Take Some Jelly, Take Some Fish...

This is the trail we took our evening walks on! Yeah...the camera doesn't take amazing low-light photos. So, I had to walk it during the daytime to get some pictures!

Just mom and I went on the walk today, but we ran into dad on the way back to the house.

Aaaand then we took a little detour and decided to brave the beach access trail again. We tried this trail a few days ago ...and it was very swampy.  We couldn't even get around the swampish parts so we had to walk right through them. We now both have a weird rash that we think if from that nasty water. But, no. We never learn. So we did the trail again. What's gonna happen? I get another rash? Yeah...already got it.

This was the coolest little tunnel! I thought it was very reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland. My mom said it reminded her of The Shire. Either way it's cool.

What you don't know is that while trying to take these pictures we were being eaten alive by bugs! I seriously never get bug bites...but this was horrible! It was fine when we were just walking...but standing? Heck no. You can also see some of the swamp in the background.

There were so many jellyfish! This is probably the coolest one we found though. Unfortunately, a few of the kids got stung as well. Anyways, every time I saw a jellyfish I started singing Julian Smith's jellyfish song. 

The lack of shells was a bit disappointing....but this morning they were actually a few decent ones! Yes, I said morning. I actually got up before noon....on vacation. Hey, I didn't want to waste a minute of the last day!

We also rented a kayak! I love kayaking, but some of the kids have never been kayaking before!

This picture turned out so well! Kayaking with my mom :_

Aren't they so cute!

We try to make a bigger sand castle every year we go...this year's was a bit dissapointing. I'll have to go back and see if I can find some from previous years. Anyways, I don't know what's going on with my dad's hair...but that curl on his forehead makes him look a bit like Clark Kent :p

Like the end of any vacation go on we had to attempt to take a family picture. Sadly, this is the best picture we got (I'm kind of hidden on the right-hand side). But hey, this is definitely my family! And yet another picture my mom will kill me for posting. I think she wants to keep up the illusion that we're a normal family. Um, we're not. Yeah, this is us.

The Beach is More Beautiful in the Dark

It amazes me how different a sunset can be depending on the day and the conditions--even though it's the same spot!

The view from the back door!

My mom went on a date this evening with my dad (leaving me with the kids...) so I let her borrow a few of the things I'd brought with me. The dress is actually mine...but she's the one who packed it :p

After I put the scarf in her hair I was sorry I hadn't thought to put it in mine! It's adorable!

After mom and dad got back and the kids were all in bed I went on a walk with my Papaw. I didn't really get to spend too much time with him this week yet so I really enjoyed getting to go on this walk with him. Some of my favorite childhood memories are of taking evening walks with him in the muggy Florida air.

Gosh, this place is beautiful. I'm so sad I have only one day left here. This pictures kind of reminds me of Neverending Story :p

Full Moon Waves

Took these pictures of the house yesterday...but obviously I had too many pictures yesterday anyways. So I just waited 'til today to show y'all.

See that big white van? That's ours. Yup, we're officially a big homeschool family now.

Dolphin Watch. The awesome thing is you actually can watch the dolphins from our house!

Our house is kind of in an inlet of sorts...so basically no waves. Which is great 'cause there are a few kids that don't really swim well.  On the other hand there are a few of us who do swim well. So we drove a few miles down the road to this beach instead.

Yes, the waves were much better here...but I'm still laughing at the fact that we're in a beach house--on the beach--and we still drove to the beach down the road.

There was also a full moon a couple days ago so some of the other swimmers there were saying that made the waves bigger...it actually doesn't make that much difference. But still full moon waves sounds cool.

We Only Look Dangerous

Probably my least favorite day of a beach vacation...the one where we actually have to go out and do stuff. Don't get me wrong, I would normally love doing all this stuff. But seriously, I could have been sitting on the beach doing nothing. But instead we drove to Charleston and went to a few museums.

First we toured The Old Exchange Building and Provost Dungeon. I got a few pictures...but it was horrible lighting for picture taking. So I'll leave you with just this slightly blurry one. The architecture on the interior was actually pretty cool! Strangely, there weren't any cells since it was normally used as a store room. But when there were actually prisoners there they just roamed freely throughout the dungeon.

Old post office boxes

"Take a picture of my eye!"

We also toured The Old Slave Mart Museum. Very sad history. It was a small museum, but there was a lot of information. The building was actually a place where slaves used to be sold. Ugh, makes me sick that people actually treated other people like that. Well...I guess past tense isn't quite correct since it still is happening. Still makes me sick though.

Postcard picture?

The last place we visited was the Powder Magazine. And the pathway to get to this small, but really awesome, museum was kind of gorgeous. I also bought a rifle pen there. ...and proceeded to get ink all over my dress. No, I really mean all over my dress. So fun. But, I got a cool pen. And that's all that matters.

Oh, heck no...he looks way too happy.

Just pointin' firearms willy nilly all over the place... This isn't as dangerous as it looks.

 

Aaahhh! This thing is heavy!

Even mom decided to give it a try!

We need one of these at home for when the kids are misbehaving. That's it! To the stocks with you!

While in the stocks people would throw stuff at the victim...and sometimes cut off their ears!

Don't know what this is...didn't go in...but doesn't it look cool? I mean, come on, it says Pirates Courtyard.

The very cool exterior of a Charleston theater.

A cemetery we walked past. We were gonna stop in...but everyone was so tired that we just went back home.

We all stopped for an early dinner at McConkey's Jungle Shack. Seriously, McConkey's Jungle Shack. Isn't that the best name ever?

Ha, I just realized M (far left) it wearing my mom's sunglasses in this picture. This is why I don't tell people when I'm taking pictures of them. Usually it's because they look more natural for the picture...and then sometimes it's 'cause I end up with gems like this.

Remember how I got ink all over my dress from my awesome rifle pen? Yeah, it's still there in this picture even though you can't see it. I'm just sitting there eating like a savage (no really...there were napkins and condiments everywhere) and on top of that I've got pen on my dress. Hopefully there were low expectations being a shack and all...'cause I felt a wee bit uncivilized. (oh, and I did eventually get the pen out...but I had to wait 'til I got home to get it out...)

We were all pretty tired after walking around so much in the heat, but I went with M down to the beach and we watched the sunset. It. was. amazing. Seriously one of the best sunsets I've seen all summer. It comes pretty close to the one on the first day of camp...but this one might beat it. You should be so happy that the computer's taking forever to upload pictures so now you only get a few pictures of the sunset :p ...instead of 300...ish.