part 1

After a great long weekend in Norfolk, we headed to Charleston, SC, for a few days of vacation with just our little family of four.  Normally when we get a little bit of time off, we go visit family, or go on vacation with family, but we thought it would be fun to just have a little special time with each other.  Luke got a great deal on a room at the Courtyard Marriot on the Ashley River just a few blocks from downtown Charleston and we had a fantastic time!

The drive from Norfolk to Charleston should take about 7 hours, but with two little ones and a couple of traffic jams, it was more like 8 1/2, but the girls did great!  Anna Kate has started asking "Are we there?" on car trips every few minutes, so I made a chart with a box for every half hour of the trip (thank you Pinterest).  Every half hour we would color a smiley face in the box.  I think it worked pretty well!

 

They did a pretty good job sleeping during at least part of the drive (if you look closely, you can see Caroline asleep in the baby mirror!)

 

We arrived just in time to have dinner at Luke's favorite South Carolina Barbecue restaurant, Sticky Fingers, and then head to the hotel for bedtime.  Speaking of which, the girls did GREAT sleeping and napping all four of us in the same hotel room (well, until the last night when Caroline may or may not have kept our whole floor awake...)! 

Bright and early Tuesday morning we got up and spent the morning at the South Carolina Aquarium.  We had never been before, but had been told that the girls would love it.  We were not disappointed!  Here are some pictures of our time.

Anna Kate the octopus

"Inside" the lemur exhibit!

Paying close attention to the presentation about the wildlife in Madagascar!

Driving on a safari through Africa

 

Look at those fishies!

 

How bout that crocodile?!?

 

Anna Kate's wingspan is not quite as big as Liberty the Bald Eagle's!

 

After her nap on Daddy in the Ergo, Caroline got in on the action!

You may not be able to tell in this picture, but this tank is over two stories tall! 

Luke thought it would be a good idea to pay a few extra dollars to take the girls to see the 4-D IMAX movie about dolphins.  I wasn't so sure, but we decided to try it anyway.  All went well until we walked in the dark theater.  Caroline did NOT like it, but settled down as the movie started...until the audience got sprayed with water 30 seconds into the film!  She and I spent the rest of the movie walking around outside!  Luke said that Anna Kate was pretty nervous, but was fine if she sat on his lap.  And she LOVED the bubbles that were blown on them during the movie!  So, all in all, the IMAX was at least a 50% success!

Now, in the interest of full disclosure here, while Anna Kate did enjoy all the fish and wildlife, her absolute favorite part of the aquarium was the escalator.  Apparently our small town little girl doesn't get out much...haha!  But seriously, we had a great time and we can't wait to go back again sometime soon!