charleston, south carolina

i had a fabulous little mini-vacation with amy to charleston, south carolina earlier this week. it was a great little escape and for me a great weekend to play with history! i felt even more historical because we took the train down which was interesting, but i would use the train again, but i prefer driving. so here was the trip through pictures...

got to charleston at 5am, went to the airport to get the car and it was about 6.30, so why not go watch the sunrise over the water? at waterfront park in charleston

it was an absolutely gorgeous sunrise, with sunbeams and just a pretty morning

in the morning i walked around charleston taking in the gorgeous houses, the college of charleston, and then amy and i met back up to go to FORT SUMTER! now from my love of the civil war and last year's civil war spring break - so now i got to go to the start of the civil war. fort sumter! yay!

amy and i had fun playing in the fort and enjoying all the history

i love all national parks and national historic sites!

so on thursday we headed out of charleston to the plantations. we went to magnolia plantation and drayton hall. where we enjoyed the gorgeous gardens of magnolia plantation. we had a blast frolicking through the gardens.

 one of the things i LOVED about charleston was the spanish moss everywhere! all over the trees and it was just such a neat little addition. fun fact - spanish moss is neither spanish or moss.

pretty swampyness at magnolia. there were so many gorgeous live oak and cyprus trees. this landscape was something sooo different from what i'm used to.

the magnolia plantation house. magnolia has been in the family since 1676, this is the 3rd house built on the present site. 

then amy and i went to the drayton house. it was built in 1736 and since then hasn't had any renovations or changes to the structure. inside is empty but the architecture is gorgeous and you could really love the beauty of the house. 

amy and i being children at dinner. we went to southend brewery and had such an amazing beer. it was their seasonal and it was a nutty beer with nutmeg & cinnamon. so fab. and we had a fun time drawing. and yes, in the upper left corner is a map of the us i drew because amy didn't think i could. 

amy went on a different train home, so i had all day saturday to walk around. so i played around charleston more. here is one of the oldest churches in charleston.

i also went to the charleston museum, the washigton-hayward house and this house the joseph-manigault house. i loved the interiors of this house. the colors were gorgeous! and the 18th century furniture was pretty cool too.

oh yea... i rented a car. and this is what i got. a 2010 bright red chevy camaro. i felt as if i was cheating on colby. i absolutely loved driving this little sports car! so after playing i took the train home, it was a pretty interesting trip back. funny conversation and people i met. and the train was back to penn station a hour early! so yay!

i had a great trip, and while i didn't think i took a lot of pictures i ended up taking almost 300! these are some of my favorites from the weekend :)

i'm home this week, which should be nice after constantly moving the last 7 weeks. so just trying to relax and enjoy the gorgeous fall weather in jersey!

how was your weekend?