Christmas in Charleston

James Island County Park
Charleston, SC

We had an enjoyable Christmas day!

I heard from my Mom that morning,

and her ship was fogged in at Beaufort, SC

so they weren't sure when they'd get into Charleston.

We lounged around for awhile that morning,

getting updates all the while from her.

We decided to drive into town,

we figured it wouldn't be very busy.

It was a nice drive, it only took 15 minutes.

George drove us around by the waterfront,

and we found a place to park and walk around.

The buildings in Charleston are just lovely..

It was cloudy, but warm and muggy.

Of course everything was closed,

so we'll have to come back and explore some more another time.

We walked over to the water, and the Fort Sumter National Monument.

The grounds around there were beautiful,

with flowers still blooming.

We even got someone to take our picture by the fountain..

In the meantime, we got updated from Mom, 

and she told us that they weren't going to arrive

in the port of Charleston until at least 8 pm!

Well...

we had to make some quick plans to find

a place to eat a Christmas dinner!

With the power of Google we found a place that

was open and serving dinner..

It was a great place called Anson's Restaurant.

They found a seat for us at the bar,

which was fine with us.

They had a nice Christmas offering on the menu,
with turkey, stuffing, sweet potato, green beans, and gravy.
George said the portion was so small we may have to find a McDonald's :-)

I found one of my favorite wines on the wine menu,
Duckhorn...
A half bottle was $33!!

After enjoying the good but pricey meal,
we found a Haagen-Daz and had dessert :-)

We made our way to the dock where my Mom would be arriving,
and walked around.
The weather was nice still!

The fog started to roll in, so we were worried that they may not make it.
We were able to track her progress on a website where you
can track marine traffic.
Who knew? :-)

We could hear the ships horn as it made it upriver
through the fog.
As it got closer to the dock, we could see that someone had
parked their small sailboat right where this guy needed to park!
A bunch of people who were partying on their boats
came out and pulled the small sailboat out of the way.
With applause from the people on the ship,
the captain pulled in perfectly :-)

My Mom stepped off to hugs from both of us!
There was a rush to get on a waiting bus,
where the passengers got a tour of the Christmas lights
at the James Island Park.
I rode with my Mom on the bus,
George followed behind,
and the driver dropped me off at the campground.
Perfect!

Yesterday we toured Charleston with Mom..
another post about that to come!