travel
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The Adagio: Spending More on a Vacation
I have one more post to share about our trip to the beach this past Thanksgiving with little tour of Seaside. Today, I wanted to share where we stayed and discuss why I was okay with spending more than we usually do on a one week vacation in the US. As I have mentioned before, we chose to rent along 30A in Santa Rosa beach because we wanted to rent bikes, there were several pretty little towns to explore and the beaches are beautiful. The Adagio I usually pride myself on finding nice accomodations for a low budget but this year, I decided that since we were not going to…
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Gulf of Mexico: Beautiful Waters
I wanted to dedicate a post to some of the beautiful pictures I took of the sunsets and the beach during our vacation along the Gulf of Mexico in Florida for Thanksgiving. We were blessed to arrive just a little bit before the sunset set on our first day and it was the most magnificent sunset of our vacation. My son actually took this particular picture and I love how the sun reflect on the water and the breaking wave. I usually wake up early to walk on the beach but I didn’t sleep the best on this vacation (I blame the pillows and not being used to a king…
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Walk in Alys Beach
When we visit the Beaches of South Walton along 30A, one of the towns I love to stroll in is Alys Beach. Alys Beach is a luxury beach resort community. The architecture was inspired by the white traditional homes of Bermuda and you are just in awe of how beautiful these pristine white structures are when you walk around. Most homes have a courtyard with a pool or a fountain and building follows rigurous guidelines to keep the uniformity of the community. I couldn’t help myself and took picture after picture. The day was kind of hazy and foggy so there was no contrasting blue sky but that didn’t take…
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Biking along 30A
We rented bikes for the week during our vacation at the beach. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to find a rental on this stretch of beach, because I knew from past experiences how easy the bike trail was to access and how we could have varied rides during our stay. While we do have bikes, we chose to rent because we knew the salt air and the occasional dirt/sand paths would not be gentle on our bikes and bike gears. Renting bikes for our whole family (5 bikes and a wohoo attachment for the toddler) for 5 days was definitely a big part of our budget.…
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Why 30A: Choosing a Beach Location
If you live in the South you may have seen the beach stickers on people’s car with 30A (image source, google search). 30A or the beaches of South Walton include small picturesque towns you may have heard from such as Seaside (where The Truman Show movies was filmed), Watercolor, Alys Beach and Rosemary beach. Why would we choose to spend Thanksgiving week on 30A? Today I am sharing some of our reasons and in the next few weeks, I will be sharing different posts about some of the places we enjoy around here. Bike Trails There is a 17 mile strip of bike trails along 30A with pretty views of…
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Old Colonial Dorchester Historical Site, SC
While in Charleston, I knew that I would like to visit a historical site so after a little google search I discovered Old Colonial Dorchester Historical Site in Summerville which is a 30 minute drive from Charleston. The following is a direct quote from the website. “From 1697 until the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the trading town of Dorchester flourished along the Ashley River, inland from colonial Charleston. Today, Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site’s remarkably preserved archaeological remains give visitors a peek into the early history of colonial South Carolina. Abandoned at the start of the Revolutionary War, the town of Dorchester has all but disappeared, leaving only a handful…
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Charleston: The City
We spent our first full morning walking around Charleston. Our hotel was located in the historic district so it was about a 25 minutes walk to rainbow row. We took our time walking and taking pictures and choosing which street to walk down. We were surprised with pretty doors and garage doors along the way, alleys and flower boxes. We only explored for a few hours as everyone got thirsty and tired. The first thing we noticed on our walk was how pretty the fire station was and we loved the little park right next to it: bushes, plants and a bell as well as a small fountain (no picture,…
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Charleston: Where to Eat
I planned my budget for our Charleston trip knowing that the majority of our expenses would be related to food since we planned to eat out for lunch and dinner. Charleston is well known for its restaurants and offers quite a variety of dishes. You can enjoy low country food, seafood and also international fare. I had a list of restaurants to try and we ended up eating at 3 of them and discovered a couple of other gems. We did not have a bad meal and had fun having the kids rate their dining experiences. I will start with our best meal on our trip: we ate at Fleet…
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Patriots Point and USS Yorktown (Mount Pleasant, SC)
I decided to start my travel posts recapping our trip with our last excursion. This was the only activity I had not planned in our vacation budget (which we totally went over, more on that later) but I thought the boys would really enjoy it which they did. If you visit Charleston and enjoy history, I would definitely take the time to visit Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum. It is just accross the Arthur Ravenel Bridge which takes you from Charleston to Mount Pleasant and was only 10 minutes from our hotel. We ended up spending close to 4 and half hours here including a break for lunch on…
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Charleston, SC: Planning Food and Outfits
We are heading to Charleston at the end of the week and as I shared in this first trip planning post, we will have free lodging and breakfast and are planning mostly free or very inexpensive activities. Where we will be spending our money is with eating out! Charleston is well known for its low country dishes: shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, fried green tomatoes, corn bread,etc. To make the most of our trip, I searched family friendly restaurants that were recommended for their tasty meals. Restaurants to Try Leon’s Oyster Shop Hen and the Goat Famalari’s Brewery and Pizza Co Fleet Landing Restaurant and Bar (fresh seafood, on the…