Dad's visit

Over the English half term holiday my dad came to visit us.  He had initially planned to come in the summer, but his knee would not allow it.  So we were limited to a one week trip.  Boy, did we pack a lot in!

My dad flew in on Saturday afternoon to Charlotte.  I picked him up from the airport. It is nice now their new hourly parking garage is open.  Most convenient.  I drove him back to ours, as you can imagine he was pretty tired, though we enjoyed a dinner of Papa John, and the boys were very pleased to see him.

Sunday, we awoke fairly early.  We took a drive up towards Ashville. I have been desperate to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway, as I have heard many great things.  This was our 3rd attempt, and the road was open.  We were fortunate to choose this time of year to go now.  The fall foliage was outstanding.

So beautiful.  And also busy.  We took a scenic drive south, back towards Greenville, before turning off at Brevard 

We came across a stunning waterfall just before we left the parkway

We enjoyed a little walk by it, then headed back into Greenville to treat dad to a Five Guys for lunch.  By then it was about 3 pm, and we were all starving!

I wanted to take my dad somewhere different this time as it is probably the last time he will be here while we live here.  On Monday I dropped the kids at school before heading down to the coast.  Although we had done Charleston in a day trip before when we stayed at McClenanville, I had never been with out the kids.  

We headed to Boone Hall Plantation first.  I had heard many awesome things about this place, and it didn't disappoint.  We took a tour of the house, then looked at the slave shacks.  Learning the history of this state both enthrals and appalls me in equal measure.  The grounds are amazing too.  It is still a working farm, though most of their crops were wiped out by the recent flooding.

A beautiful place, Boone Hall is certainly worth it's $20 entrance fee.  The kids might even like it too next time! 

From there we drove through Mount Pleasant, over the Arthur Ravenel Bridge and headed towards the hotel.  I had booked us a twin room at the King Charles Inn.  The hotel did not disappoint.  We had a great evening, and went out for probably the best wine and steak combination I have had in a very long time.  This was followed by a delicious dessert and cocktail.  

We had planned to go to Fort Sumter the next morning.  It rained steadily all night and we walked to the ferry port to get the boat.  Except it was cancelled! The Fort was under water, as was the dock.  It was very wet.....  We headed back into Charleston towards the market.  But that wasn't set up yet as it was too early.  So we went for a carriage ride instead.  This was excellent.  We were entertained by a delightful driver who gave us the ins and outs of the history of Charleston and some of its buildings, all the while missing the major flooding.  Charleston is used to flooding, so by the time the carraiage ride finished, most of the water around the market had gone.  But the weather had kept away a lot of vendors also, and we couldn't find anything we really liked.  We bit the bullet and headed back to the car, and back up to Greenville, only stopping to pick up a quick snack.

We arrived home at the same time as the boys and Paul. We went out for dinner to Carolina Ale House, which everyone enjoyed.  The boys were most insistent on sitting with grand dad.

Wednesday we went for lunch with Isaac at his school.  Dad loved this.  Being able to see inside his school was good.  Seeing the way it operates compared to Oliver's was an eye opener for me.  

After this, it was on to some shopping.  Dad took me into Golfsmith.  Definitely a shop I have never ever been in, but interesting all the less.  For him, that is......

Dad was keen to get something for the boys.  Obviously he sends them gifts for Christmas and birthdays, but he doesn't get to spoil them. We we're initially going to take them to toys r us, but we remembered how torturous it is to get 3 small boys to decide on things they want with price limits.  There is a Hot Wheels garage that they ALL WANTED.  to get a toy that they all want is rare.  It is large, so certainly not something they can have one each of. The price was right on it, so we got it for them.

Their faces when they saw it was awesome.  They truly love it.  We have been looking for a good toy car garage for a while.  Finally there is a decent one on the market, after going through more than 5 not so perfect ones.

Thursday was conference day for Oliver.  He is doing fine.  His teachers only complaint is that he needs to choose to read a greater variety of books.  He likes the comic ones like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Big Nate. I can live with that!   We dragged Oliver up to Gaffney to go shopping at the outlets.  He was not pleased but he put up with it. A few bargains were found.  Dad had specific things he was looking for, and he managed to find them.

Friday Sebastian was off school. Dad stayed home with Seb while I took the other boys to school.  Then it was on to more shopping! We went to the mall then into downtown Greenville.  Dad loves downtown.  That evening we went out for a nice meal.

It was awesome having dad here.  We did lots of chatting and catching up.  We speak weekly anyway, but it was nice to have him here.  Don't think he could quite get his head around the amount of running around we do, or the amount of time and effort that it takes to care for 3 crazy Children! A week was too short, and sad to think he will probably be our last visitor.  The boys miss they grand parents a lot.  But we know it is not forever.  This time next year we will be back in the UK, and seeing them will be a lot easier! 

I took grandad to the airport on Halloween.  He missed all the fun of trick and treat.  I did a lot of driving the week he was here, and I certainly felt tired for it! 

USS Yorktown, Charleston, waterpark

So we awoke early (thanks boys...) and eager for our next days adventures.  We left our friends at the house and headed towards Charleston.

Top Gun plane

We had already decided to visit Patriots Point.  This is an area of Charleston harbor which is home to various American Navy ships and aircraft. You can also get a boat to Fort Sumter from here.  We parked up, suncreamed the boys and headed in. We decided to let Seb walk, using his bat reins, as getting the buggy around could have been difficult.  It was reasonably priced, and as we had 3 small ones we even managed to hitch a ride on a golf cart from the entrance to the ship itself.  USS Yorktown was big.  Everything was really well laid out as a museum.  It is only when you start learning about these things, as a foreigner, that you come to realize just how much military action the US has seen.  We spent a good couple of hours exploring this huge aircraft carrier, and barely scratched the surface.  By lunch time the boys and I were beginning to wilt, in need of food we headed back to dry land.  On our way out, we stopped in the Vietnam Support Base.  Again, this is a war I know very little about, it is before my time, and not really relevant to British history, so it is not studied in depth at school (I did WWI, WWII and the bit in between for my GCSE history).  I would love to learn more about it.  I am finding that the longer I am here, the more I want to know about world affairs, not just an islands past present and future.

Lunchtime

From there we headed into Charleston.  We traveled down to the very base of the city, and had a drive round.  Having driven through the historic area of Georgetown on out way to Myrtle Beach, we knew what to expect.  Only this was on a larger, grander scale.  People have told us that one of the reasons Charleston has so many old historic houses is due to the poverty that was abundant after the Civil War.  This prevented people from knocking down houses and building afresh.  Instead they had to 'make do and mend'.  The South Carolina Historical Society have played a big part in this.  They hold open days at various times of the year to different houses and gardens.  Not something my boys would put up with....  We found somewhere to park (yes, even in historic Charleston we found a multistory), and walked till we found a place we deemed suitable for the kids.  So we ended up in an Irish pub, Molly Darcy's.  It was quiet, we were given a seat by the table football, which the boys loved, and we were all starving (If I remember, I will blog about this on Feeding Goslings).  We left via the back door, and stumbled across the area where they keep all the horse and carriages.  The boys loved seeing the animals, but we deemed the rides themselves a little expensive (and boring for boys).

Customs House

So we kept walking and stumbled upon the City Market.  We must have entered it from about half way back down towards main street.  It was heaving, so busy.  It was hard to stop and look at anything.  In between the buildings were roads, which the horse and carriages were using. As we headed towards main street, the items for sale became more touristy.  We exited opposite Customs House.

One big boat

In the water behind, we could see a huge cruise liner.  We headed towards the water, passing a freight train, full of BMW X5's. We walked towards the Waterfront Park, which like most city parks here, had a water feature the boys could run around in.  We got them down to their pants, but they are a pair of chickens, and after 5 minutes standing on the edge, it was time to redress them and move on.  By now it was really hot.  We had seen a couple of water parks advertised locally so headed to try one out.

On the way to Splash Island, Sebastian finally fell asleep.  We paid our state park entrance fee, and headed to the water park.  Parked up, put Seb in the buggy, where he went back to sleep.  The boys got changed, I sat on a lounger while Seb slept and the others played in the water.  It had clouded over, but it was still really hot.  Seb must have slept for an hour before waking up and realizing where he was.  All the boys loved this place, and really didn't want to leave.  So much so, that we were the last paying customers out of the park.  We headed back to the house for a final evening with our friends, before going our separate ways the next morning.

We had to leave very early the next morning, as Oliver had his end of year pool party at a friends house.  After driving part of the way home, I was very tired, and the weather was looking pants.  We managed to persuade him to stay at home, and go to the pool instead.  Bad mummy alert, but I was very relieved.  We spent the afternoon vegging around the house, relaxing and watching 'Wreck it Ralph' for the umpteenth time.....