Charlestown

Or Charleston ... what the commoners call it. We spent last weekend in this great South Carolina town and had a grand time (I feel like "grand" is a very Charleston-esque adjective, don't you agree?). My sister is getting married in April and she was having an engagement party in Charleston to kick off the few months of festivities. We're fairly familiar with the city since my husband grew up vacationing there, so when we got the invite for the party we were all about heading to one of our favorite towns to celebrate.

We left Friday afternoon and had a pretty easy drive. Anything feels easy when compared to the 8 hour drive we take every few months to Florida. The ease of the drive was enhanced by the fact that everyone did a little bit of this ...

Once we got into town, we had to stop by one of our favorite haunts for a little nourishment.

The name does not lie, folks. Jack's Cosmic Dogs really specializes in hot dogs for both its youngest and oldest diners. This is a win-win situation for our family since we have a quartet of avid hot dog connoisseurs. We all chowed down and had full bellies in no time.

And the pièce de résistance, the coveted Cosmic Dog. Blue cheese slaw, sweet potato mustard, and you have a little slice of heaven in a red plastic basket.

It took all I had to keep from ordering seconds ... and thirds (I did cave in to the chocolate shake though. My will power is zero when it comes to chocolate).

After dinner, we stopped by the Banana Cabana to visit with Matt's uncle, Rick, who works there. The kids had fun running around, looking at the aquarium, and trying to confiscate (probably 5 year old) candy from the quarter candy machines. All in all, fun times. We then got home and to sleep since we had a long day ahead of us on Saturday.

Fortunately, we had great weather all weekend. Sunny and a high of 65 degrees is great to wake up to at the end of January. The sunrise wasn't too shabby either.

We spent Saturday morning at the South Carolina Aquarium. We all enjoyed seeing the otters ...

fish ...

working the docks ...

and sending out distress signals.

"Mayday, Mayday, please clear the decks for for fear we are about to be swarmed by an uncontrollable wave of crazed children with too much energy!"

I think their favorite part was the touch tank. The kiddos tend to like anything that is hands on (including how they play with others ... not good), so this was more fun for them than looking at fish behind a big plate of glass. They were pretty soaked and smelled like the underside of a fishing boat when they were through, but they enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

And then ... my camera battery died. Why does this ALWAYS happen to me? I even said to Matt about two minutes before it died, "Watch my camera battery die since I'm somewhere I want to use it a lot and I can't remember the last time I charged it." The camera gods have it out for me I guess. At least I got pictures of a lot of the fun stuff.

After the aquarium we headed home and relaxed before Matt and I had to head to the party. We went down to the beach and managed to keep the kids out of the waves and the pool (they really wanted to get into both). I think they're really going to enjoy the beach this summer, they are at a great age for it now.

The party was fabulous, the company, marvelous, and the night was a whole lot of fun. My sister and her fiancé looked great and we are so excited for their big day in a few months.

We spent Sunday being lazy, packing up, and headed home to Winston. We were gone and back again in 48 hours, but it was such a fun time that it was worth it. The kiddos are pretty good travelers (read: we have learned what CDs and DVDs keep them happy the longest), so taking trips with them is really not that stressful. I don't think we'll be road trippin' it every week, but it's nice to know we can go somewhere for a weekend and the kiddos will do fine.

Again, sorry about the pictures ... for some reason I am against charging batteries and/or carrying an extra one in my bag. I'll try to improve, I promise!