I spent several days last week in one of my favorite cities with my favorite girl…..and her entire fourth grade. That’s right. Buena Vista took over Charleston for two days! I’ll be completely honest: I was dreading this trip. I thought the kids would be wild and the weather was looking kind of iffy. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The weather was gorgeous and the kids were outstanding. I saw some typical kid mischief from time to time, but they were remarkably well behaved, in my opinion. The only thing about the trip that was less than ideal was our mode of transportation: chartered bus. Ugh. I’m just not a fan. Also, we hit traffic on the way there and on the way home and that was about the only times the kids got a little loud and hyper. Sorry for the picture overload, but I want to share all of the fun stuff on our itinerary. Note: I am not considering this a Travel Tuesday post because it was more of a field trip and this is not the same stuff I would do if planning a visit to the Holy City with just my little family or adult friends.
First things first, we met in Emery’s classroom at 5:00 AM Thursday morning.
My little trio! Emery and I were thrilled that one of her best friends was in our group. I didn’t really know the other little girl before this trip, but she turned out to be hilarious and super sweet. I had an easy time with these ladies.
First stop: the aquarium
After this we ate lunch outside (Chick Fil A–yay!) while we waited to board our ferry to Fort Sumter.
Fort Sumter is really cool, but I think the kids were more excited about all of the dolphins we spotted on our boat ride.
Next up on our agenda was a carriage ride through the prettiest parts of CHS: Rainbow Row, The Battery, Tradd Street, Queen Street, Broad….all of the gorgeous homes and courtyards made for excellent eye candy.
We did a walking ghost tour after the carriage ride, but I didn’t take a single picture. I guess I was too scared of the spirits!
After the ghost tour, we made our way to Bubba Gump’s for dinner. They were nice enough to print special menus for us. I was super proud of the kids’ manners during dinner, especially given how tired we all were by this point.
We stayed at a Hampton Inn Thursday night, but we could have stayed anywhere. The kids all passed out as soon as we got there. I made my girls shower, but that’s all they managed to do before the exhaustion set in. They didn’t even take me up on my offer to watch television!
We were up bright and early Friday morning for another day of sightseeing. Thankfully, we were greeted with another sunny, warm day. Breakfast at the hotel was plentiful and the kids fueled up for our first stop, Magnolia Plantation.
Magnolia Plantation is beautiful and the kids had so much fun viewing (and even petting!) all of the wildlife on property. Our tour guide was great and this was an excellent way to kill a few hours. We saw alligators and peacocks galore! And the petting zoo is home to deer, foxes, bunnies, snakes, ducks and pigs. We got to eat Firehouse subs in the picnic area of the plantation, which was perfect for our group.
After lunch we loaded up and headed downtown to the city market. Of course shopping is always fun, but a trip to the Charleston City Market is always a treat because of the sweet grass baskets. I have wanted one of these works of arts for years and I finally bit the bullet this trip. The kids got a little history lesson watching the artists weave their baskets and I got a beautiful souvenir. 
We got back to school Friday night, tired and happy. I am so thankful for such sweet teachers.
The rest of our weekend was spent celebrating St. Patty’s Day. Even Gipper got into the spirit.
I am so happy that today is the first day of spring! I have never been so eager to say “goodbye” to winter. Bring on all the bunnies!
