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.

Folly Beach, SC: War

On Thursday we visited the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier, and Clamagore submarine exhibits.

Later we visited Blackbeard's Cove and the boys rode go-carts:

Folly beach, SC: 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.
 

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:

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:

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

Folly beach, SC: 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!

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

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.

Folly Beach, SC: 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.

Folly Beach, SC: 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.