Charleston Trip - Day 1

Hello to all of our faithful readers. There's a new sheriff in town, that is to say, for the first time ever you will be able to experience the lyrically intense typing of Kitara's better half, Justin. For years, the blogging rights in our home were monopolized by my lovely and talented wife, after a chaotic power struggle for equality, I have snuck into her account to post this revolutionary and perhaps life changing entry.

Ok, so this is exactly what Kitara was worried about if I were to post, enough with the drama, let's get to the good stuff.

So, today we embarked on our four-day trip to Charleston, SC. We had heard a ton about this destination from friends and co-workers so we wanted to check out what all of the fuss was about. We got up early, packed up the van, dropped Roxy off at the sitters and were on our way. On the way down, I got to experience my first road trip in the minivan. We've had it now for about a year, but I had never driven it further than about an hour. Let's just say, road trips with an 18-month old are...interesting. First they want something to eat, then they throw it on the floor, then they're tired, but can't sleep, then they finally fall asleep, then you hit a bump on the road and they wake up. Wash, rinse, repeat.

I suppose it wasn't that bad, but it could have been better.

We made it into Charleston around 1 pm and it was raining off and on. The children's museum wasn't open on Monday so we went to a visitor's center to see what we could do instead. We got sucked into one of those "low pressure" timeshare sales things with the lure of a bunch of free tickets. Now, for any of you that haven't done one of these before, I can't say that I recommend it, they kind of suck and no matter how you rig it, you don't really leave feeling good about the situation. They talk you up about all the benefits to your family and what a great offer it is to pay them 20-30k at 15% APR and how you should feel like a monster who doesn't love his family if you don't pay out the nose for a luxury vacation package. Then, when you try to reason with them about not wanting to incur unnecessary debt or not having $500/month in the budget for travel, they look for any possible way to sell you on the product. Finally, after I had met the time commitment to get my free stuff, I let them know that there was no way that I was going to buy it, I was tired, hungry and wanted my free stuff. After repeating my requests and reiterating that I was under no circumstances going to buy their program they eventually brought us our stuff. So, in short, I don't recommend these things unless you're patient and ready to stand strong against the buffeting that inevitably accompanies such a session. On the plus side, we did end up walking away with carriage ride tickets, a tour to Ft. Sumter, and aquarium tickets so all in all, a pretty good afternoon.

So after that, we decided to grab something to eat. We went to a place called Hyman's. It is apparently some really famous seafood place where a bunch of celebrities have come and is ranked on the Food Network's something or other list of places to eat if you're really hungry and yada yada yada. Anyway, we had a great meal and both Kitara and Koryn tried calamari for the first time. Surprisingly, Kitara thought it was pretty good and Koryn devoured almost half of my appetizer! Kitara would cut up a ring and before she was done, Koryn would have scarfed the whole thing up and be asking for more! It was pretty cool. I guess I've done something right as a Dad. Better watch out future boyfriends, my daughter will stick it to you when it comes to paying for a nice meal.

Well, that's all for day 1 on our super awesome family vacation.