Baby's First Trip = Success

We had to get up around 6:00 this morning to get ourselves ready and to the airport for our flight, which was around 10:00. We actually made really good time, and we were off to the airport earlier than we originally expected. We snapped one last photo of Nora in South Carolina (in the parking garage, how exciting!) and hit the road.

I am happy to say that once again, Nora.was.PERFECT. She slept for the majority of the first flight (Charleston to D.C.), then literally slept from take-off to touch-down on the second flight (from D.C. to Buffalo). SUCH A GOOD GIRL!!

Michael snapped this cute pic of Nora and me on the plane:

It's in pics like these that I realize how small she still is. Gah, I love her.

On three of our four flights on this trip, no one had any problems with me flying with Nora in the Ergo carrier. It was only on one flight (where the flight attendant was seriously "by the book") when I was told that I had to be holding her. It wasn't a problem, really, but having my hands free (especially since she was sleeping) was certainly nice. As you can see above, I was actually able to READ! Amazing.

Things we learned about traveling with a baby:

• Having both a stroller AND a carrier was really convenient, both at the airport and while out and about in Charleston. We just made sure to stash the carrier in the basket under the stroller so we had it at all times.
• No need for a diaper bag. For the air travel, we just stuffed diapers, extra outfits, and other things of Nora's in our carry-ons or my pump bag. When we were out during the days during our trip, we simply put a few diapers and our travel wipes case in the basket under the stroller.
• It's worth bringing your own car seat. We bought this car seat bag by J.L. Childress, and brought Nora's car seat with us (sans base). All of the airlines let you check a car seat for free. And guess what? The bag is so big, we were able to fit a ton of other stuff in there, too. We packed most of Nora's stuff--sleep stuff, clothing, diapers, wipes--plus a few things of ours (extra clothing, toiletries, etc.) in there as well, and it was all FREE to check because it was in the car seat bag. SWEET.
• A pacifier clippy thing is a necessity. This is a must-have for us in all public places, but when traveling, it was especially helpful. We didn't have to worry about Nora spitting out or dropping her pacifier on dirty, nasty floors or airplane seats.
• This probably goes without saying, but make sure you have extra clothing for the baby in your carry-on. Nora had a blow-out diaper (thank you, disposables!) just as we were supposed to be boarding our connecting flight in D.C. If I hadn't had an extra outfit in our bag, we would've been screwed.
• Speaking of disposables... if you're cloth diapering, consider using disposables for travel. We couldn't imagine trying to deal with our cloth dipes on a trip like this (maybe if we were staying in a house or condo with access to a washer, but in a hotel? No.), so we made it easy on ourselves and picked up a pack of disposables instead. Aside from the blow-out in the airport, they worked out just fine.

Those are the tips that immediately come to mind!

All in all, an amazingly successful first trip with Nora. Now, we have our sights set on our trip out west this spring. It will involve longer flights AND a longer period away from home, so we're still a little nervous. But at the very least, this trip gave us a little bit of experience to have under our belts!

Read more...

Fort Sumter

To get to Fort Sumter, you have to take a ferry, which departs from a pier right next door to the South Carolina Aquarium. The boat was scheduled to leave at 2:30, so we arrived around 2:15 to make sure we could get tickets and board in time.

Once on the ferry, we settled in on one of the decks to hang out while we waited to depart for the fort. Today, instead of horses, Gavin was obsessed with WATER. :) No matter where we were on the boat or the fort, G just wanted to see the WATER.

Before the boat even started moving, we saw a dolphin or two:

We also took pics of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge.

Another first for Nora on this trip... first time on a boat!

Once we started moving, it got really cold really fast, so we went inside and took seats at a table and enjoyed the ride. If you're interested, they have a recording playing over the loud speaker that talks a lot about the Civil War and the history of Fort Sumter. While I do find American history really fascinating, I was distracted by Nora and found it difficult to focus on listening. Plus, recorded tracks are kind of boring, you know? I think it would've benefited from a real, live person speaking to us about it... it would've been more engaging.

The ferry ride was about 30 minutes out to the fort, at which time we all disembarked and entered Fort Sumter.

(A pic of the ferry.)

Once inside the fort, Gavin's new obsession became pushing his own stroller. There was something really funny about watching an innocent little guy playing amongst cannons.

Nora, on the other hand, fell asleep in her stroller as I was wheeling her off the ferry, so she napped in the company of cannons.

Some of the original brick walls.

After exploring the ground level, we went up the stairs and entered the museum. After reading about the history of Fort Sumter and viewing the exhibits, we exited to the upper level of the fort to take in all of the views.

It was such a beautiful afternoon!

During our tour of the Boone Hall Plantation house yesterday, our guide told us about how slaves used to make bricks. He told us that if we went out to Fort Sumter, we should pay special attention to the bricks laid there. If you look closely, you can see the fingerprints of the slaves who made them. Sure enough...

...you can most certainly see the finger impressions. I was completely fascinated by this. What an amazing piece of history.

Look at this one. You can see the impression of almost an entire hand. It's haunting, really. I ran my fingers over the prints and took a minute to think about the slaves whose hands had made them.

We took a few more pictures...

...and then it was time to get back on the ferry so it could depart to go back to shore. All in all, we had about an hour to explore the fort.

Back on the boat, we killed time by playing with the kids. Having had a fairly decent nap in her stroller at the fort, she was in a pretty good mood:

Back at the hotel, we were anxious to find a place to eat and get there so that we could actually get the babies to bed on time tonight. After hemming and hawing over where to go, and ultimately asking the front desk for some recommendations, we ended up at King Street Grille.

GOOD CHOICE. It was exactly what we were in the mood for, and we were welcomed with open arms--babies, strollers, and all. We were seated in a loft section of the restaurant, so we felt out of the way and comfortable there. The food was really good. I had a turkey club on a pretzel roll (holy deliciousness!), Michael had herb-encrusted salmon, Dave had a spicy paella, and Lynsay had a reuben sandwich. The menu offered a nice variety of food, so there was something for everyone, and thankfully, we all enjoyed our selections.

On the walk back to our hotel, we swung by Cupcake, a cupcake bakery. Michael and I picked up a s'mores cupcake and an almond cupcake, while Dave and Lynsay got a s'mores cupcake, a carrot cupcake, and a chocolate cake pop for Gavin. We got them to go so we could let our dinners digest a little bit and get the kids in bed before we enjoyed them.

We stretched Nora's bedtime until we could get the majority of our stuff packed up, as we have to leave for the airport fairly early in the morning. Once we got her in her pajamas and fed her, she went down really easily again. Thank goodness for a baby who has traveled pretty well so far, despite being sick.

We just ate our cupcakes a while ago, and while they were good, I wouldn't call them fantastic. There was SO.MUCH.FROSTING on them (and I am a frosting lover!), we had to scrape off the majority of it. The almond one had really great and distinct almond flavor, but the s'mores one didn't really taste much like s'mores. I couldn't even really pick out a graham cracker-like flavor, either. I actually feel sick to my stomach now, though I can't really blame the cupcakes. I have eaten A LOT of crap today, so it's probably cumulative. Don't get me wrong, it was all delicious, but definitely not healthy! (That's what vacations are for, right?)

We're calling it a night. Hopefully we can get some sleep for our day of traveling tomorrow. Fingers crossed that Nora handles the trip home as well as she did the trip down here!

Read more...

Angel Oak & Folly Beach

First things first: NORA SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! Wheeee! In fact, she slept until after 8:00 a.m. this morning, and probably would've slept longer had we remained quiet. Once we were close to being ready and it started getting close to 8:00, we began to move around the room as normal, actually hoping she would stir because we wanted to get the day started! We were so happy for her to get some sleep, given the circumstances--sick and away from home. She seemed to REALLY not be feeling well this morning, my poor baby.

Once she was up, though, we got her dressed and headed downstairs to meet Dave, Lynsay, and Gavin at breakfast. Shortly after that, we were on the road to the Angel Oak. Again, the drive was around 20-25 minutes, but it was nice because it was a BEAUTIFUL morning.

The Angel Oak is a live oak tree that is more than 1,500 years old. Isn't that crazy?

It was pretty cool to see its huge, sprawling branches.

We stayed for a while, just walking around and snapping lots of photos.

Look how sick she looks. :(

I was squatting down near the ground, taking photos like this:

When suddenly my little girl came into the frame, thanks to Michael lifting her up on that branch. She apparently thought it was a very fun game of peek-a-boo, because look at her smile!

What a goof.

There's not much else to see there, aside from the Angel Oak, so we probably spent maybe 30 minutes there before we got back in the car to head back the way we came. On the way back, though, we took a detour down to Folly Beach.

While it definitely wasn't ideal beach weather, we were perfectly comfortable in our jeans and jackets, so we walked around for quite a while, enjoying the breeze, the water, the sand, and the sunshine. Plus, Nora got to sit in the sand for the very first time.

There were a lot of starfish washed up on the shore!

Before too long, Dave and Lynsay had to head back to the hotel to get G down for his nap, so they left while we stayed behind to enjoy a little more time on the shore.

Once Nora seemed like she had had enough, we packed up and got back into the car.

Our next destination? A Verizon Wireless, so we could pick up a brand new iPhone for Michael. (I am so freaking jealous. I'm not eligible for an upgrade until November! WAHHH!) With the new phone in hand, we headed back to the hotel to meet up with our friends again.

While we were finishing up at Verizon, Dave ordered and picked up a pizza from Sabatino's for all of us to share for lunch. It was the most gigantic pizza I have ever seen. Dave ordered an extra large and it was just that... EXTRA LARGE. It was thin crust, New York style pizza, though, so between the four of us, we were able to handle it. It was really good, but pretty greasy. Nothing a few dozen napkins can't take care of, though! I should've taken a picture of how huge the pizza was (it was hilarious to walk in and see it on Dave and Lynsay's bed), but we were too busy devouring it.

Gavin should be up from his nap any minute, and then we have to rush out of here to go catch a ferry to take a tour of Fort Sumter. More later!

Read more...

Boone Hall Plantation

While we were waiting for Gavin to wake up from his nap this afternoon, Dave and Michael went out to pick up some sandwiches for lunch. They ended up getting them from a place on King Street called Groucho's.

Honestly, I would've expected more for the price. The sandwiches were each around $8, and they were REALLY simple sandwiches--some lunch meat, lettuce, tomato, and condiments between some regular ol' sandwich bread. After we all ate, we said we couldn't complain--there was nothing *wrong* with the sandwiches, but they weren't anything special either. I think we were all kind of "meh" about them. Definitely wouldn't go back there again unless there was no other place to go.

Shortly after we were finished eating, G woke up and we got ready and headed out. We drove to Boone Hall Plantation, which took us about 20 minutes or so to get to from our hotel in the Historic District. The ride took us over the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, which has become a famous landmark in Charleston.

Our admission into Boone Hall Plantation cost us $17.95/person (thankfully, we didn't have to pay anything for the babes). Normally, it includes quite a few tours, exhibits, presentations, etc. but because we were there in the winter, some of them weren't available to us. Still, it was a nice, sunny afternoon so we appreciated the opportunity to walk around outside.

When you drive onto the plantation and toward the plantation house (where the parking is located, too), you drive down "The Avenue of Oaks," which is apparently world famous and the longest row of oaks there is. It was quite pretty and I can only imagine it would be more so in the spring/summer months.

G immediately took to the horses. He saw them when we pulled up, and was OBSESSED with them the rest of the time we were at the plantation. He kept saying (in his little baby way) "HORSES!" over and over and over again, even as we tried to tour other areas of the plantation. It was too cute, but he sure was persistent! :)

We wandered across the Avenue of Oaks to look around the row of slave homes. These are the original brick structures that uses to house slaves back in the day. They are some of just a few slave homes that are still standing, simply because they are made of brick. Most slave homes were made of wood, which obviously deteriorated over time.

There were eight homes on the "street," and each of them contained different exhibits about slave life, their customs, their culture, their history, etc.

I'm about to post some pics of us near the slave homes, and we're smiling... I feel the need to post a disclaimer that we did not take where we were standing lightly. I know I can speak for all of us when I say that we were actually deeply affected by the slave homes. It was chilling to stand inside of them and know that enslaved people used to live there. Honestly, we were all still talking about it tonight. It was a strange feeling.

After we were done learning about the lives of the slaves on the plantation, we walked around a bit more, killing time before the start of the next house tour.

When it was getting close to time for the tour, we walked up toward the house...

While we were waiting, we walked around the side of the house and found this cool looking live oak tree:

Then we looped back around to the front porch for the start of the tour. We didn't take any photos inside the house (they don't allow you to), but it was a really interesting tour. Our guide was dressed for the part, and he was really knowledgeable about the plantation and the history of that era. He also told us about all of the movies and television shows that have been filmed on the plantation--it was surprising, as some of them have absolutely nothing to do with plantations (Like Army Wives. I have no idea what Army Wives uses Boone Plantation for!).

The tour ended on the back patio.

(Nora slept through the tour!)

By the time we wrapped things up, it was after 5:00, and we needed to head back toward downtown Charleston so that we could go grab dinner somewhere and get the kids to bed at a reasonable hour.

Once back at the hotel, we settled on Jestine's Kitchen, and walked down there. It was about 3/4 of a mile from here. It was a little stressful, as there was a wait for a table when we arrived. The place is really small, so we had to wait out on the street, even though it was pretty cold out. Thankfully, the wait wasn't TOO long, but when they finally wanted to seat us, one of the guys who works there was a pretty big jerk about our strollers.

Let me just say that I know strollers are a pain in the ass for servers, and they don't want to get tripped up by them or have the strollers get in the way. HOWEVER, we weren't trying to keep the strollers at our table or anything--all we wanted to do was get to our table where we could get settled, then break down the strollers and get them out of the way. Again, I understand the inconvenience they pose to the people working in the restaurant, but I thought we were being reasonable about them, and the guy could've been more friendly about it.

That was just the start of it, really--we never felt 100% comfortable there. I wouldn't exactly call the place "family friendly," even though it is completely casual in atmosphere.

When we all got our food, I think we were all mostly disappointed. Again, nothing was TERRIBLE, but Lynsay and I both had some kind of fried chicken that was overdone--they had clearly fried it for too long, which made the chicken itself pretty dry, and the breading pretty gross. Also, I ordered green beans as one of my sides, and they were underwhelming. THEY WERE CLEARLY OUT OF A CAN. I'm not even kidding. Perfectly uniform in size, mushy and with no flavor. Ick. Michael and Dave had meatloaf and pork chops, respectively, and I think they were both fairly happy with their meals. Certainly nothing to write home about! I just don't get what the fuss is about, but maybe we missed something. In short, we do not recommend.

By the time we were done with our meals, Nora was really fussy (poor overtired girl!), so we packed up and hit the sidewalks back to the hotel. Once ready for bed, Nora went down really easily tonight--we've had the TV on and have been moving about the room and she hasn't been bothered by it at all. I hope she gets some good sleep tonight... Lord knows she needs it!

Read more...