Charleston & Savannah

When you tell people that you are going on your dream vacation to Charleston, South Carolina, be prepared for a lot of WHY?s. I found it quite astonishing that the people I associate with are unaware that Charleston is the Top Destination in the World. It's actually only held that title since 2011, but I've wanted to go there for at least 20 years. It first appeared on the list of top US destinations in 1993 -- so that would be about right.

We decided this would be the year to make it happen, in honor of our 15th anniversary. It's also a little awkward to tell people you're celebrating your anniversary, and then when they ask you what day you have to say... Uh, it's in December. But I plan my vacations around weather, and this was a great time to go. OK, I'll correct that -- the first few days were ideal, but then it did get pretty warm. The only problem was that we didn't pack enough shorts, and took too many pants. I even took a couple sweaters!

I'm just going to link to my album so you can see all the pictures with lovely captions. But here are a few that I didn't take.

A highlight of our trip was getting to meet Suzanne. She is a cousin of Brandon's biological grandma whom he never met. I met Suzanne online several years ago doing family history work. She was full of all kinds of information, since she grew up with this family in Chicago. She now lives in Charleston, so we met for lunch. She is such a sweet lady.

I originally planned to split our time between Charleston and Savannah more evenly, but then I found a great place to stay in Charleston that offered a weekly rate. It was cheaper to stay there for the full week than to do just 5 days, so we had a short visit in Savannah. The full week in Charleston was so nice and relaxing, though! Without much time to see Savannah I decided to go ahead and just book a tour. But in searching for a tour, I found this couple that does photography tours. I am so glad I booked them. It was totally worth it. Not only did we get a tour of Savannah, but they were really into architecture so they told us all about that, and they shared all their photography knowledge with us, and we got a photo shoot out of it! They shared a couple sneak peek pictures with us, but the final edited ones won't be ready for a couple weeks.

And no, this was not a birthday trip. Strictly anniversary. I got a new computer for my birthday! I am one spoiled girl.