Day 5

After a good nights rest by all, we are up and ready to hit the city of Charleston.

Mel and I hit the workout pool and gym respectively, and then come back and get cleaned up to hit the city.

By 10 we are ready to get going. Our family and Tea go to the Aquarium while Mel and Kayla begin walking around the city.   They start out by hitting the Cooper River Bridge. (pics later)

 We park and get to looking.

 We see a cool Lemur exhibit. Spend a decent amount of time there watching them play and eat.

 Then a few other things including some lizards...

 A snake..

 and some crazies in a car.

The girls were nervous to go see the walking alligator, so I had persuade them, by shaking his hand first.

 We got to pet a few reptiles.

 

We check out the eagle section. Always nice to see the mighty Bald Eagle, even when he is all caged up. (Much like America)

 This little guy was cute and singing for us.

Finally we checkout the crocks and the huge 42 foot tank.

We do get to see a barn owl. This was the boy's favorite of all.

They do the hurricane machine. 

So far so good. It is getting to lunch and this is where things get a bit hairy. Mel calls us and lets us know they are sitting down to eat. I check out the cafe and it is small and a bit busy. So I look at the GPS and see a few places close.

We start walking and by this time it is getting close to 90 degress and pretty high humidity with very little breeze. It is only .3 miles to the spot.  We get there and it is closed down. So we look around for a min, and find a building to hang out. We are all very hungry, hot, sweaty and without sun-screen or water.

We see Mel drive by and we give her a call. We decide to walk back to the car and drive somewhere to eat.  Mel stops by and picks up Elijah and Tea. They start driving to find something for those two. We finally make it back to the van, a hot mess, and continue our lunch trek. I am getting hungry and in desperate need of a cold one(or two)

Mel tells us they are on King St and are going to subway. We agree to meet them. After struggling to find a place to park anywhere close, I settle on another garage, .1 mile away. Did I say I am not a big fan of downtown....

On the walk to Subway we pass a few other places. I see a nice quiet spot with no one in. I let Mel know we are going there instead...

They have a nice food selection and some great IPAs. I think we all downed 2 glasses of water and ate every bit of food. The spirits are lifting my spirit and the food has given us some renewed energy. (We would need it later).

After eating we try to find the Children's Museum. We have been there before and it is a nice place to kill a few hours and let the kids play around. After driving for 30 mins, and getting nowhere, even with a map and GPS, we give up and find a place to park and walk around.

We start walking and looking at the old city. MAN it is HOT, but we do have sunscreen on now, so I am not too worried. We check out the meeting spot on Meeting St, where they have some shady trees and a water fountain to play in. We stay there for a bit and I scope out nearby stuff.

After a quick trip down the street I find the Charleston Museum, a few blocks away. I go back and get the car, and move it closer, Kris meets me at the Museum.

It is just past 4 and as we walk in the lady at the counter informs me that they close at 5, and takes a quick look at our numbers and says it will be $30 to come in. I almost instantly say YES, but I do ask if they have some cold water, she points me to the gift shop. I pay the money, I would have paid just about anything to get out of the sun and into some cool air. And we check out the gift shop then look around.

 Our serious faces.

They girls play in a little old fashion house, they do some checkers and dress-up. I find a quiet corner, and lay my head down. I doze in and out for the next 20 mins. Molly keeps bringing me some tea and other food, I only catch about 1/2 of it. Before I know it they announce over the load speaker it is time to go.

Back into the hot sun, but only for a minute or so back to the car. Our final spot in Charleston is Fleet Landing for dinner.

Meanwhile Mel and her gang have been sight seeing all over Charleston.  They see the Cooper River Bridge, The Old Slave Market,  The Battery, and The Street Market.

Mel calls just as we get in the car and tell us she is there and is getting us a spot.  I once again look for parking. Blah, I am not liking downtown (have I said that before?).  Finally I do find a meter that only needs 1800 seconds until the parking restrictions are over.

We sit down at Fleet Market and have a nice meal with a cool view of the Atlantic Ocean.

After dinner I drop Smooch Face off at the market (Mel will pick her up and bring her back) and I put the little girls down to bed.

They get back and we just relax a bit and prepare for the influx of guests tomorrow.

Sleep..............