Carolina In My Mind

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So it's been quite a while since I last updated this blog! I have more free time now, since when I leave work I don't go home to homework (oh, it is truly amazing), and so here I am, updating the good ol' travel blog.

A few weeks ago I went to South Carolina with my boyfriend, Shawn, and a few friends. We drove there. Twenty-five hours straight. Couldn't tell you how we did it. We broke up the drive on the way back and that was much more fun.

Anyway, we stayed on Edisto Island, which is about 45 minutes south of Charleston. It's a lovely little place with 15 churches! (There's a church on every corner in the south, it would seem.) We spent time on the beach, made pina coladas and pizza, hung out, went up to Charleston twice, and generally had a relaxing vacation.

On the drive back we went through North Carolina's Blue Ridge (it took a while driving 20 mph through the mountains, but they were lovely!), stopped in Nashville to see the Parthenon (oh, American kitsch), and spent a day in St. Louis with my friend Melissa, who is in law school at Washington U.

Highlights:
1. Wandering Charleston and ogling at all the gorgeous houses.
2. Riding a ferry out to Ft. Sumter and poking around at American history for a few hours.
3. The beach! It was a bit chilly, but we had to spend some time there with the sand blowing and the seagulls forming a perimeter around us in hopes of food.
4. The drive back - so fun.
5. St. Louis is a great town!

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Photos

The Atlantic
Behold Shawn's first encounter with the ocean.

Fog
We had some pretty epic fog the first few days.

On the way across the swamp
This bridge Shawn and I are standing on spanned a whole lot of nasty sludgy mud.

On the beach
We made camp beside a rock surf-breaker that for us acted as a wind-breaker.

The birds
See? They formed a perimeter.

One of many
I need to make a lot of money or win the lottery and retire to Charleston.

We really like bridges
The Ravenel bridge that connects Charleston to Mount Pleasant.

Bridal Veil Falls
Somewhere in the Blue Ridge.