About a month and a half ago, my best friend and I realized that we had been friends for 10 years. For a military kid, moving from state-to-state every few years (or months in some cases) this was a huge feat for me. Having a constant friend for 10 years seemed like something to celebrate, and as we had both moved recently and hadn't seen each other in a while, we decided to do something about it. Less than two days later, she was flying from Seattle to Raleigh, and we both had some ideas up our sleeves on what to do for what we dubbed our "friendiversary."
We originally planned to hang out in DC or New York, but since May had never been down to the real south, we decided to head down to Charleston and Savannah.
When planning our trip, we came across a Samantha Brown episode, where she spent the weekend in the very same cities, so we took a page out of her book and planned to visit some of the places she did while visiting the south.
Even coming from California, we were shocked at all the fireworks werehouses. We passed at least 5 of these on our way down to Charleston.
In downtown Charleston, we found the best burger EVER. (They also had the best fried pickles I've ever had, a southern delicacy you must try.)
We found a great pier along the waterfront. We had a great view of the bay, the reeds, and the boats.
Couldn't resist snapping some pics of May along the cobblestone streets of Charleston.
On the waterfront, near the Aquarium.
We were so excited! As we were snapping pictures along the waterfront, this dolphin just swam up beside us. It was the coolest!
The regal bald eagle at the aquarium. I had never seen a bald eagle before. This was our favorite part of the aquarium experience.
This was one of the many alligators at the aquarium. This one was probably 6 feet long.
After spending our evening in Charleston, we drove down to Savannah for the night. In the morning, we drove out to Tybee Island, where we saw a beautiful lighthouse, found a secret trail leading to a private beach, and found the retirement home we want to go to when we're old biddies!
After Tybee Island, we returned to Savannah to check out some of the local places. One included the Honey Shop, which we saw on Samantha Brown. This is the best little shop! They carry a variety of honey products, ranging from grilling honey to lotion to honeycomb and cheese appetizers.
We also visited St. Vincent Cathedral, which was built in the mid 1800's. It was truly the most beautiful building I've stepped foot in. It makes me want to visit Europe to see some of the truly old cathedrals there.
While in Savannah, we also did a cemetery tour (which I'll post separately one of these days) and walked along the riverfront to find a genuine, southern restaurant to eat at. Around twilight, we began the 5 hour trip back to Sanford. Along the way, we kept seeing all of these billboards for a place called Fort Pedro, which advertised the biggest mini golf course in the state. As we reached Fort Pedro, though, it looked more like Vegas, with neon signs running down the main drag of the town. It even had a huge tower in the shape of a sombrero. We turned in, interested to see what the hype was all about, only to find that it was mostly motels and seedy diners. It struck a strange cord, and we couldn't help but take some pictures of it!
All in all, it was a great weekend, filled with laughter and friendship. Happy friendiversary, friend
