Travel Diaries ~ Charleston, SC ~

Welcome to the Travel Diaries! A new little series I'm creating for a few reasons-- One being that I am so bad at taking pictures on vacations. I love scrapbooking and would eventually like to make a little travel book, so I want to improve my photo-taking skills and the blog just seems like a good place to store said pictures. 

That leads me to my other reason for the series which is that I want to bring back old school blogging. I have memories of that "mommy blogging" era, where my mom, her friends, and my sister in-law, all had such blogs. They were free and fun! Kind of like social media but without the pressure to make every picture perfect. You didn't have everyone in the world looking, commenting, and liking or sharing your pictures and words. And each blog was unique to the person who created it. 

So while I know blogging is so outdated, like the Housewife Journals, it's a fun place to look back on for me, and for anyone mentioned or pictured in the posts. YouTube is a fun place for that too, but you do have a bigger audience there. 

So here we go, my new just-for-fun series! Beware, the photos are not great quality, but they're real and for the memories.💖

Charleston, SC * May 2026

Jonathan and I went to South Carolina for my niece's high school graduation. While we were there, we thought it would be fun to take a little trip to Charleston, which was only two hours from my brother's house. We could stay one night, spend Sunday exploring the city and be home before work on Monday. 

The graduation was so nice! My niece was Salutatorian. She gave a lovely speech and looked so beautiful and grown up!

We stayed at the party until about 3pm, then we headed out to Charleston! After checking in to our apartment, we needed to waste some time before dinner.

See, I was in charge of planning the entire itinerary for the trip. I intended for us to spend the afternoon at Middleton Place Plantation, before our dinner reservations at their restaurant...What I didn't realize is that the grounds close at 5. Our reservation was at 6:45. Oops. 

So we had to find another garden to spend the afternoon in. This beer garden, Bolts & Brews was literally just a stand in the outdoor area of Ace Hardware. There was a stage with live music and lots of little seating areas throughout the garden center. We were in the fern section as you can see. 

I had this amazing Strawberry Shandy, brewed locally in South Carolina. [not sure why all my pictures are slightly blurry. They didn't look like this on my phone... but this is the trial run of the diaries so It only gets better from here]

After our beer, we rushed over to Middleton Place for our dinner. Although we never got to see the gardens, *sigh* or tour the houses, or see all the different horses, we were able to take a little walk to admire the scenery. 

Our dinner was in the building next to the statue in the photo. We got the enclosed patio room so we could look out at the pond during our meal. There were lights strung from the trees making the Spanish moss look extra romantic. The picture doesn't do it justice. The main grounds alone were quite beautiful!

This was only part of the main historical house. We learned this later on YouTube after returning to our apartment. We also learned that they filmed a scene from The Patriot there. At that point I was very sad we weren't able to walk around fully. But maybe we'll get another chance some day! 

We also saw the sheep, just grazing freely around the property. And the biggest tree we ever saw. Jonathan insisted on a photo for a visual.

The next day, we slept in and had a relaxing morning, drinking coffee and packing up our things. Then we headed out to downtown Charleston. Jonathan chose Lillian's Petite Market & Eatery. It was a super cute little building, with a little market and coffee bar inside. We got rooftop seating and beautiful overcast weather!

The breakfast sandwiches were delicious! Afterwards, we drove to Hampton Park, just down the road. We had time to kill before Mass so we walked around.

The park was lovely! Full of beautiful flowers and more giant Oak trees.

I didn't take a picture in the church, but we went to Sacred Heart Catholic Church for a Latin Mass. The best part about going to the TLM is that every Mass is pretty much the same. Each one has little quirks and unique music of course, but getting a reverent and beautiful mass is guaranteed.

We then began our walking tour downtown! We started at the Open Air Market, walked through the entire thing and picked up a few souvenirs, then we went to the iconic Pineapple fountain.  

 

We then walked the coastline to the Battery Park. It was a perfect day to walk! Of course the homes with the water-views were amazing!

Then we found Rainbow Row. It wasn't as impressive as the internet said it would be...

We also found the Catholic Cathedral, St. John the Baptist. Unfortunately there was a choir concert being held inside, so while we couldn't go in, we did get to hear the music from the entryway.

After walking back to our car, we were so exhausted that we decided it was time to go home! It was a fun little overnight trip and we're happy we got to see Charleston. 

Thanks for reading about our trip! Until next time!

Gina💕