March 25, 2025 - April 3, 2025 -- The Campground at James Island County Park, SC to White Oak Shores, NC
Written By: Wendy
While in Madison, FL for the past month, we connected with one family who had kids the same ages as ours. We got along so well that they decided to reroute and head to Charleston with us for a few days. So although we were sad to leave so many friends behind, we were excited to bring some with us for a few days and to explore a new place. It made leaving much easier on our kids as well when we were able to tell them that friends were coming with us. Scott and I had been looking forward to exploring the Southern belle city with all of its history and charm, so we dove right in when we arrived.
On our first full day, we headed to Bowens Island to go on the Charleston eco boat tour out to the Morris Island Lighthouse. The tour exceeded our expectations in several ways. Our guide was a born and raised local and extremely knowledgeable about the local environment. We learned about the surrounding marsh area and the oysters that grow in abundance. Charleston is one of the last places that grows and harvests wild oysters, as opposed to farm raised. Farm raised oysters grow in underwater crates that the farmers shake regularly to avoid the oysters clumping together and create the pristine single oyster shells that you buy at restaurants. Comparatively, wild oysters need old oyster shells to attach to and grow from, so wild oysters are giant clumps of differing sizes of oysters and not nearly as visually pleasing but equally delicious. After all the oyster talk, Scott was craving oysters and luckily, our tour docked in the same parking lot as one of the best places to get local oysters in the Charleston area, Bowens Island Restaurant. It had an old sea shack sort of vibe, but the fresh oyster and warm crispy on the outside but soft and moist on the inside hush puppies were delectable. That evening we headed back to our campsite to have a pizza party with our friends to knock off a couple more pies for South Carolina.
We spent the next couple days exploring downtown Charleston and the surrounding area. We went on a famous carriage tour, which is a must in Charleston, and learned about the history and architecture of the city. We wandered the streets and popped in and out of the cute little shops, strolled along the waterfront, and let the kids splash in the pineapple fountain. We sampled delicious traditional food of she crab soup, shrimp and grits, fried fish, and hush puppies from Amen Street and Fleet Landing. Another day, Parker and I went on a plantation tour at the McLeod Plantation. Caroline wasn't feeling well, but I really wanted to show Parker what a plantation was and how it looked. Since we've been in the south, we have been reading several books about the Civil War, slavery, and the underground railroad. Although he is still young to fully grasp the concepts, I think it is immensely important to expose my kids to all of our country's history, no matter how painful it may be, especially when we are traveling through the exact areas that experienced these historic events. This specific plantation leaned more heavily into the history and stories of the enslaved that lived there, and I felt moved to tears many times on the tour.
To continue our history lessons, the next morning we set out with our friends to visit Fort Sumter, the location of the start of the Civil War. You have to take a boat to get to the island fort, and our park ranger gave a thorough recount of the events and circumstances leading up to that fateful first exchange of gunfire. Once we arrived at the fort, our kids were excited to run around the grounds and see the old cannons, barracks, and jail cells in the fort. Since we were the first tour group of the day, we had the opportunity to help the park rangers hoist the flag. Our kids were delighted to be able to help unfold the flag and hold the edges until it was raised to fly in the air. Ok, warning that I'm going to go on a tangent here. We have come to realize how amazing our national parks system is, which also includes national monuments, memorials, historic sites, battlefields, and more, for a total of 433 sites across the country. Each one of these is free for us to visit if we have the annual "American the Beautiful" pass (with the exception of tours at some sites), and every single one has a comprehensive junior ranger program. Kids (and adults!) are given a book that is appropriate for their age with various activities in it to complete that relate to the park or historic site we are visiting. After completion of the required number of activities in the book, the kids can earn a junior ranger badge from a park ranger. We have all learned a good amount from the junior ranger books, and we have badges from not only several national parks, but so many other unique locations, such as the Jazz Historic National Park in New Orleans, the National Seashore in Cape Cod, and the Yorktown battlefield in Virginia. It truly is an incredible program that is often under communicated to visitors. So the next time you're traveling, look for sites that are part of the National Park system and check out earning a junior ranger badge!
But as usual, I digress. On the return boat ride, we discussed all that we learned and finished up our junior ranger books as we watched dolphins play in the wake behind our boat. By the time we arrived back on shore, we were all hungry, so we set out to get some classic Charleston seafood at Hyman's Seafood, a long time staple of the area. It was a Saturday, so it was packed, but that made it easier for our boisterous table of 4 adults and 5 kids to blend into the already noisy restaurant. We stuffed our bellies with more traditional Charleston seafood classic of grits smothered in gravy topped with crab cakes and she crab soup, and then headed back to the campground.
That evening was our last in Charleston, and we still had several pies we needed to hand out to finish up the state of South Carolina. While Scott and Parker played chess (his latest obsession), Caroline and I walked around the campground finding people who were hanging around outside to give some free pies to. I loved taking one of the kids with me when I am handing out pies because an adorable young child is so much better at breaking the awkward social tension of walking into a group of strangers. We still had several pies, so I was desperately looking for a large group of people to finish off our task with. Finally, we found a group of older looking adults enjoying what looked like a potluck together outside. I gave Caroline a pie and our business card and sent her into the middle of their circle. No grandparent age human on earth can resist the adorableness of this bright eye 3 year-old with curly pigtails bouncing and a huge grin on her face. The group immediately stopped talking and gave her their full attention as she tried to explain our family mission. I then came in to interpret and explain why we are giving away pies. The group was so touched by the pies that they invited us to join them for their oyster boil potluck. I ran home to grab Scott and Parker, and Scott instantly leapt out of his seat when I told him that some locals wanted to share their oysters with us. When we returned, the host, a born and raised local to James Island, hugged us like we were now family members that they had not seen in a while. They invited us to sit with them at their picnic table as they poured the last of the 2 bushels of steamed oysters they had bought for the day. One of the couples there were work campers at the campground and this was their send off party. Almost everyone had already had their fill of oysters, so we gladly helped them finish off the rest. As soon as we sat down, we were each given an oyster knife and shown the best technique for opening them. I am not an oyster fan, so I started off by just opening oysters for Scott, but after a while I became curious. I tried a tiny one, and it was surprisingly delicious. A bit chewy, but not too slimy, with a briny taste of the ocean. I tried another and the taste grew on me. Before I knew it, I was throwing back oysters like they were my new favorite food. While we shucked, we learned about the local area and heard stories from the locals about the campground. It was the exact experience we had been hoping that our 50 Pies mission would create, and Scott and I could not have been happier. After our bellies were full, we said our sincere thanks and gave big hugs of good bye to our new friends.
The next day, we said good bye to our travel buddies and headed to North Carolina. We were staying at a remote little campground off the coast for a few days on our way up to Virginia. There wasn't too much to do in the area, and we didn't know anyone there, so we took advantage of the down time to rest and recharge. We went to the beach one sunny afternoon and watched the kids play in the waves while Scott and I read and relaxed in the sun. We had been going pretty hard without very many back to back quiet recovery days since, maybe November? Yikes! So this was exactly what we needed, especially since we would be going hard again once we hit Virginia in a few days!