Charleston

...Charleston! Way down in SC.

Ah, yes...I have returned from an adventure in South Carolina. Meredith and I traveled with the 8th grade class at South Central Elementary School (K-8) on their end of the year field trip. Yes, we survived, and actually, the kids were great! A little loud every once in a while, but other than that, not a problem. Thanks to Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Broyles for letting me be a chaperone.

Here a little bit about our adventures:

Meredith and I had to leave at 5:45am so that we could meet everyone to leave around 6:30.

We stopped in Erwin for breakfast, and then traveled until we got to Columbia, SC. We watched lots of movies: (School of Rock, Shrek 2, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc...) In Columbia, we ate at Sticky Fingers! YUMMY!!!! Love that place.

Then, took off for Charleston. Once we were there, we went to the Marketplace. It was flea market style with tables and booths, and they had some nice things. Meredith and I decided we would spend our money on local ice cream instead of the other things. There were so many new flavors that we had a taste test of about 7 flavors before we decided. We each had some Java. I also had Cake Batter, and Meredith added Chocolate.

After the market, we went to the hotel. Pretty nice Best Western, and then went to the beach! We swam for about 2 hours, and then off to a local restaurant called Coconut Joe's. I decided to try Shrimp and Grits, which is a local specialty. Typically, I'm not the least bit apprehensive about trying new things, but this time I was. Turns out that the meal was really great! It had shrimp, a grits cake (looked like a triangle piece of cornbread), on top of country ham, and this creamy sauce. It took all I had to finish most of it, because it was so rich, but it really did taste good.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel. The teachers taped the doors for the kids, and we bedded down for the night. The next day, we grabbed some breakfast at the hotel, and took off for Carowinds in Charlotte. Meredith and I rode plenty of roller coasters and rides. We are thrill seekers when it comes to theme parks. We were supposed to meet at 5, but around 4...it started pouring rain. WE GOT SOAKED TO THE BONE!!!! All of us. We all met early to make it to the bus, but as we went, only Mrs. Broyles had an umbrella. So, we spent about 30-45 minutes as everyone had to get some dry clothes from under the bus, and then change in the one bathroom we had on the vehicle.

The way back was pretty uneventful-more movie watching, stopped at a Western Sizzlin' for dinner, and chatting- except that another bus from the Greene Tours line carrying another group to Charleston had broken down. We were "in the middle of nowhere, NC" and stopped at a gas station as our driver helped fix the other bus. After about 30 minutes, the bus was fixed, and we followed the other bus all the way back to Washington County, TN. As you can tell, we made it back safely, and everyone had a great time. Won't forget it anytime soon.

Peace,
The Hippie
--That's what I was called on the trip by some of the students because of my long hair and my tendency to say, "Sweet."