Jarrett
Most Obnoxious Member 2016
So every year for vacation my family typically does a southeastern park and spends most of our time in a southern coastal town. We've done Carolina Beach, Outer Banks, and Rehobeth Beach, but Charleston is our favorite and this was our fifth time there. We left home for Dollywood first, so this TR picks up on the one I posted in Trip Reports for Dollywood and Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster.
After I got to experience my very first alpine coaster, we left for Charleston. We had a very twisty drive through the Smoky Mountains ahead of us.
At least it was a gorgeous drive.
But I was still plenty bored.
We had to travel through Maggie Valley, home to the infamous Cherokee, North Carolina, or Ratchet Gatlinburg as we called it. Cherokee is the home of a Native American reservation, but there are a lot of really bad tourist traps set up around it that make Pigeon Forge look classy. We saw a Native American performer in full costume drinking from a can of Red Bull the size of my forearm, numerous things that didn't look safe, the like.
I thought they'd build the coaster before building a hotel themed to it.
We passed this cred at some kiddie park called Santa's Land. However, in the interest of time, the fact that my parents think counting creds is a scam (I'm as confused as you are about this), and the fact that the park didn't look open nor did it look safe, we just drove on by. An RCDB investigation upon arrival at the hotel confirmed that this was a powered Zamperla kiddie cred called Rudicoaster. The whole thing looked like a ghetto version of Holiday World but I'd still like to nab the cred if I'm ever back in the area.
A stare down with my sister's stuffed Deadmau5 toy ensued.
Yeah...after getting out of the mountains it gets pretty boring.
And then we got to Charleston. After my mom figured out she booked us in a hotel in a dangerous part of town we switched from Holiday Inn to a Courtyard. This was our new view...not bad if I must say so myself.
This is someone's backyard.
We went out to get dinner after this. The sunset over the city was gorgeous and I got this picture.
Totally random selfie in the middle of the sidewalk. Because I could.
We ate at a southern place downtown called Amen Street. This was our third time going there, but apparently we had missed that they have a guitar signed by country/pop singer Darius Rucker (also known as Hootie from Hootie and the Blowfish). I honestly think country is my least favorite genre by a long shot but some of it I can stand, Rucker's stuff included.
Got yellow tilefish served over a corn chowder that was really good. My mom's was better, though. She got it cooked in coconut milk.
The next day we walked out to breakfast at a place called Virginia's on King. I had fried green tomatoes and shrimp over grits topped with an egg for breakfast. Afterwards, the family wanted to go get pedicures. I'm not a pedicure guy by any means so I went back to the hotel.
Got another nice shot of a church walking through the park.
Afterwards we went out to look at some architecture.
Love this shot!
Wouldn't mind having that tree in my backyard.
I like the brick houses more than the non-brick ones.
Ever get to that point where your neighbors annoy the **** out of you to the point where you grow giant hedges around your house to keep them the **** out?
I would love this shot a lot more...had someone not left that trash can there!
Or if you have more stupidity tolerance than I do, just build a gate. That way you can keep them out but can still see what's going on.
After that we went to South Battery, a nice oceanfront neighborhood full of nice expensive houses.
There's fishing right across the street if you live here.
Love the owl on this one.
Two very nice houses here.
I typically don't like southern architecture but I love the large windows here.
This is what's known as a Charleston Single. It's designed to be small and compact so you can fit a lot onto Charleston's peninsula and it's shaped like a wind tunnel to keep it cool in the summer. I like the little bay window thing and the color on this one.
The Battery is home to Battery Park. Not sure exactly what it is but it had a lot of live oaks and war monuments of the nature. Nabbed a few pictures but this is the only one I really love.
I loved this house!
Yet another one I really like.
This was a pretty big one, probably cost as much as a small wooden coaster.
Not a bad driveway. Not a bad driveway at all.
The hotel concierge directed us to this church saying there were good photo ops to be had.
We were also directed to Philadelphia Alley, told it was gorgeous. One of the biggest disappointments of the trip.
Found a few huge spiders on the other side.
We then went to my favorite lunch place in Charleston, Fleet Landing!
We ate on the water.
These **** annoying birds were called greckles. We were told dessert was on them if we caught one.
Covered fishing pier? Not a bad idea.
Yup, best shrimp & grits in Charleston!
We went to Market Street afterwards, which is full of cool crafts and the like. I was tempted to buy this record converted into a bowl but decided it wasn't worth $16.
I have got to know what was wrapped around this palmetto.
After a bit of rest back at the hotel we went to a place called S.N.O.B. for dinner.
Standing for Slightly North of Broad, the restaurant's name is ironic. Typically, everything south of Broad Street is expensive (that's where the Battery is) and everything north of Broad Street is less expensive, or not snobbish. Here I have the shrimp & grits I ordered. Despite being ranked one of the top 10 dishes in the world, I still like Fleet Landing's better.
Had this nice banana cream pie for dessert. I really liked it, but the banana pudding at Peninsula Grille is better I think. I make Key Lime Pie, though, and through this I know the graham cracker crust I got was fresh. You can get by with a store bought one, but a hand made one really stands out and makes the dish great.
The next day we were up at the crack of dawn to go to Magnolia Plantation. The concierge told us that the house and gardens were **** so we just did the swamp wildlife encounter.
Into the swamp!
Saw NO wildlife behind the gate, but I heard a few bullfrogs in the cattails.
#SwampSelfie
Saw a few birds in a tree a little further back.
I want to come back here with a better camera someday...
I don't know what this thing was but I didn't want it near me.
There were a few nice flowers randomly growing in the swamp.
There was also a little African American cemetery in the swamp. Nabbed a few pictures.
Love this flower shot I got!
There were these little wooden things sticking out of the swamp. Not sure what they were, but the Ohioan in me thought they looked like cornhole boards. Whatever they were, we saw a turtle and an alligator sitting on this one and another bird in the tree.
That turtle is huge...
Such a gorgeous place...
A little bit up the swamp we saw an alligator VERY close to the path! No fence between us or him, poking him with a stick was probably a no go.
Me with the alligator!
Bird in a tree.
On the way back there was a bird really close to the path and another alligator. This should be in National Geographic...
And the bird's alligator friend!
Some nice vanishing perspective work from me here.
I wanted to photograph this building and maybe make it black and white...but I was NOT going in there! XD
On our way out we saw this family and nicely told them where all the wildlife was. As soon as we mentioned alligators...the mom FLIPPED!!! As if she didn't know she was visiting a swamp! XD
After that we went to Charleston Tea Plantation, the only operating tea plantation in North America.
I'm not a tea guy but I thought I'd try some of theirs during the factory tour.
First they put the tea on this contraption called a withering bed and let it get some of the water out of the tea leaves.
Then it goes into this thing, called a rotovane, that grinds it all up.
The last piece of machinery we saw was this oxidization bed. Not sure how oxidation works but for black tea, it oxidizes for 50 minutes. For oolong tea, it oxidizes for 15. For green tea, steam is administered on the withering bed to keep it from oxidizing at all. Yes, all three come from the same leaf.
Afterwards they dry it, sort all the pieces of stem and the like out of it, and package it. American Classic Tea, their brand of tea, is supposed to go nationwide sometime short term, keep an eye out for it and if you buy it remember this TR!
We then went out to catch the trolley. Here you can see the Green Giant, their custom harvester, hard at work in the field, and the truck they use to take the tea to the factory.
I love how they use live oaks to do this.
On the trolley and ready to go!
They keep the tea at the same height and just cut the new branches off the top for use. Without human intervention, these tea plants would grow 30-40 feet high. They'll live for hundreds of years, but they can't be in damp soil.
That's what a tea seed pod looks like.
We then went to go check out the greenhouse.
They control everything in this greenhouse. The sun exposure (you can see the artificial cloud draped over the plants in this shot, how much rain they get, the humidity, the temperature, the computer makes the conditions perfect for tea.
Now isn't that nice?
A drainage basin for the fields. Like I said, they can't be in soggy soil.
And then we drove back into Charleston and rested for a bit before doing the tour.
Under a dark and ominous sky, we did The Dark Side of Charleston tour. It's an adult history tour providing an uncensored look at what really went on in Charleston.
Boring Philadelphia Alley I told you about earlier? It was our first stop on the tour. Apparently this is where they held legal duels back in the day. ~1000 people died in that alley and I walked through it without a clue! :lol:
While learning a story about a murder that took place at this church, the sky just opened and the next thing I know there's a huge squall over Charleston!
After that we walked past the graveyard. Apparently the woman in the story who was murdered was buried with the knife with which she was murdered and it's still in there to this day.
This building was one of the most busy spots in Charleston back in its heyday.
Gate to the Unitarian Church
If anybody remembers that incident in which American president John F. Kennedy ran up and caught a woman tripping on the steps of a building saving her life, this is the building where that happened.
Didn't stop here but I found it creepy. That's the Old City Jail in the background if I'm not mistaken, which we toured on a ghost tour back in 2010 and found it to be one of the scariest places ever.
After The Dark Side of Charleston we stopped by a really nice seafood place called Hank's for dinner. This is the she crab soup I had before my meal was brought out...delicious!
Didn't get a picture of my food but I had the Seafood a la Wando, a sautee of different shellfish and fish chunks served with a grit cake.
Had this lovely dessert go go. Loved it!
The next day we left Charleston to spend a few days on Isle of Palms, a barrier island. We grabbed iHop on the way to the hotel. Be jealous, everyone! (No I did not eat all of that.)
We started our two days on Isle of Palms going inshore fishing. Didn't get many pictures because we didn't catch ****, but here's my mom holding the redfish she caught...that was too big to eat.
The boat ride was fun...but my dad, who constantly talks smack about how counting creds is a waste of time, could not understand why the boat ride wasn't a cred! XD
After we got back, I stayed up in the hotel room as my parents went to the pool. However, they came back shortly after...some kid had taken a **** in the pool and they had to close it down! :lol:
We went to my favorite Charleston restaurant afterwards, The Boathouse!
A few Charleston restaurants are waterfront and some have nice views, but NOTHING beats The Boathouse!
The Boathouse has my favorite Charleston dish. Sesame seared swordfish with hoisin glaze served with smoked gouda mac 'n cheese!
We went to the beach the next morning...and didn't catch any waves.
Ate lunch at a place on Shem Creek called Red's that has the best shrimp po boy ever. Plus, you can see dolphins!
Who needs Seaworld when you've got this?
Red's is a lovely place with great food...but they have the worst neighbors ever. This is for RB's, another seafood place right next door to Red's. We counted seven rule signs, not including these mean spirited parking signs! Luckily, they have really bad Yelp reviews. I don't blame them, I wouldn't eat at a place where the first thing you see is "RAWR YOU PARK HERE AND DON'T EAT HERE AND WE'LL TOW YOU!!!!!"
After lunch we went back and I went souvenir shopping. I saw this giant blow-up orca and I HAD to get this shot for Sir Goonfield! XD
Our last dinner of the trip was at a place called The Wreck...and it really lives up to its name! It was built in an old freezer for the shrimp company next door and it's literally falling apart. You get a can when you order soda, my parents' wine was served in an oyster bucket full of ice, and you eat off of paper plates. Not to mention that it's built on the edge of a creek nestled back in a nice Mount Pleasant neighborhood and there's no sign, so it's impossible to find. They don't say it, but they don't want tourists there, especially Ohioans because the tourism population in Charleston's full of us.
You're supposed to write your name on the menu...I just got creative.
They served us a paper bowl full of boiled peanuts beforehand...and I got one with four in it!
And this, my friends, is why we go to a place that should probably be shut down for health & safety reasons. They have the best fried seafood ever. Notice the little fried hominy square to the left of my plate? That's REALLY good. I ordered the combo platter, but because it's The Wreck, the menu states that it is a "VERY special platter" and therefore, "NO SUBSTITUTIONS!!!!!" The menu used to have a steak on it that you weren't allowed to send back under the grounds that it was a house of seafood preparation and you weren't supposed to want steak there. It wasn't until two years ago they took plastic, you can't talk on your phone, it closes at 8:30, and they don't split checks. But they have SUCH good food!
We were treated to a nice rainy drive back through the mountains the next day...and this car caught on fire.
But hey, the Smokies after it rained!
So gorgeous...
I love how this looked like a giant cloud in front of the mountain.
So, for the entire vacation, I had been nagging my parents every time we stopped at a grocery store to let me look for this ice cream. Stopping at a Krystal in Knoxville, there was a little gas station across the street...and look what I found!
Such great ice cream! Definitely recommend it if you can get it!
I then pulled out my laptop and tried to catch myself up on the Carowinds speculation. After weeding through all the evidence and figuring out what cancels what...I had NO idea what we had in store! I got into a swearing fit in the back seat out of frustration. I can't wait to make this drive next year on my way to Carowinds to ride this thing remembering working on the speculation driving back, sort of a way to come full circle once I finally ride it on vacation of 2015.
Our last stop? Picking up the Great Dane from the kennel! Zoey was so happy to see us yet so tired after spending a whole week playing with other dogs.
I had a lot of fun this year and I can't wait to do it all again next year. But I have at least two credit runs planned until then (one to Canada, one to Kentucky-Indiana) between now and then so I'm concentrating on those. But it was fun! I wish I had good Charleston seafood now.
After I got to experience my very first alpine coaster, we left for Charleston. We had a very twisty drive through the Smoky Mountains ahead of us.
At least it was a gorgeous drive.
But I was still plenty bored.
We had to travel through Maggie Valley, home to the infamous Cherokee, North Carolina, or Ratchet Gatlinburg as we called it.
Cherokee is the home of a Native American reservation, but there are a lot of really bad tourist traps set up around it that make Pigeon Forge look classy. We saw a Native American performer in full costume drinking from a can of Red Bull the size of my forearm, numerous things that didn't look safe, the like.
I thought they'd build the coaster before building a hotel themed to it.
We passed this cred at some kiddie park called Santa's Land. However, in the interest of time, the fact that my parents think counting creds is a scam (I'm as confused as you are about this), and the fact that the park didn't look open nor did it look safe, we just drove on by. An RCDB investigation upon arrival at the hotel confirmed that this was a powered Zamperla kiddie cred called Rudicoaster. The whole thing looked like a ghetto version of Holiday World but I'd still like to nab the cred if I'm ever back in the area.
A stare down with my sister's stuffed Deadmau5 toy ensued.
Yeah...after getting out of the mountains it gets pretty boring.
And then we got to Charleston. After my mom figured out she booked us in a hotel in a dangerous part of town we switched from Holiday Inn to a Courtyard. This was our new view...not bad if I must say so myself.
This is someone's backyard.
We went out to get dinner after this. The sunset over the city was gorgeous and I got this picture.
Totally random selfie in the middle of the sidewalk. Because I could.
We ate at a southern place downtown called Amen Street. This was our third time going there, but apparently we had missed that they have a guitar signed by country/pop singer Darius Rucker (also known as Hootie from Hootie and the Blowfish). I honestly think country is my least favorite genre by a long shot but some of it I can stand, Rucker's stuff included.
Got yellow tilefish served over a corn chowder that was really good. My mom's was better, though. She got it cooked in coconut milk.
The next day we walked out to breakfast at a place called Virginia's on King. I had fried green tomatoes and shrimp over grits topped with an egg for breakfast. Afterwards, the family wanted to go get pedicures. I'm not a pedicure guy by any means so I went back to the hotel.
Got another nice shot of a church walking through the park.
Afterwards we went out to look at some architecture.
Love this shot!
Wouldn't mind having that tree in my backyard.
I like the brick houses more than the non-brick ones.
Ever get to that point where your neighbors annoy the **** out of you to the point where you grow giant hedges around your house to keep them the **** out?
I would love this shot a lot more...had someone not left that trash can there!
Or if you have more stupidity tolerance than I do, just build a gate. That way you can keep them out but can still see what's going on.
After that we went to South Battery, a nice oceanfront neighborhood full of nice expensive houses.
There's fishing right across the street if you live here.
Love the owl on this one.
Two very nice houses here.
I typically don't like southern architecture but I love the large windows here.
This is what's known as a Charleston Single. It's designed to be small and compact so you can fit a lot onto Charleston's peninsula and it's shaped like a wind tunnel to keep it cool in the summer. I like the little bay window thing and the color on this one.
The Battery is home to Battery Park. Not sure exactly what it is but it had a lot of live oaks and war monuments of the nature. Nabbed a few pictures but this is the only one I really love.
I loved this house!
Yet another one I really like.
This was a pretty big one, probably cost as much as a small wooden coaster.
Not a bad driveway. Not a bad driveway at all.
The hotel concierge directed us to this church saying there were good photo ops to be had.
We were also directed to Philadelphia Alley, told it was gorgeous. One of the biggest disappointments of the trip.
Found a few huge spiders on the other side.
We then went to my favorite lunch place in Charleston, Fleet Landing!
We ate on the water.
These **** annoying birds were called greckles. We were told dessert was on them if we caught one.
Covered fishing pier? Not a bad idea.
Yup, best shrimp & grits in Charleston!
We went to Market Street afterwards, which is full of cool crafts and the like. I was tempted to buy this record converted into a bowl but decided it wasn't worth $16.
I have got to know what was wrapped around this palmetto.
After a bit of rest back at the hotel we went to a place called S.N.O.B. for dinner.
Standing for Slightly North of Broad, the restaurant's name is ironic. Typically, everything south of Broad Street is expensive (that's where the Battery is) and everything north of Broad Street is less expensive, or not snobbish. Here I have the shrimp & grits I ordered. Despite being ranked one of the top 10 dishes in the world, I still like Fleet Landing's better.
Had this nice banana cream pie for dessert. I really liked it, but the banana pudding at Peninsula Grille is better I think. I make Key Lime Pie, though, and through this I know the graham cracker crust I got was fresh. You can get by with a store bought one, but a hand made one really stands out and makes the dish great.
The next day we were up at the crack of dawn to go to Magnolia Plantation. The concierge told us that the house and gardens were **** so we just did the swamp wildlife encounter.
Into the swamp!
Saw NO wildlife behind the gate, but I heard a few bullfrogs in the cattails.
#SwampSelfie
Saw a few birds in a tree a little further back.
I want to come back here with a better camera someday...
I don't know what this thing was but I didn't want it near me.
There were a few nice flowers randomly growing in the swamp.
There was also a little African American cemetery in the swamp. Nabbed a few pictures.
Love this flower shot I got!
There were these little wooden things sticking out of the swamp. Not sure what they were, but the Ohioan in me thought they looked like cornhole boards. Whatever they were, we saw a turtle and an alligator sitting on this one and another bird in the tree.
That turtle is huge...
Such a gorgeous place...
A little bit up the swamp we saw an alligator VERY close to the path! No fence between us or him, poking him with a stick was probably a no go.
Me with the alligator!
Bird in a tree.
On the way back there was a bird really close to the path and another alligator. This should be in National Geographic...
And the bird's alligator friend!
Some nice vanishing perspective work from me here.
I wanted to photograph this building and maybe make it black and white...but I was NOT going in there! XD
On our way out we saw this family and nicely told them where all the wildlife was. As soon as we mentioned alligators...the mom FLIPPED!!! As if she didn't know she was visiting a swamp! XD
After that we went to Charleston Tea Plantation, the only operating tea plantation in North America.
I'm not a tea guy but I thought I'd try some of theirs during the factory tour.
First they put the tea on this contraption called a withering bed and let it get some of the water out of the tea leaves.
Then it goes into this thing, called a rotovane, that grinds it all up.
The last piece of machinery we saw was this oxidization bed. Not sure how oxidation works but for black tea, it oxidizes for 50 minutes. For oolong tea, it oxidizes for 15. For green tea, steam is administered on the withering bed to keep it from oxidizing at all. Yes, all three come from the same leaf.
Afterwards they dry it, sort all the pieces of stem and the like out of it, and package it. American Classic Tea, their brand of tea, is supposed to go nationwide sometime short term, keep an eye out for it and if you buy it remember this TR!
We then went out to catch the trolley. Here you can see the Green Giant, their custom harvester, hard at work in the field, and the truck they use to take the tea to the factory.
I love how they use live oaks to do this.
On the trolley and ready to go!
They keep the tea at the same height and just cut the new branches off the top for use. Without human intervention, these tea plants would grow 30-40 feet high. They'll live for hundreds of years, but they can't be in damp soil.
That's what a tea seed pod looks like.
We then went to go check out the greenhouse.
They control everything in this greenhouse. The sun exposure (you can see the artificial cloud draped over the plants in this shot, how much rain they get, the humidity, the temperature, the computer makes the conditions perfect for tea.
Now isn't that nice?
A drainage basin for the fields. Like I said, they can't be in soggy soil.
And then we drove back into Charleston and rested for a bit before doing the tour.
Under a dark and ominous sky, we did The Dark Side of Charleston tour. It's an adult history tour providing an uncensored look at what really went on in Charleston.
Boring Philadelphia Alley I told you about earlier? It was our first stop on the tour. Apparently this is where they held legal duels back in the day. ~1000 people died in that alley and I walked through it without a clue! :lol:
While learning a story about a murder that took place at this church, the sky just opened and the next thing I know there's a huge squall over Charleston!
After that we walked past the graveyard. Apparently the woman in the story who was murdered was buried with the knife with which she was murdered and it's still in there to this day.
This building was one of the most busy spots in Charleston back in its heyday.
Gate to the Unitarian Church
If anybody remembers that incident in which American president John F. Kennedy ran up and caught a woman tripping on the steps of a building saving her life, this is the building where that happened.
Didn't stop here but I found it creepy. That's the Old City Jail in the background if I'm not mistaken, which we toured on a ghost tour back in 2010 and found it to be one of the scariest places ever.
After The Dark Side of Charleston we stopped by a really nice seafood place called Hank's for dinner. This is the she crab soup I had before my meal was brought out...delicious!
Didn't get a picture of my food but I had the Seafood a la Wando, a sautee of different shellfish and fish chunks served with a grit cake.
Had this lovely dessert go go. Loved it!
The next day we left Charleston to spend a few days on Isle of Palms, a barrier island. We grabbed iHop on the way to the hotel. Be jealous, everyone! (No I did not eat all of that.
)
We started our two days on Isle of Palms going inshore fishing. Didn't get many pictures because we didn't catch ****, but here's my mom holding the redfish she caught...that was too big to eat.
The boat ride was fun...but my dad, who constantly talks smack about how counting creds is a waste of time, could not understand why the boat ride wasn't a cred! XD
After we got back, I stayed up in the hotel room as my parents went to the pool. However, they came back shortly after...some kid had taken a **** in the pool and they had to close it down! :lol:
We went to my favorite Charleston restaurant afterwards, The Boathouse!
A few Charleston restaurants are waterfront and some have nice views, but NOTHING beats The Boathouse!
The Boathouse has my favorite Charleston dish. Sesame seared swordfish with hoisin glaze served with smoked gouda mac 'n cheese!
We went to the beach the next morning...and didn't catch any waves.
Ate lunch at a place on Shem Creek called Red's that has the best shrimp po boy ever. Plus, you can see dolphins!
Who needs Seaworld when you've got this?
Red's is a lovely place with great food...but they have the worst neighbors ever. This is for RB's, another seafood place right next door to Red's. We counted seven rule signs, not including these mean spirited parking signs! Luckily, they have really bad Yelp reviews. I don't blame them, I wouldn't eat at a place where the first thing you see is "RAWR YOU PARK HERE AND DON'T EAT HERE AND WE'LL TOW YOU!!!!!"
After lunch we went back and I went souvenir shopping. I saw this giant blow-up orca and I HAD to get this shot for Sir Goonfield! XD
Our last dinner of the trip was at a place called The Wreck...and it really lives up to its name! It was built in an old freezer for the shrimp company next door and it's literally falling apart. You get a can when you order soda, my parents' wine was served in an oyster bucket full of ice, and you eat off of paper plates. Not to mention that it's built on the edge of a creek nestled back in a nice Mount Pleasant neighborhood and there's no sign, so it's impossible to find. They don't say it, but they don't want tourists there, especially Ohioans because the tourism population in Charleston's full of us.
You're supposed to write your name on the menu...I just got creative.
They served us a paper bowl full of boiled peanuts beforehand...and I got one with four in it!
And this, my friends, is why we go to a place that should probably be shut down for health & safety reasons. They have the best fried seafood ever. Notice the little fried hominy square to the left of my plate? That's REALLY good. I ordered the combo platter, but because it's The Wreck, the menu states that it is a "VERY special platter" and therefore, "NO SUBSTITUTIONS!!!!!" The menu used to have a steak on it that you weren't allowed to send back under the grounds that it was a house of seafood preparation and you weren't supposed to want steak there. It wasn't until two years ago they took plastic, you can't talk on your phone, it closes at 8:30, and they don't split checks. But they have SUCH good food!
We were treated to a nice rainy drive back through the mountains the next day...and this car caught on fire.
But hey, the Smokies after it rained!
So gorgeous...
I love how this looked like a giant cloud in front of the mountain.
So, for the entire vacation, I had been nagging my parents every time we stopped at a grocery store to let me look for this ice cream. Stopping at a Krystal in Knoxville, there was a little gas station across the street...and look what I found!
Such great ice cream! Definitely recommend it if you can get it!
I then pulled out my laptop and tried to catch myself up on the Carowinds speculation. After weeding through all the evidence and figuring out what cancels what...I had NO idea what we had in store! I got into a swearing fit in the back seat out of frustration. I can't wait to make this drive next year on my way to Carowinds to ride this thing remembering working on the speculation driving back, sort of a way to come full circle once I finally ride it on vacation of 2015.
Our last stop? Picking up the Great Dane from the kennel! Zoey was so happy to see us yet so tired after spending a whole week playing with other dogs.
I had a lot of fun this year and I can't wait to do it all again next year. But I have at least two credit runs planned until then (one to Canada, one to Kentucky-Indiana) between now and then so I'm concentrating on those. But it was fun! I wish I had good Charleston seafood now.