We woke up to a gorgeous and sunny day on Friday. We definitely planned to hit one of the beaches at some point during the day, but Melayna had also asked to walk back to a couple of the alleyways that we had explored earlier in the week and have the last of her senior pictures taken there. While she was getting ready for that, Noel pulled up a travel site from online and found that there were actually eight "must see" alleyways in Charleston that you could get to as part of a self-directed walking tour, so we headed out to view the city of Charleston one last time.
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It's hard to believe, but our 13 year old will be as tall as his Daddy in no time, and I think I realized that for the first time when I saw them walking side by side. Nolan has grown several inches this past year and he's no longer the smallest person in our family.
We did tour several of the alleys on the walking tour and it also led us past several more historic churches or cemeteries in the city.
I think this was St Michaels Church - but unfortunately, all of the doors were locked so we weren't able to go inside.
And then we were able to go inside the French Heugonot Church. We had gone inside to look around and there was a gentleman who was a volunteer walking around and answering any questions that visitors may have. As we were leaving, he approached us and asked if we needed anything. Then he asked where we were from and when we mentioned that we had come from Indiana, he told us that he was also originally from Indiana...from a town called Zionsville. Of course we are very familiar with that town due to our time in sports so we chatted about the area for a while. Then Noel asked him how he came to SC and why he chose that church to volunteer in and he said that during the Civil War, many peaceful Heugonots fled the south and came to Indiana to avoid the reach of the war. Those people and their kids permanently settled there in Indiana and established new churches and Indiana has some of the biggest Heugonot churches in the US still to this day. This man and his wife lived in Indiana until about six years ago when they retired and moved south and he says that they love it there so much, they won't ever return to Indiana.
On our tour of the alleys, one of the final walkways brought us out beside another of the historic churches. Although we weren't able to get inside to see it, we walked right through the cemetery and all of the older and damaged gravesites.
We finished by walking through Philadelphia or the Dueling Alley one last time, and Melayna took a couple of her pictures in there due to the brick path, the bright flowers and a couple of colorful buildings.
And then a couple more pictures of the beautiful architecture all over the city.
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I'll post a couple of Melayna's pictures in a separate post, but behind the scenes, Nolan kept us laughing with his silly antics. He was definitely ready to be done with all of the walking.
As we were finishing up Melayna's photo session, Noel made arrangements with Doug to meet him and his family for lunch one last time before we left town. We hurried home to change clothes and then we drove over to their favorite diner and had a great lunch with them. Melayna's little best friends were certainly happy to see her again and they wanted to sit right beside her. When we finally said our good-byes, they kept telling her good-bye over and over and then as they were driving away, we heard "by Laynie" and they were waving to her from their backseat.
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We hadn't decided which beach we wanted to go to, but since we were already over by Mt Pleasant, I suggested that we go to Sullivan's Beach and so we drove over that direction. Unfortunately, since it was already later in the afternoon, it was almost impossible to find a place to park. The parking lots were all charging over $25 to park and all of the off street parking was backed up for a mile or so away from the beach. We were talking about whether it was really worth it to pay for the parking when I remembered that Doug had given me the name of a quiet neighborhood that also had free beach parking and the beach would also be a lot less crowded. We drove about seven miles north and found the perfect isolated spot.
We set up our towels on the beach and headed down to the water but WOW, the water was surely freezing! Noel and I were definitely NOT getting in to swim. But a little cold never stopped Melayna and Nolan so they went out and battled the waves until they were cold and worn out and ready to call it a day.
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As we were leaving the beach, Nolan asked if we were anywhere close to the park and we took a slight detour so that he could finish out his week at one of his favorite places. The sun was going down quickly so he didn't have a lot of time to play before the park closed, but as it turned out, it was just long enough for him to get stuck. What a fun way to end the week!!
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Noel and I had hoped to end our week at Shem's Creek like we did five years ago but we also wanted Nolan to have time to enjoy his favorite things, so we played at the park longer and then it was too late to catch the sunset at the Creek. We did get home just as the sun was setting and so while the kids were eating dinner, Noel and I walked to the end of the road where we could get as much of the sunset as possible. It wasn't "Shem's Creek" but it was still a peaceful way to finish out our week.
We woke up on Saturday morning and left the house by 7:00 so that we could get on the road to head back home. We hit road construction just outside Asheville, NC and actually sat at a dead stop for over 35 minutes (and that is where I almost peed my pants for sure!!), but thankfully we made it to a gas station right at the last minute...and then made it safely all the way home.
Praise the Lord for another great week together. It's not lost on me that this may have been the last year that Melayna will join us over spring break, so I am happy for the time that we did have and the fun memories that were made.
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