Finishing up Vacation

These are out of order and some of our photos are missing due to the hard drive tragedy but here's a little bit more of vacation and then I will be done with it!  The first pix are of Charleston.  It was a beautiful city and we enjoyed getting out in the sunshine.  The old homes were gorgeous, as was the landscaping.   Charleston seemed like the real "south" to me and had that old southern charm about it.  

I love old cemeteries.



We always try to stay downtown if possible so we can be in the middle of all the activity and use our feet or public transit instead of driving.   This is the Mills House, which we liked so much that we extended our stay an extra day.  (Thank you again, priceline.com).

The courtyard at the Mills House.

Then on to Charlotte, which had a totally different feel to it.  We again stayed downtown but Charlotte's downtown was a much more modern, business-oriented area.  Lots of banking and commerce going on.  It was pretty but did not have the charm of Charleston.   Everyone was so dressed up, too!  The temperature was hot but all of the bankers and businessmen were walking around in long sleeved shirts, ties, and sometimes jackets.  There was a road show of "Phantom of the Opera" being performed so we also saw lots of people dressed to the nines for the theater.  We stopped at an Italian cafe right on the sidewalk and I felt kind of out of place because all of the other women were in dresses and heels with their makeup and hair done to the max.  Ooops.  

Walking back to the hotel, we caught this little band playing on the corner.  They sounded great!

We had to find a laundromat after so many days of traveling.  

These were on the corner near our hotel.  There was also a small farmer's market right outside the hotel entrance one day, but it was the first day of the season and not too many booths were up.  

The view from our room, reflected.   We actually went to the pool a couple of times in Charlotte.  I even have a little bit of a tan.   :)

One of my former Community Center coworkers now lives outside Charlotte with his family.  I can't keep track of where everyone is so I was surprised to see a note from Frank on facebook saying "I live right near Charlotte--call me!"  We did get to have a chat and catch up with each other on the phone, but he was taking a class and we were heading out so we were not able to get together in person.   I need to be more organized but this road trip was really pretty random and we didn't even decide where we were going next till the night before we left sometimes.  :)   One of my other former coworkers, Shannon,  now lives in Arizona but was coming to Atlanta and staying at our hotel for a conference on the day we left there.  Crazy.   Missed her by a few hours.

Then on to Richmond, which is another beautiful and historic city.  We walked to the State Capitol and wandered the grounds. 



The Court of Appeals.  

Civil Rights Memorial on the Capitol grounds.  I love the quote from Thurgood Marshall.

Downtown Richmond on the 3rd and 4th of July was deserted!  We couldn't get over it.  The streets were empty and there was little activity anywhere we went.   On the morning of the 4th, we drove over to the Carytown district and had a nice little breakfast outdoors at Weezie's.   We had considered going to DC for the 4th of July but decided the road closures, traffic, and crowds would be a nightmare.  We then thought about spending the 4th in Atlantic City before going back to my Mom's, but many hotels were sold out and the rest were hundreds of dollars per night.  We were shocked.  I guess Atlantic City was a prime destination for the holiday...who would have known?   Since we were getting a little road weary anyway, we blew off plans for more travel and headed back to Mom's to visit and relax for the last few days.  

Another great vacation done.  We loved seeing everyone and I was especially happy for all the sunshine and warm weather.  :)  

Computer Issues

Hi everyone,

Just a quick post to say we won't be posting much for the rest of our vacation. The hard drive on my laptop has crashed and tech support has not been able to come up with a solution that we can implement while on the road. In fact, a new hard drive is being shipped to my mom's so we can switch it out when we get back to Jersey. It really frustrates me since this was a brand new computer that my job just purchased for me a couple of months ago. Not only have I probably lost all of my work documents, but all of our vacation photos, which is--of course--the more upsetting to me. No offense to my job.

We left Atlanta on Sunday and drove to Augusta, where we met up with our old high school friend, Terri. We had a very nice visit with Terri and her sweet little mama, had a great lunch at a local spot, and a sightseeing tour of old Augusta. Thanks, Terri, for lots of fun!

From Atlanta, we drove to Charleston, where we are staying at the Mills House Inn right downtown. We parked the car on Sunday and have not been in it since. We've walked a lot and took a bus tour of the historic sights in Charleston, which taught me a great deal of information I never knew or I had forgotten. :) John Calhoun, "the original Rebel" is buried here--he apparently wanted to secede from the Union long before the Civil War ever happened. Our tour guide also told us about some early "Indian troubles," stating, "they were not our friends." I said to Rich, "No, WE were not THEIR friends," and the guide halfway overheard me and made me repeat it for the whole bus. Nothing like getting identified as the resident trouble maker right off the bat. He did acquiesce, "Well, if anyone has any right to complain, it's the Indians." I wanted to take a walking tour called "Slavery and Freedom," but we have not been able to get an answer on the phone to make a reservation, so that is probably out. Last night, we had a fabulous dinner at the Peninsula Grill, one of Charleston's best and most well known restaurants. Today we are going to do some more walking and visit one of the old historic homes, plus we need to do some laundry before we head out tomorrow. We had a ton of great photos that I cannot post now so you will just have to imagine Charleston. It is definitely old southern charm defined. Having a wonderful time other than computer withdrawal. If you are on facebook, check with me there since I will probably be more able to write a quick update instead of a blog entry.

Hope everyone is having a good week so far. I am soaking up the sun. Nice!