We’ve been on vacation for the last week, visting family, attending a wedding and doing a bit of madcap sightseeing. We’ve been on the go since May 2. We started out in LA and flew to Pittsburgh to visit my sister. Then we flew in a small plane to Nags Head, NC for my nephew’s wedding.
We got to enjoy a true Nor Easter’ that swept through North Carolina just after we arrived. We experienced winds of 50mph+ and a driving rain that flooded the roads and gave us a front row view of some absolutely spectacular ocean waves. We tried to visit the Wright memorial and I felt like the Flying nun: if I held out my arms I could have flown! Once the storm cleared, the sky turned a beautiful blue and the weather warmed just in time for the wedding.
We left Nags Head on Sunday and flew to Charleston, SC. We stayed in a fabulous place called the Inn at Middleton Place located on the grounds of an old plantation on the banks of the Ashley River. The area all around was swamp or reclaimed swamp so it was quite the bugfest (and I hate bugs. I felt sure they were all out to get me). I saw my first real live alligators at Magnolia Plantation, which we learned are the apex of their food chain, at least here in the South Carolina swamps. Chuck really loved this fact. Now he thinks he’s the apex of HIS food chain. The weather was pretty warm and humid. Not summer humid – but enough of a taste of it to make you notice. The day before yesterday we toured downtown Charleston, a very charming town with lovely architecture that dates from the late 1600’s. Although we have had to limit our buying since we’ve been flying in a small plane, we did find and buy another Tim Cotterhill frog called Newt.
Next we flew to Farmville, VA, rented a car for the afternoon and visited Appomatox Court House in a “If It’s Tueday It Must Be Belgium” sort of way, then flew on to College Park, MD, and rented a car to drive to Arlington to see our new great-niece Lauren, then we got dropped off at BWI and rented another car and drove to Towson, MD where we will be visting Chuck’s family and friends for the next couple of days. Phew!