Weekend with Jess’ Family!

Last weekend (March 12-13) we were so excited to welcome our first guests to our new home in SC: My family! This is the first time that my family has been able to visit – my mom came to see us in Tucson in November of 2014, but this was the first time we hosted {almost} all of them in our home. Thank God that we now only live 16 hours apart instead of 26! Speaking of which, I was super impressed and happy when they conquered those 16 hours in ONE DAY so that they could spend a whole weekend with me!! Way to go Dad! 🙂

They rolled into town around 11, and though I’m sure they were exhausted before that (I know we were – Curtis and Charlotte took a nap because staying up late is hard!) but as soon as they got here, adrenaline was high and we all got our second wind with that happy reunion. We gave them a quick tour and got caught up a bit before getting everyone settled for the weekend. I’m pretty sure that this may be the only time that we will ever have all 4 bedrooms in this house occupied. What we lack in beds, we make up for in private space for everyone haha!

The next morning after breakfast, we all piled in the Suburban for day 1 of showing them around Charleston. The only time my family had visited SC before this was in 2000, when we were on a 2.5 week road trip and I think we stopped briefly in King’s Mountain National Military Park right across the border from NC. Of course, Curtis and I are still getting to know the area, but we had seen enough to know what kinds of attractions they would like. We started off the day at Fort Moultrie National Monument, where we did a quick tour of the fort. The weather couldn’t have been better for this weekend – sunny with highs in the 70’s, just what anyone in the Midwest would want for a spring break! (And they definitely chose the right weekend to be here, seeing as this past weekend was colder and rainy.) After the fort, we knew we all needed a little beach time, so we drove North a ways to the Isle of Palms beach to enjoy the waves and the sun. With it being the nicest weekend so far of the year, the beach was packed with people, but we all enjoyed taking a long walk, wading in the water, and playing with a family of starfish that we found. I just loved getting the chance to walk with my mom and catch up on life. I love the relationship I have with her (and my dad!) now as an adult. I definitely wish I could see them more often, but it just makes every visit so much more special.

After a couple hours, we left the beach with a few cool shells and some extra-rosy skin. We wanted to try somewhere local for lunch, but Curtis and I don’t go out to eat very often so we had no idea what to suggest. We went for a walk down the street near the beach to check out what was available. The first place we tried had an hour wait, and the second was mostly just a bar (that was requiring 2 forms of ID since it was Spring Break – not that we would’ve drank there, we just found that funny!) Then we went to try a cute brunch place, but found that it had just closed. We were about to complete our loop back to the car when we decided to try one last place – Acme Lowcountry Kitchen. It turned out to be a hit, with that great Charleston flavor that everyone raves about. It’s definitely Curtis and my favorite experience at a local SC restaurant that we’ve had so far! Curtis and I split the shrimp Succotash, which was shrimp, corn, butter beans, field peas and snow peas with a bacon cream sauce. I know it’s hard to imagine a bacon cream sauce – doesn’t bacon just make grease?! – but it was AMAZING and we are going to try to recreate it sometime, it was just so good, and the one plate was enough for both of us.

After that, we headed back home to rest, play with Charlotte, and take a walk around the neighborhood. I made a couple pizzas for dinner and we had a fun night in.

On Sunday, Curtis and I had to experience our first Daylight Savings Time in a couple years. Ouch. We miss you more than ever, Arizona. Hahaha!

After we were all up and ready, we set off for downtown Charleston – because how could we not show off this beautiful city?! But first, we did what Curtis and I had been saving specially for my family’s visit: take the boat tour to Fort Sumter National Monument! My dad planned so many awesome road trips for my family growing up, and it was always inevitable that we’d be going to at least one historical place, including a battlefield or fort! As a family, we’ve visited so many places on the East coast such as Antietam, Gettysburg, Valley Forge, and my favorite from back then, Fort McHenry. He and Curtis share a common love for military history, so it only made sense that we take them to the 2 big forts here!

Curtis and I will write a more detailed post later about the history of the fort and what it’s like to visit there today, because I want to just focus on what we did with my family here today. The boat left at 12, we docked around 12:30, had an hour to tour the fort, then rode the boat back to Charleston. We had a blast doing this – it was so fun to not only see the military fort, but also get out on the Charleston Harbor and see the skyline of our city from afar. As we were on our way there, we saw dolphins off to the side, and got a new perspective on what the islands and mainland look like from the water.

After we got back to Charleston, we started our walking tour of the city. We walked down Bay Street until we reached the historical district, then started looking for food. Like the day before, we were just walking around and checking Google maps, and ran into several busts before finally deciding to enjoy the food trucks on King Street, which was blocked off for Second Sunday.  My siblings chose lunch from the Mac & Cheese truck, while Mom, Dad, Curtis, and I ordered from Roti Rolls. We hadn’t tried anything quite like it before, but we all enjoyed the very flavorful meal!

After that, we made our way back to the car, trying to take new streets to see the different beautiful houses, stores, and churches (and snag a few new letterboxes 😉 ). We came back home and had another fun evening with BBQ, sweet tea, and Apples to Apples.

My brother had a basketball tournament in Virginia that week, so on Monday morning we all said goodbye after a fun weekend that just went by too fast. Thank you guys for taking the time to come see us, it meant the world to me! Can’t wait to see you again, whether it be here, back in Iowa, or wherever we’re living next. 🙂

Now we’re looking forward to the next visit with family, coming up soon…!! 🙂