Our Honeymoon- Charleston 2017

Over a month a go I promised y'all some honeymoon pictures (I also promised y'all some more wedding photos but let's not be greedy!) and I'm finally delivering.
Sadly enough my husband (now that's a delicious word is it not?) has most of the honeymoon photos on his computer and they look much nicer as they were taken on a real camera than mine taking on my phone. Regardless, I am going to share my crappy pictures because I keep forgetting to ask him for his nice ones.
We went to Charleston, South Carolina for our honeymoon and it was every bit as marvelous as you've probably heard. I'd move there in a heartbeat except it was SOOOO hot. Most of what we saw dated from the Civil War time period though some of it dated from much earlier in America's history.

After our long flight and settling into our Airbnb
we went for a long walk on Folly Beach. 

The next day we went for a long walk all around downtown Charleston.
We viewed many of the beautiful old houses from the outside but only
went in one... the Edmondston-Alston House. Unfortunately they did not allow
photography in it so we don't have any pictures.  We also went to the
Riley Waterfront Park and the White Point Gardens and Battery. 

The next day we went to the Nathaniel Russel house.

Thankfully this house did allow photography and we were
able to get some beautiful pictures of this spiral staircase. 

The Nathaniel Russel House also had these beautiful
balconies all around it but the tour guide told us they
weren't very sturdy and people would just step out on
them for a bit to get some fresh air and wouldn't take a
chair out and read on them like I would obviously do. 

We also did a walking tour of Charleston that day.
The tour's focus was on Charleston's hidden passages and alleys.

A sample of the beautiful ironwork gates in Charleston. 

Another one of the beautiful gates.

The steeple of St. Michaels Episcopal Church. We went inside it as well
and it was absolutely gorgeous but it seemed a bit sacrilegious to take
pictures inside of the church. We actually arrived right when they were
doing a midday prayer so it was interesting to experience that. 

Most of the streets in Charleston were modern paved roads
but a few of them like this were cobblestone. 

This is the French Huguenot Church. 

Brian and I. After the walking tour we also stopped
by Charleston's City Market, which was huge! 

The next day we got to go kayaking on the Ashely River.
It was so beautiful and serene. 

After kayaking we were able to go to Middleton Place, America's
oldest landscape gardens. It made me think of the gardens in period
dramas and actually it was originally designed after the English Gardens. 

All of the trees were huge and hundreds of years old.

A little alligator by one of the ponds' banks.
Something I had to get used to was seeing little
alligators everywhere and not freaking out. 

There were many of these unique benches around the property. 

In some cases such as this tree, the trees had to have supports
put in to hold up their massive branches.

I love a pathway canopied by trees. Most all of the trees in
 Charleston had Spanish Moss hanging from their branches.

The whole time I was at Middleton place I just imagined
that this was what Pemberly was like and I was walking
around the ground of Pemberly with my Mr. Darcy. 

Part of the paths there went through a beautifully eerie swamp. 

I love hollow trees! Brian has a picture of me in the
hollow of this tree because I couldn't resist climbing in. 

The original big house at Middleton place was burned down by
the Union soldiers what remains on the grounds is one of the two
flanking smaller houses. It was quite cool itself and I can only
imagine how incredible the original grand house would have been.

Another big tree because I could not get enough of them.

The next day we went to Fort Sumter and Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum. Brian was especially excited about these. I think I would have been more excited if it hadn't been so hot. They were very neat though and at Fort Sumter we got to watch how they would have loaded and fired their guns during the civil war. It was a huge process then! Fort Sumter is where the Civil War started. The Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum is on the ship the USS Yorktown so it was fascinating to see inside the ship.

The next day we went to the Isle of Palms Beach.
This is the only picture I got of that. We did get
some great sunburns then. We had managed to
avoid getting burnt up until then. Then that
evening we went Contra Dancing. I was so excited
that Charleston's contra dance group happened
to have it's monthly dance when we were there! 

On Saturday we went to the Charleston's Farmer's market where we got weird sodas (delicious but weird) and gelato as well as produce of course.  Afterwards we went to the Aiken-Rhett House. It allowed pictures but it was an audio guided tour and I was so wrapped up in holding the mp3 thing and trying not to accidentally push the wrong button I didn't get any pictures. It was really interesting though and is the only house in Charleston to have it's original slave quarters left.

Sunday of course we went to church. We went to Redeemer Presbyterian Church, which is a PCA church in Charleston. In the evening we went for walk at the Charles Towne Landing State Historic Sites, which was a lovely walk and historically inserting. Charles Towne is the original site for the settlers landing before the built Charleston. They also had a little zoo area, which was nice but what really interested me about it was the otters. I love otters!!!!! They are so cute!!!

Monday we were scheduled to go on a boat trip to Morris Island but it was raining on the coast so it was postponed to the next day. I'm so glad it was because we made a trip we may not have if we gone with our original plans. THE MAGNOLIA GARDENS!!!! Just go!

Take a look at this porch! It's so big and awesome!!!! The original house
at the Magnolia plantation was burned down by the Union soldiers then another
was rebuilt on its foundation and then it caught fire (I think that's right) so the current
one was built on top of that foundation. So the current one dates from the early 90s but
is filled with the old furniture and other beautiful moments from the family. This house
was my favorite and unfortunately did not allow photography inside.

It also had the best gift shop of all the places we went.

Look at all of these beautiful tea things!  

And these adorable tea sets!!!! 

And these cute tea bag holders!!! I had to get myself one of them. 

Just one of the adorable bridges at the Magnolia gardens.
The Magnolia Gardens is America's oldest Romantic garden. 

An incredible tree that overhung the stream running through the gardens.
Naturally I had to climb out on it. Brian has some great pictures of me on the tree.

Bridges over streams, and moss on trees these are
a few of my favorite things! Oh, and there's Brian too!

So the next day we got to go to Morris Island finally!

And I got very bad pictures of dolphins on the
boat ride back. 

The next day was our last full day there before we flew out. It was a pretty dreary day. Cloudy, rainy, ect. And the thought that it was our last day there didn't help at all. In the morning we braved the rain and walked around Fort Moultrie... which I actually liked better than Fort Sumter even though Fort Sumter is the one everyone talks about. Then we went to the South Carolina Aquariam. That's not something we originally planned on but it was raining and most other things were outside. Plus we had heard that their sea turtle hospital, which normally cost extra was free with the general admission. It was pretty neat but super crowded because of aforementioned perk.
After the aquarium we walked to a used bookstore. That was my idea. I really wanted to buy a book in Charleston. While it was a nice used bookstore, I think my local used bookstore is even better. Regardless, I was able to get a couple Elizabeth Gaskell books I didn't already own and Brian got a couple poetry books.

Ends must come I suppose and so our departure date came. With the checkout time from our Airbnb being in the morning but our flight out not until the afternoon we had to kill some time at Barnes and Nobles. Not that I was complaining. I got another book there.

On the airplane. Our last picture in Charleston before we took off. 

So that was our honeymoon. It truly was magical and I'm not just being cheesy. I loved everything we got to do and see. We toured several houses, as you can tell from this post and each of them was unique in it's own way. You can't just see one house in Charleston. You need to see several to get the full history of the beautiful town. There were several more houses that we could have toured. Brian and I did a lot of research and chose the ones we wanted to see the most from that. We could go there many more times and still not yet see all Charleston has to offer.

Another note I'll make that I didn't mention earlier is the food. The food in Charleston is the best!!!! Fried chicken, South Carolina barbecue, Sweet potato waffles, sweet potato biscuits, just biscuits in general (THE BEST!!!!). If we'd stayed there much longer no matter how much walking we did every day I would have been fat. It was all delicious. Besides the traditional South Carolina fare we also went to a Mexican restaurant that was great and a pizza place that was unique and delicious.

I hope this gives you a glimpse into our honeymoon. Someday I'm going to procure the rest of the pictures off of Brian's camera but until then enjoy these!

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