This year was a second annual girls trip for our group! It all spurred from something our guys have done together for years: for the first week of March Madness every year they rent a house and spend a few days of college-basketball-watching-bliss together. It’s quite the bromance! 🙂
Well, last year we decided to have our own girls trip together in Austin (which was actually where the guys went that year as well)! It was such a fun time that we decided to keep the tradition going this year! So for our second annual girls trip we headed to Charleston, South Carolina! (Once you do it twice you can call it an annual event, right?!)
Charleston is definitely a photographer’s paradise with all its colorful houses and quaint streets! If I’m being honest, I struggled a little to strike a balance between experiencing moments and capturing them on camera (anyone else struggle with that sometimes?!), but the best way I’ve found to approach this challenge is to think of having to edit every photo I take! So then I only stop to take the really good or memorable ones! Twenty well-composed and edited photos from a trip is so much better than 200 not as good or unedited ones! I was also pretty sick, having acquired a nasty bug from the freezing weather in Maryland (where I was the week before) and the multiple plane flights. But these girls kept me going and we enjoyed the perfect mix of venturing out and staying in. Because ordering take out BBQ and eating at home in your sweats with your girlfriends can be just as fun! Especially when we don’t see each other all that often!
Read on for some sights and activities we experienced while in Charleston and the surrounding area! One random thing to note is that there are unusual laws when it comes to Airbnb in the downtown area, so you may run across some strange situations if you try to book a place downtown through their site. We opted instead for a place on nearby James Island, between Charleston and Folly Beach. I felt like it was a great area to stay in and would probably do so again!
The first thing we did was take a carriage tour of Charleston. Some of the girls had done this before, but enjoyed it so much they wanted to do it again! It was actually a great way to get acquainted with the city and learn about its history and architecture, and I felt like I was better able to appreciate the nuances of Charleston after taking the tour! We took our tour with Palmetto Carriage, the oldest carriage tour company in town!
Every house and street is unique and the colors kept me smiling all day! We easily could have had a photoshoot at every corner, but I spared them this time! 🙂
Above right is a photo from Rainbow Row, which is just as it sounds: a long street of colorful historic houses! There were so many people taking photos here that I felt like I had to put my camera away as to not be one of “those” people. Haha!
Below are photos from Waterfront Park, which has a fun pineapple fountain and bench swings!
I have a thing where I like to take jumping photos everywhere 🙂 Thanks, Candace, for the snap!
Below is the Angel Oak Tree, which is located on Johns Island and is estimated to be 400-500 years old. It was actually much cooler than I even expected! The branches extend in all directions and even creep across the ground in multiple places, and the eerie fog and rain only enhanced the experience!
Lastly, we headed out to Folly Beach for some sun soaking and ocean air before having to board our long flight home. It was actually a perfect beach day and there’s a great cafe nearby called Black Magic Cafe that’s celiac friendly and has a colorful beachy vibe! Double score!
Well, that’s it for our quick 2.5 day tour of the Charleston area! On to the next adventure!
If you want to see more of my travels, check out this post from our road trip last fall! And if you’re curious about how to travel with celiac disease or on a gluten free diet, here are some tips!
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