Birthday/Anniversary Romantic Get-away

If you've been following me for awhile then you probably know I'm one who doesn't care to travel without my kids. I've never been able to imagine taking a trip and having adventures and experiencing other places, and not wanting my kids to be along to enjoy it, too.

I still feel that way, and still wouldn't go on any larger trip without them, but I have decided to do something out of the ordinary for us, and planned a small, weekend get-a-away for me and John.
As mentioned in the post title, it's coming up on my birthday and our anniversary. We were married on my birthday 22 years ago.
I'm not usually that much of a celebrator of such events; it was all well and fine when it just a few years, but enough already.  I did try to plan a family outing, to ride the Blue Ridge Railway and Leaf-Peep. But between school and work, I couldn't match our schedules with the railway or the leaf's schedules.
So I said oh well, maybe next time, but then a couple days ago after I'd changed the calendar, I noticed J had both days of the weekend before my birthday/our anniversary off work.  Ryan still had class on Saturday, so that still wasn't any good for a family outing, but then I got the idea, how about just an overnight couple's retreat thing?

That's not something we'd ever done; although J's mentioned it in the past, I wasn't interested in the idea  before.

The original plan was pretty much to just go to a hotel or lodge or something like that, eat a nice dinner somewhere, spend the night, and come home the next day.
I searched for places to go, and had it narrowed down to two places, but couldn't make up my mind.
While I was still waffling between those two places, I looked around a little more and ended up coming up on information for the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad.

Did I know about the GSMR? Maybe I knew and had forgotten. I can't remember.
It's located in Bryson City, NC, which is just north of Hayesville and Murphy, so I'm pretty sure I've probably been through there before. But can't remember.

Anyway, poking around the site, I checked out their vacation packages. They had some good looking deals with an overnight stay at a local lodging and train trip included.

I wasn't planning to do a train excursion without the boys, but it's close enough that we can always go back later and ride it again with the boys with us next time.

I picked the Charleston Inn B&B. It was a bit more expensive than some of the other offerings, but I just liked the feel/look of the place, and it got alot of good reviews at Trip Advisor.

And, they serve a better breakfast.

Then I checked out the local restaurant offerings for a "nice" place to eat and located a couple, then narrowed the choice down to the Fryemont Inn based on Trip Advisor reviews.

It's not really upscale, and J's good jeans and a pullover sweater will probably be fine to wear, but I think it will do nicely for us.

We'll leave on Saturday and take a nice, leisurely drive up to the mountains, then when we get there we'll explore the nice little town of Bryson City.
Later we'll check in to our room, and get ready to go to dinner around 6'ish.
The next morning we'll enjoy a delicious, hot breakfast and then go take our train excursion through the beautiful Great Smokey Mountains, to the Nantahala Gorge.

After which we'll return home, hopefully relaxed and refreshed.

Rainy Day and Fishing

We woke up Wednesday morning to thundershowers and rainstorms and decided it was a good day to sleep in.

A check of the weather news didn't sound too promising for the rest of the day, either, as more storms and showers were predicted to develop in the afternoon. So we decided to take the day off, hang around the room and hotel.  Kevin played on his laptop, I read, and John went out fishing on the pier later. Ryan went with him for awhile, then came back and took a nap and I went out for awhile.

Morning thunderstorming

John fishing

John fishing.

He caught a conch shell/hermit crab?

And a baby shark

 Eventually we noticed the lifeguards had put up the No Swimming flag and were directing people out the water.  The sky was clear on that side, so we wondered if there had been a (real) shark sighting.
But I didn't see any sharks, and people weren't congregating along the waterline for a shark-spottting like they did in Gulf Shores the time there was a shark sighting there, so I figured maybe the weather was turning bad.
I crossed to the opposite side of the room and opened the *front* door and saw:

Afternoon thunderstorm

What you can't see, because I never was quick enough to catch it, was some awesome cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in the distance.

That storm seemed to be staying to the west of us, moving North, so John and Ryan jogged up the street to a restaurant to grab some dinner-to-go.
When they got back, the sky didn't look as bad, and seemed as though maybe the storm had passed on by. So then me and Ryan ran up the road to the store (Red & White Grocery; I haven't seen one of those in years).  We walked out of the store to ZAP! lighting strikes and beginning rain splatters.
John said he watched us run up the road about two blocks away and thought he was going to have to come in the car to get us (reminiscent of our trek to the PO in Steinhatchee), but we made it back okay before this hit:

Afternoon thunderstorm

Finally the storms got done and we were treated to a lovely double-Rainbow:

Double-rainbow (lighter one to the right)

John went back out to the pier to try some more fishing, hoping the storms had stirred some fish up, and caught a 3-foot shark.

John's shark

Fire

The rest of day was all about Fire.

First we visited the North Charleston & American LaFrance Fire Museum and Educational Center.
This place is so cool!

They had 18 fully restored fire trucks dating back to the early 1800's and they were gorgeous; all shiny red and sparkling chrome.
There were lots of neat interactive exhibits like Can You lift the Load of a Firefighter? Can you tell if it was accident or arson? Making a 911 call. And others.
And other exhibits told about fire engines, nozzles, hydrants, etc. Also exhibits of historical fire fighting related items like old fire extinguishers, tools, helmets, uniforms.
There was a play area with a climbing ladder like on a real ladder truck, and the Fireman's Pole.

They also had a fire truck simulator, made from a real fire engine that was going to be scrapped. You sit inside and a screen in front of you makes it look like you're driving to a call. Very cool!  I made a video of our "run".

I loved this place!
We stayed until closing, and were the last ones to leave, haha!

Fire Museum and Educational Center

Beautiful fire engines

Can You Lift the Load of a Fireman?
Ryan and The Load weigh about the same! LOL

Vintage firefighting relics.

After there we rode down to see the Memorial where the "Charleston 9" lost their lives in the Super Sofa Store fire.

Charleston 9 Memorial

Then, just so happened that night was Fire Truck night at the James Island Chik-Fil-A so we stopped in to see the ladder truck and meet the firefighters.

LAD801DER

Chatting with Firefighter Coleman
(I think that was his name? I forgot!)

Charles Towne Landing

We'd learned from the Fort Sumter adventure that it's best to try to get up and out early to visit the outdoor activities, because as hot as it was in the morning, it gets worse later, believe you me!

Charles Towne Landing was the first permanent English settlement in the Carolina province. Approximately 148 colonists, including men, women and children, landed at Albemarle Point the first Wednesday in April 1670.
The colony had to quickly establish homes, food and defenses to survive and create a successful colony.

After the Revolutionary War, the name of the town was changed to Charleston.

The center has a nice Visitor's Center with a Museum and a digital *dig*. Then a walking trail leads around the area and you see how the original settlers might have lived back in 1670. (I find it interesting to imagine.)
There is also an Animal preserve with animals the settlers would have encountered back in the 17th century.

Checking out the Settler's route from Barbados.

Lord Proprietor Ryan, Earl of Nowhere.

I totally need one of these at home!

Trading vessel - "Adventure"

Experimental garden.

Actual archealogy dig shows where the Original
Palisade Wall stood.

Turkeys (our *almost* National Bird, had Ben Franklin
had his preffers.)

Legare-Waring Plantation home ca. 1800's?

Backyard of Legare-Waring Plantation
Beautiful!

Fort Sumter

On Monday we drove to downtown Charleston, to the Visitor's Center. They have a parking garage where you can pay one price (ours was $6, but I think the most is $8 or $10 for all day) and then ride the Trolley around town for FREEEEEEEE!
(You can also purchase different tours of the area at the Visitor's Center and they have people to take you around on walking or a bus tour.)

We already knew where we were going, so we waited for the Trolley to take us over to the Liberty Square area where we took the ferry boat to Fort Sumter.

In addition to the Fort ruins, there was a nice museum with a lot of history, photos, and artifacts.

After taking the ferry back to Liberty Square, we walked back to the Visitor's Center (no real reason, just because we could).

There was alot of other things that we didn't do while in the area, like the SC Aquarium or the Charleston Museum or visiting the Market. I think we are about at the point where if you've seen one aquarium, you're not missing much at the other ones (except the Ripley's aquarium in Gatlinburg, I reccommend it. And maybe the one in Atlanta, which I haven't been to yet.)
We also saw alot of museums included in the sites we did visit, so another one just seemed redundant.

Ferry to Fort Sumter

Entrance to Fort Sumter

Cannons

Mortar Shell still embedded in the Fort wall.

Fort ruins

Musket ball holes in the exterior wall.

Folly Beach, SC

Turns out the Be A Stock Car Driver driving experience that led us to take our vacation to SC this summer ran into some troubles and was cancelled. I called The Tides Hotel and added another night to our stay, so instead of Greenville, we went on to Folly Beach a day early.

The Tides is a really nice hotel, like both a Beach hotel, and upscale, all at once.

Our room was on the 8th floor, and was lovely and comfortable.

 

The view from our beach-side balcony was gorgeous, with a nice view of the Folly Fishing Pier.

From the *front* door of the room we had a view of Center Street where there were several good restaurants, clubs, and souvenir stores.

 

Also from the *front* door, but looking a bit off to the left, was a nice view of the (Folly?) River that made for some lovely sunsets.

From the end of the Folly Fishing Pier looking back towards the beach and The Tides Hotel.

*Trip Deal:
They had a *Chill & Fill* deal where if you stayed 2 or more nights, you got a $50.00 gas card.
The price difference in the room cost for the gas card deal was $10.00, so if you stayed 2 nights, you basically profited $30.00.
In our case, we stayed (4) nights, which cost $40.00 more than not getting the gas card deal, but I got the $50.00 gas card, so I *made* $10.00 on the deal.
Or saved an extra $10.00 on the total bill, however you want to look at it.

Greenville/Charleston/Folly Beach, SC

This story starts last November, when Half Off Depot offered a Nascar Driving Experience for (about) half-off the regular $350.00 price. It included actual driving a real Nascar Stockcar racecar for 30 laps and a souvineer Fire suit.
I knew Ryan would love to do this, so bought the Experience for him as a Christmas gift.

When we went to NC, John and Ryan got to ride in a Nascar for some laps, but this one Ryan will actually  be driving.
It's also a Competition and the winner(s) can win/earn a Season racing in actual Nascar events.  We're not looking that far ahead (I suspect he may *win* the next few races since you have to pay $350 entry fees each time, until the end. Then you probably lose.)  Anyway, whether he *wins* or we decide to do it some more or not, the 30 laps and included Fire suit seemed worth the $159.00 I paid.

Sometime in there, Ryan mentioned he wanted to go to Florida to see the last Space Shuttle take off.
So, working with that, and everyone's schedules, I reserved a date for the Nascar driving thing, and told John what days to put in for vacay at work.
The plan was to drive to (where ever the event was originally being held, I can't remember now), spend the night there, do the Driving Experience the next day, then either spend another night, or head on to my sister's house in Florida.

Then, three things happened (I'm not sure in which order, don't guess it matters): (1) they changed the Track the event was being held at and the new Track was North of us, rather than South. (2) John couldn't get two of the dates he'd put in for off work, one of them being the day of this driving experience. (3) They pushed the date of the Space Shuttle launch a week later, after when Ryan will already be back in school.

I checked the website for a different date for the Driving Experience, but couldn't find any other compatible dates. But before I just cancelled it outright, I decided to check the other Tracks.
Turned out the Greenville/Pickens, SC Track had the date we needed, and when I Mapquested, found out it's only about a 3.5 hour drive from here.

As I was checking out the Map, I noticed a road leading almost straight from Greenville (Easly) to Charleston. And it was only about another 3.5 hour drive.  Charleston is one of the places we've never been, but have said we might like to visit, maybe, one day.

Well, I guess that day is upon us.
Sometimes you go where you're led, I guess.

The nice thing (for a couple of us anyway) is that Charleston is on/near the Coast...which means Beach.
I had no idea what Beaches were in the area, and did a bit of research, but everything kept leading right back to Folly Beach. There are other beaches, but for some reason, even when I tried to check them out, I'd end right back up at Folly.

Apparently there's only one hotel there, The Tides, and all rooms are Oceanfront, which is a pretty major requirement for me; there was vacancy, and the price was right. So I booked.