March 17, 2017 (Friday)
Weekend trip! We got
cheap tickets ($130) from Detroit to Myrtle Beach, granted we had to fly on
Spirit, which was not the best experience in the past. The flight both ways was
not as bad as previously – so yes, we may fly again with them if the price is
right and the flight not too long.
The morning started out a little rough. There was a security
breach so they made us reprint our tickets once we arrived to the airport –
thankfully they did not charge us for that. The bag check line was really long,
out of the zig-zag and about half way down the baggage check area. Luckily,
there weren’t a ton of people checking in to fly other airlines – that would
have gotten very messy!
The security line was not too bad – pretty much full all thru
the zig-zags, but it was moving right along.
After we landed, I waited for the luggage while Mike got the
rental car which was a walk across the parking lot. We used Enterprise this
trip. We got a full size car – Chrysler
300. The car was nice, one of the better rental we have gotten for sure.
The main purpose of our trip was to visit friends, thus we
headed to their place in Summerville, SC.
We could have flown into Charleston, but that flight was about $400. We
decided to just drive it – it was less than 3 hours. We stopped for lunch at a BBQ buffet place
called the Bar-B-Que Barn in Moncks Corner. It was $9.95 for the buffet and
there was a large selection of options. The pulled pork was really good.
It was only about a 45 minute drive to get to our friends
place after lunch. We spent the afternoon hanging out and catching up.
March 18, 2017 (Saturday)
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| Fort Pulaski National Monument |
Since we had visited Charleston about 7 years ago, we had
already visited the National Park Sites in the general vicinity. We had not
ventured to Savannah, which was about a two hour drive to the south. Getting an early start on the day, we made it
to Fort Pulaski National Monument by around 11am. There is a $7/adult fee (free
with NPS pass). It is said that the battle fought at this fort was turning
point in military history. Masonry fortifications were the United States’ main
defense through much of the 19th century; however, during the Civil
War new technology proved that masonry forts were not as great as expected. The
Union army used rifled cannon to cause major damage to Fort Pulaski. The
Confederates had to surrender. We had
planned to walk the lighthouse trail, but the trail was closed. Our guess is
that a hurricane damaged the trail. Instead, we walked around the fort, which
turned out to be a good decision. On the one side of the fort, you could see
some of the damaged that the fort obtained during the war. It was super neat to
see an actual cannonball stuck into the side of the fort!
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| Fort Pulaski National Monument |
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| Tybee Island Lighthouse |
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| Forsyth Park Fountain |
Savannah was a bit crazy,
apparently St. Patrick’s Day is kind of a big deal there. We drove by the Cathedral
of St. John the Baptist so I could snap some photos. The cathedral was built
between 1873 and 1876 and is of French Gothic style. It is the oldest Roman
Catholic Church in Georgia. A fire destroyed the church in 1898 and it was
rebuilt immediately afterwards. Next stop was Forsyth Park. Forsyth Park is a
30-acre park that has a cast iron fountain that was erected in 1858 that was
designed to resemble the grand fountain at Place de la Concorde in Paris. We lucked out and found really close parking
near the park! It was also kind of
coincidental that our friends’ cousin just happened to be at the park at the
same time! We hung out at the park for a
bit, snapped a few photos of the statue and fountain before heading out for ice
cream. The cousin acted as a tour guide
for us, which was great! The line at the
ice cream place, Leopold’s Ice Cream (almost 100 year old ice cream parlor),
was about a 30 minute wait. The ice cream was really good and worth the wait.
There were lots of flavor choices. I
selected the coconut and the caramel swirl, both were excellent. After our ice
cream treat, we walked back to the car and headed back to Summerville.
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| Cathedral of St. John the Baptist |
I almost forgot to mention a cute little place we stopped at
along our way to Savannah! There is a
franchise called Caroline Cider Company. Lots of jellies, salsas, pies, and
ciders. Definitely a cute place to check out. The peach cider was super good!
March 19, 2017 (Sunday)
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| Bell Tower at Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site |
Next, we drove to Folly Beach, where we had lunch at Rita’s
Seaside Grille. Lunch was good – I had the pulled BBQ Pork Sandwich. After
lunch, we headed to the beach! There were some surfers out, but the waves were
not too big. We went kite flying.
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| Kite Flying at Folly Beach |
Mid-afternoon we said our goodbyes and then headed back to
Myrtle Beach for our flight home. There was not nearly as much traffic as there
was on Friday. Mike of course had to head to the Hard Rock Café to add a zippo
to his collection. The Hard Rock was in an entertainment area called Broadway
on the Beach. There were a ton of
restaurants and other activities in that area and we had dinner at Rooster’s
Restaurant & Bar. The walls were littered with chicken jokes – some were
kind of funny! We split a pizza and salad – it was just okay.
