Sunday, December 30, 2018

A Charleston Christmas and a Savannah Birthday!

In the past 5 years we have spent Christmases in Salt Lake City Utah, Quartzsite Arizona (x2), San Antonio Texas and now Charleston South Carolina! By far our least favorite Christmas location. Not because of the town, oh that is very charming, it was the RV Park we stayed at. Lake Aire RV Park just on the outskirts of southern Charleston was our top pick for two reasons; 1) they had an opening and 2) they were Passport America members. So at $23 a night (water/electric) we booked 3 nights over Christmas. 

But before arriving there we spent 2 nights at Myrtle Beach State Park exploring that area. This was a nice park ($30/night with W/E/S) and the first area we have been in since leaving Pennsylvania that the campground was crowded.
Site 298 was perfect for us!

Dakota loved chasing the pigeons on the beach!


Myrtle Beach State Park Fishing Pier in the background

We spent two days walking the beach with the dogs. There were more people on the beaches but not enough to make it feel crowded.
The city of Myrtle Beach was really not our kind of area. WAY too touristy! Restaurants, hotels and shops everywhere. I could not imagine that area during peak season. We did partake in one of the many seafood buffets. The Original Benjamins Calabash Seafood Buffet came highly recommended by Jessica and Shane who were ate there a couple of years ago. The normal price is $40 per person but they were running a promotion where you could get $1 off for each canned good brought in and donated up to 30 cans so at $25/person it was definitely a bargain! We did not try all 170 items on the buffet, we pretty much just stuck to crab, shrimp and other seafood delights. We walked out of there stuffed and definitely got our monies worth!

Then it was on to Charleston and Lake Aire RV Park. We had received a call on our way down saying that the office would be closed for the next two days but they were going to post our site number on the door. True to their word, there was a map directing us to our site right on the door. We weaved our way through all the other rigs and turned the corner where we got the first view of our site. They must have thought we were royalty as what we saw was an island of a pad totally surrounded by 2-3 inches of water! We had our own moat around our site! 
We looked around and there were a few other sites open but none were any better. Looks like we will be swamp-camping for the next few days! If you are in the area, I would definitely skip this park and find one on a little higher ground.
We did not have a lot on our list for this area. Our main adventure was exploring the town and taking in the architecture of the buildings. We headed down to the French Quarter which was filled with restaurants, churches and old homes. 

Most of these buildings were built in the mid 1700's. We would pass house after house that said "Built in 1737, built in 1738, built in 1740". Many houses and churches had placards stating they were built in that decade. It really got me wondering what the city must have looked like back then. The entire city must have been under construction as these buildings took a long time to build!
These functioning gas lanterns were pretty cool

The ironwork on this building was incredible


Some of these markers dated back into the 1700's!


Think of the work that went into building these
US Customs Building

USS Yorktown
Whoever owns this did not have a good day
We had hoped to visited Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter but both were closed due to the government shutdown. Maybe next time. 

We tried two restaurants; Pearlz Oyster Bar and The Oyster House. Pearlz was awesome! The other restaurant, not so much. 

On Christmas Eve we spent a 1/2 hour trying to get a family photo using the camera's delayed shutter setting and a tripod. We must have taken 20 or more pictures but none of them were worthy. The best one we got was my test shot with just Barb and the dogs. For some reason when I entered the picture everything went to pot. 
So then we tried with just the dogs.....
Barb setting up the shot!

This is the best one we got
Christmas morning arrived and the dogs were excited to see what Santa brought! Well, one of the dogs was. Since this was Daisy's 11th Christmas, she knew the drill. Dakota on the other hand was not so sure, although she knew something exciting was going on she would sniff the stocking and run in her crate, sniff and run, sniff and run. Daisy on the other hand tore right into hers (and Dakotas)!

I smell something yummy in there!
Got it!
There was a mixture of treats and toys in each of their stockings. As Daisy would open each of the toys Dakota would emerge from her crate, steal the toy and retreat back into her crate. This scenario played out 4 times until Dakota had all the toys in her crate!


I got all the toys!
Later, once all the toys were evenly distributed they started to play with them.
She's watching Dakota who is waiting to steal her toy
What did Barb and I get for Christmas? All my gifts were house related where I got some tools we needed to work on the house while Barb got a pair of slippers and a food chopper she wanted. 
No spotting scope :(
On the 27th we drove 2 1/2 hours south to Savannah Georgia. Well, actually Hinesville to Happy Campers RV Park that was recommended by Shawn and Kim (Shifting Gears), blogger friends who had stayed here while they were in the area. This is a great park, full hookups, $21/night with Passport America. Most of the sites are filled with fulltime military residents and have really large yards.  
Our Happy Acres site

We had a variety of activities on our list for this area but once again the rain hampered our plans. We made good use of our time sending out bid requests for our lumber, windows, as well as our steel siding and roof. Yikes, looks like we need to both find fulltime jobs again!
The dogs are chill'in while Barb has blueprints spread everywhere.....
We did, however, make it out to walk the Historic District of Savannah one day.

Sherman's headquarters

Georgia Volunteers Monument

Moss and Ivy covered the trees


Of course we had to stop by Leopold's Ice Cream!


Savannah Cotton Exchange
I was expecting it to be a lot like Charleston but it was actually quite a bit different. They both had some unique church and home architecture but Savannah also had a lot of statues, monuments and a nice park to walk around. Both were interesting in their own right.

Our final full day in Savannah was a big day as it is my birthday! We are going to celebrate it watching football and having a crab leg dinner. Life is good! 


32 comments:

  1. Pretty inconsiderate that campground didn’t mention your site was flooded out. Daisy and Dakota don’t look too happy posing for their Christmas pictures. Happy belated birthday Jim! 🎂🎉🍾 and Happy New Year!

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    1. Ya, Dakota did not like the Christmas antlers too much. Daisy lets you do pretty much anything to her. Happy New Years to you too!

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  2. Happy birthday!!! The weather looks nice compared to the -12 and 8 inches of new snow we have at the farm. Too bad you're not still at the farm, we have several shovels here that miss you. Happy new year too!

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    1. Thanks Bob! Those shovels will just have to wait, those are just warm weather shovels!

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  3. Love the doggie pics! It always amazes me (Sue) how every animal has a unique personality--they really are just like kids! Best wishes for a happy, healthy, prosperous 2019.

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    1. Daisy definitely rules the roost around here while Dakota just goes with the flow.....

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  4. Happy Birthday Jim. Sorry you had a terrible campsite, especially with two dogs. What a potential mess inside the trailer. lol With the rain at least you had plenty of time to work on procuring stuff for your build. When do you start?

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    1. Very true, if you noticed there was an orange towel inside Dakota's crate. That is to wipe off her feet every time she came back in from outside, her paws were a mess!

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  5. We totally loved Savannah, but when we got to Charleston, we just holed up in the rig. There was a heatwave, taxes were due and we had laundry piling up. It's funny how life gets in the way of adventuring. Now Charleston is back on our list to revisit someday. Happy New Year to you guys and the pups, and Happy Birthday, Jim!

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    1. Thanks Linda! Speaking of taxes, Charleston has a 12% "hospitality tax" added to short term stays so that added a few bucks to the bill.

      Happy New Year to you and Steve!

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  6. Bummer on the campground! We liked Charleston more than Savanah. Had a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner there. Looks like doggies enjoyed their presents. Happy New Year to you both!

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    1. They certainly had some great restaurants in Charleston. We have heard from some who liked Charleston better and some who liked Savannah better. For us it was a toss up.

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  7. Cute Christmas Pictures.
    Savannah was built in districts and many of the Older Homes that did not survive were replaced with new Homes that had to meet the Architectural designs of the Neighbourhood. All the Statues have special significance.
    Did you visit the Dueller's Cemetery? Even though considered Illegal People settled their differences in the Cemetery at dawn, with only one leaving.
    Fulltime RVing can be as costly as owning a House. I'm considering a Part-time Job.
    Happy Birthday Jim!
    Be Safe and Enjoy exploring the eastern coast.

    It's about time.

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    1. We did not visit Dueller's cemetery but that certainly is an interesting tidbit about it!

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  8. Happy birthday, Jim! Hope you celebrated by watching the Lions beat that Wisconsin team! Should have told you to avoid Lake Aire. We saw the reviews and cancelled. Paid a bundle at the KOA, but it was on high ground. :)

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    1. Just need the Vikings to beat the Bears but that is not looking good!

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  9. Lake Aire was OK for us but certainly not great. Glad that Happy Camper worked out better.

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    1. It would not have been bad if it was dry but the wet combined with the dogs made it miserable.

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  10. Happy Birthday Jim. Good pictures, glad to see you finally had sunshine and beaches. After living in FL, we'd been to those areas several times, so much to see there and still more. Safe travels into FL. When do you think you'll start your build in SD?

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    1. We have no idea when we will start ours, we have to get Kevin's built first. Hopefully sometime early to mid summer?

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  11. Hope you enjoyed a great birthday and got spoiled.
    We agree about Myrtle Beach. Very touristy. We loved Savannah. Lots of tourists too of course but the history there was amazing.
    We've been lucky to miss most of the rain so far, but we head to Alabama on the 2nd and they've been getting deluged for a month now.

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    1. Make sure you get some of those gulf shrimp when you are in Alabama, they are delicious!

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  12. Once you got the rig parked, you must have stayed inside since it looks like no one could get out. What a mess! If you should return to Myrtle Beach again someday, look at staying in North Myrtle. Much quieter and not touristy. Great beaches. I loved all the dog photos. Makes for a great post:) Happy Belated Birthday, Jim! Happy New Year to all four of you!

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    1. We had to carry Daisy in and out of the rig because she is a princess and does not like to walk in mud. Dakota on the other hand is part swine and loves the mud! We had to wipe her paws off every time she would come back in.

      Happy New Year to you guys as well!

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  13. We agree that Myrtle Beach is way too touristy, we were there last in '96 and it was crazy then. I'm glad they knew royalty was arriving but they should have added a draw bridge for you to cross. Dave loves his DeWalt tools, sure sounds like you'll have a busy summer. Happy Belated Birthday!!!

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    1. Well if he knows how to use those DeWalt tools you guys should come to SD this summer! Did I mention there is free beer?!?!

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  14. Looks like you enjoyed some interesting architecture. They sure don't build'm like that anymore. How exciting to start getting everything lined up for your build. Hope you had a great birthday and wishing you guys a very happy, adventure filled New Year!

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    1. Thanks, Happy New Year to you and Al as well. Hope to meet up with the Lowe's in early February!

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  15. Happy birthday Jim hope you have a good day. Isn't Savannah a cool town, lots to see and do. But the whole East Coast is crowded compared to west of the Mississippi River. Hope you have a great 2019. Save travels Rick

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    1. I am sure by the end of this trip we will be tired of all the people.....Happy New Year to you and Maxine!

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  16. Have a happy birthday and a great New Year! Love your blog stories!

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