Charleston was named after King Charles II and is one of the oldest towns in America. We saw a gas station named after Michael Early on the drive up too :)...
We had lunch at a traditional English pub on Christmas Eve and Maddy added a dollar to their decor...
For dessert we went to the famous Kaminski's for a major blow out.
Maddy used her new reindeer mask to try and get some sleep before the big day!
Maddy's Christmas socks...
My lovely, snuggly Christmas jimmy jams, jacket and hat...
Mike mixed up the gifts and Maddy got Smart Lids ("to keep produce fresh for longer") from Santa...
We had the most gorgeous Christmas lunch at Poogan's Porch restaurant. Mike tried to pretend we were famous to make sure we got a table. His whole theory is that they don't believe you if you try to be too famous...so as usual we were the Samborra party of three. I pretended Maddy was only 10 to get a discount. I got the idea from Mike, El Cheapo.
On Boxing Day we had a city tour in the morning and Maddy got to see snow for the first time that she can remember. She was so excited!
It was a lot warmer in the bus:)
Then we took the ferry out to Fort Sumter - the place where the American Civil War began.
The fort was originally built after the 1812 War to protect Charleston, an important shipping port and fourth-largest city in America at that time, from European invaders. Five days after SC seceded from the Union, Major Anderson was ordered to secure federal property so he took over the Fort during the night. Anderson's men ran out of food but still refused all requests to leave Fort Sumter. The first shot was fired by a Confederate in 1861 and Anderson evacuated the Fort 34 hours later. He was granted a 100-gun salute as he retreated but one of his men was killed by accident during the ceremony making him the first actual fatality of the Civil War. Fort Sumter was later reclaimed by the Union and Abraham Lincoln was invited to the ceremony there to raise the Union flag once again. Since there was still significant tension, he declined and went to the theatre that night instead where he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth...
Dolphins in the snow :)
One of the great things about Charleston is how much you can see on foot. We bundled up and walked around the city all afternoon. There are old cobbled streets and preserved buildings on every corner despite the fact that the city has been ravaged by fire, earthquakes and hurricanes. In 1886 they suffered an earthquake so big it could be felt as far north as Boston and as far south as Cuba! Many of the buildings now have "earthquake bolts" or metal rods that attach the inner and outer brick walls. They are ornamental and typically circular plates on the outside of many of the buildings. Apparently there is no solid evidence that they will actually help in the event that there's another earthquake though :).
In the afternoon we went to Drayton Hall, the oldest plantation home in the US. Maddy made her first snowball...
This house was only saved from being burned down by Union troops allegedly due to their belief that it was being used to quarantine smallpox victims. The home has been preserved literally and not restored, i.e. there is no running water, electricity, heating etc. Also the tour guides are required to have a bachelor's degree to work there and educate the public. Once he found out the tour guide's credentials I caught Mike trying to get some last minute "knowledge" so that he could ask clever questions...
The tour itself was also about an hour long which is apparently double the length of most other plantation tours. Our guide shared an amazing insight into over seven generations of this prominent family in Charleston - we loved it and it was my favorite part of the whole visit :).
In the evening we drove down to Savannah. The city has the biggest contiguous historical district in the US so we got up nice and early to tour the sights of the city on foot and celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary :).
The Telfair Museum and Owens-Thomas house...
Savannah has tons of squares - each with different character and monuments (including the one used in the bench scenes in Forrest Gump). Madison liked this one the best :)
We ended the day at the Irish pub on River Street and I played with my new camera. It's so easy to use and I can capture "Mike expressions" so much better now. Like this one I call the "Newman"...
Or this one generally only seen after consumption of Irish alcohol...
On the way home we took a wrong turn and ended up in the middle of Georgia driving through miles and miles of cotton fields. Mike decided that he has "always wanted" to see how cotton is grown. Here he is climbing back into the getaway car having stolen a plant. Cotton nickin'...
OK - so I admit I was also curious to see how cotton actually grows so here's a closer look if you haven't seen it either...
And the seeds (which are spikey) are inside the cottony part. We found seven in just one ball...
There aren't many things that I love more at the end of a trip than a well-worn travel guide...:)
