So our road trip started in Florida, our home state, and we traveled north, which we love to do, heading to Pigeon Forge, TN where we had to do some personal business but had to spend the night and enjoy that mountain air again. We lived in Pigeon Forge for three years before moving back home to Florida for family reasons. We stayed in a real cute hotel just off the beaten path from the busy traffic on strip, and for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of visiting Pigeon Forge yet, the strip is the main highway into and out of town with about a million traffic lights, but plenty to see and visit on your way down towards Gatlinburg. We love the area, miss the fly fishing with the boys, and just driving down the road looking at the beautiful mountains and streams everyday on my way to work. I will post a few pictures of our visit, but I have so many nice pictures from when we lived here, that it will have to be a blog on its own. Here are just a few we took this trip.
The countryside is amazing, and the picture below is an area called “The Island”. The Island is filled with some wonderful, quaint little shops and restaurants you would love. The ferris wheel is amazing in the day, and even more in the night, as you can see. The different colors are hard to catch with your camera, so go see for yourself. I love riding this ferris wheel. The glass surrounds you and the views are amazing both in the day and the evening. People come from all over the world to see the wonderful place in Tennessee and the wonderful “Dolly Parton”.
This is the river we used to enjoy white water rafting on just before you get into North Carolina. If you haven’t experienced white water rafting, let me just say, it is one of the best experiences I have ever had. If I could choose a job without worrying about how much money I had to make, being a guide and white water rafting all day, would be the job for me! 
After saying goodbye to Pigeon Forge again, we traveling toward Myrtle Beach, which is a new adventure for us. Eagerly anticipating the beach we have been told about for so long we finally arrived to a beautiful, sixteen mile stretch of white, sandy beach. Our hotel was an older hotel, which they never really look like the pictures you see online unfortunetely, but it was ok and the location was fabulous. Our view from our balcony was amazing and the fresh breezes from the ocean where wonderful. Sleeping with the door open to the balcony was very relaxing listening to the waves all night. The hotel had a nice pool, next door at their other property, but we could easily walk downstairs and it was on the side of the beach where we were spending most of our time anyway. The pier was a few hundred feet from our hotel so that was nice but it was not free to walk on, which we were disappointed to find out. Why should I pay to walk out on the pier unless I am fishing? I don’t know but we did not pay for the walk on the pier, instead we walked for free on the long beach and took pictures enjoying our sunny day. There are so many hotels on this beach you will surely find the one that is right for you and your family, we definetely will come back and stay in a different hotel this time. Our room was nice, big, but needed to be updated. I was very disappointed to find out they do not provide a hair dryer so bring your own. It is a small thing I know, but when you expect to have one in your room and you get out of the shower with wet hair to go to dinner and you don’t have one, you will not be happy. The many restaurants in Myrtle Beach made it hard to decide which to visit, but we picked a few nice ones, not cheap, but all you can eat, so we were ok with the price. We spend about 30.00 a piece at one of the seafood, all you can eat places, which there are many, and the prices vary. We were not that impressed and would not choose to do the all you can eat on our next visit, but instead choose one of their many great seafood restaurants with a normal menu. We did get some great pictures of the beaches. Here are a few I hope you enjoy.
After enjoying some wonderful sunny days in Myrtle Beach we drove south to visit Charleston, South Carolina where we were eager to walk the historical streets and see all the beautiful old historical homes of the South. We decided to stay at a small hotel in Charleston, “Creekside Lands Inn”. This hotel was cute, clean, inexpensive, and the staff were very nice and helpful to give us suggestions on best places to eat. We were eager to sit next to the pool and enjoy the sunset by the creek. This hotel was less than $100.00 a night and free continental breakfast.
We drove about 10 minutes to get downtown and decided to take a horse and buggy ride through downtown to be up and close to the homes and learn alot about the city from our informative guide. There are a few horse and buggy companies to choose from but Charleston Carriage Works was the one we chose. The prices are comparable so it really doesn’t matter. We took a nice long ride through the streets of Charleston and saw places we would not have seen by car. You need to hear the history and detail of these homes to truly appreciate them. We walked through Battery Park which is next to the water where people were just walking their dogs, doing yoga, or just sitting on the park bench. We even saw a man using a payphone in the park, which we took a picture of because we haven’t seen a payphone in years!
Charleston has so many sites to see that we will be returning, hopefully soon, and maybe do a haunted horse and buggy ride! Charleston also has some very beautiful beaches so we decided to go visit. Eric always wants to go to the beach no matter where we go, so we visited “Folly Beach” which was just as nice as Myrtle Beach and reminded us of Myrtle Beach, even the pier. The beachy town had lots of cute shops to visit but we were on a mission and that was to get to the beach, and it got dark before we could go shopping, so maybe next time.
We were hoping to see some of our favorite reality show peeps from “Southern Charm”, but we were not lucky this time. We did manage to see Ms. Patricia’s home and her butler Michael who was sitting in the Bentley waiting on Ms. Patricia I assume, but did not see her. Maybe next time. Would love to see all of the cast some day!
Well our visit in Charleston was not long enough but we have to get back home and get to work so we can go on more vacations! Visit often to see our next vacation or just some of our favorite weekend getaways! Happy Travels!
Weekend Getaway Travel Company 