Day 5 & 6 -- Grand, Grits and Gators!!

Our Charleston lodgings were like most of Charleston -- quite grand! It took great restraint not to get under this chandelier and take a photo -- if my sweet Claire had been with us, she would have!

Upon entering the hotel, some gentlemen were standing in the way of our getting to the registration desk...we had been in the car for a long time and I dearly wanted to get to our room...so, apparently, I assumed my "Obey me, I'm a mama" stance because Wade quickly intercepted me to whisper, "Do you see who that is?" I did not. At least not until I craned my neck up and realized the tall man was the once Chicago Bears-football coach, Dave Wannstedt. I'm pretty sure my Mama-voice would not have intimidated him. 

To help us with our planning for this trip, our boys graciously (and I use that word loosely), watched Man vs. Food on the Travel Channel....the Charleston edition! One of the restaurants that host, Adam, visited was the Hominy Grill. Mason and Benjamin were adamant that we visit...

Undeniably, the Shrimp and Grits on the show looked hard to pass up, so Sunday morning, Wade and I went to The Hominy Grill for brunch...and waited in line for almost an hour and a half!!

But THESE were absolutely worth the wait...every single minute!!

After brunch, we went to visit the aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Yorktown. It was amazing -- enormous and overwhelming in size and story. Wade loved it!

Looking into the surgical room on the Yorktown.

Wandering the streets in Charleston was also delightful -- especially when I found this little reminder of home...

On Monday, we toured the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. Wow. The Drayton family had the foresight to open their gardens to the public right after the Civil War....in an effort to maintain the grounds and provide income to sustain the family! The tour was a well-oiled machine and though it got a bit hot (and humid) in early afternoon, we enjoyed the stroll through history through this family's story.

That is a baby alligator curled up right there...the plantation has some as big as 15 feet long! Thankfully, we didn't run into any of those!

Me...enjoying the gardens!

We are in the airport heading back to our children right now. Our time away has been exactly what we hoped -- refreshing, relaxing and a time to renew as we celebrated our 20 years together and dreamed about the next 20.

And just "being" with my husband was undeniably the best blessing of the week!