Virginia Beach, VA, Beaufort North Carolina, Charlotte NC, Charleston South Carolina

Virginia Beach , Virginia -

Christmas Boardwalk Light Show

On Sunday we met up with some friends, The Boyd Family, from California that had moved to Virginia Beach a few years ago and went to Wave Church together. This church was massive! When you walked in it seemed like you were walking into a concert. Afterward we went to a grocery store called Food Lion and bought some flowers for the Boyd's as a congratulations present for the birth of their new baby. Then we went over to their house for dinner that night. For the next few days we did our school work and then on Thursday we made our way down to the U.S historic triangle to visit Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. At Williamsburg we went to William and Mary college, the second oldest United States College only after Harvard. We also found Williamsburg's famous candy shop. On Friday we visited with the Boyd's again and went out for dinner to a place called Dough Boys California Pizza. During Christmas time, Virginia Beach has a fun light show where you can drive about 3 miles on the beach board walk and it is completely covered in Christmas lights.

Shelby conducting her erosion experiment 

Tori conducting her experiment on condensation and precipitation 

Bennion's and Boyd's

Virginia Beach Christmas light show on the boardwalk

Beaufort, North Carolina ~ by Ally

This was a super small town , not a whole lot there . We drove the whole island called "Atlantic Beach" the first day that we got to town. Lots of big houses on stilts with storm shutters due to hurricanes. Very different then what we are used to seeing in CA. We also went to Beufort Maritime Museum and learned that a Pirate named Blackbeard had landed there and had sailed in the waters around Beaufort.

Beufort Maritime Museum 

Collin conducting a school report at the Aquarium 

Carrot Island with the wild horses

We took a bridge to Emerald island and went to a beach there and to an aquarium called North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. On Friday my mom stayed home to wrap Christmas presents and Dad took us out to a little sand spit called Carrot Island. The history to this island is that a Spanish ship sunk a long time ago and was full of horses. The horses were able to swim to shore. Now, there are still wild horses that roam the sand spits up and down the North Carolina Coast. We took a boat to the island and walked around. The minute we were on the island we saw a herd of wild horses. We then walked some more and saw other horses and hunted for shells along the banks.

 Charlotte, North Carolina ~ by Sandy

 Here we continued to enjoy the southern accent that everyone had , but most of all we enjoyed the company of our friends the Ramirez Family. They had just moved to Charlotte a month ago from San Luis Obispo so it was super fun being able to visit with them in their new home town.  We went with them to a cute downtown village called Baxter Village, NC and walked around and looked at the shops. We also went with them to the home of Billy Gram which has turned into a museum . There we saw Christmas lights and enjoyed some ice cream, even though it was a cold evening . We took them to Five Guys Hamburgers since they hadn't eaten there yet. It was a blessing to see familiar faces and enjoyed wonderful conversations over many meals at their home. We are  so grateful  for our time we got to spend with them .  Wes took the kids to Discovery Place in downtown Charlotte (What the locals call Uptown) They had a aquarium exhibit, a rainforest exhibit, and a whole bunch of other scientific exhibits that the kids loved playing with. I stayed home again and finished up wrapping presents . Hurray !

Ramirez & Bennion Families in front of Baxter Village Christmas tree

Ramirez & Bennion Family at the Ramirez Family house

Charleston, SC ~ by Ally

Folly Beach SC

We walked around downtown Charleston, and Rainbow Row which is a colorful row of historic houses. While we were in Charleston we also went to "Battery". This is a grove of large oak trees right next to the bay above a long defensive seawall that was used in the civil war. Shelby, Mom and I went on Monday to go watch the Hobbit for an early birthday present for me. We had a good time watching it. There are many islands around the town. One of them is called James Island we drove around it and went to a little town called Folly Beach. It was POURING rain and we had to wear our hoods to keep our heads dry. On James Island we went to a mexican restaurant named Taco Boys. They had some good tacos there. :) We just drove around Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island since it was raining so hard. Wednesday was christmas eve and we went to go see the Holiday Festival Of Lights. It was a County campground that lit up tons of lights all around the park, and it was a three mile loop around the park and a little lake! Thursday was Christmas and we woke up to see our little RV table covered in presents and our stockings full to the brim laying on the couch. Taking turns, we opened the gifts that were gathered by “Santa” from all over the USA (literally). I got PJs from New York for example and a bookmark that had the statue of liberty on it. After opening the presents we chatted with our aunts, uncles, and cousins through Google Hangouts. It was nice to see familiar faces and brought back the memories and the feeling of being home. Christmas dinner was steak smothered in yummy cherry pomegranate Habanero Sauce, mashed potatoes, cream corn, and bread crumbed artichoke hearts. SOOOOO good. :)

Christmas Cookies for Santa :) 

Kids with their stockings

That Christmas day we went to the most "posh" island: Kiawah Island. So posh in fact that they wouldn’t let anyone that didn’t live there park on the street, and had guards stationed at the entry.We received a day pass for the shops, but took a detour and parked at a construction site (so as to go un-noticed) to go walking on the beach. While we were there we explored a beautiful tropical beach. We found amazing shells, starfish and horseshoe crabs. On the last day, our minivan sliding door would not shut so my dad spent a couple of hours of the day fixing it. But when it was fixed, Dad took us to the movies theaters to watch “Into The Woods.” It was a funny musical. The trees in Charleston are a mixture of palm trees and oak trees with hanging spanish moss. It is humid and hot even when it rains. We went to a great place to eat called Page’s Okra Grill. There I ate some really good Okra! Yumy :)

Kids swinging on a canopy swing at the Charleston Pier

Our small christmas tree with the presents behind

Kiawah Island SC

Ally and Shelby pretending to have Spanish Moss as mustaches

Pineapple fountain at the Charleston Ocean Front Park

GATORS! 

Christmas Dinner 

Ally in front of an historic Charleston downtown home