Welcome to Charleston, South Carolina

My husband and I went to Charleston a couple of weeks ago to do some apartment and job hunting (with some sight seeing on the side). Here are some pictures from our adventure:

This is our apartment! Not too shabby.

We spent one afternoon at the Boone Hall Plantation- an old cotton plantation that also specialized in brick-making back in the day. All of the bricks in the main house were made by slaves. The plantation still works as a U-Pick farm, specializing in every fruit and vegetable you can think of; and they also do civil war battle re-enactments every year. Here are some of the slave cabins that are located on the front lawn of the plantation (which signified to guests and neighbors the amount of wealth the plantation owners had).

Here's a real, live cotton field. These plants are SHARP!

The trees there are crazy- they have HUGE branches that reach down and touch the ground; and spanish moss is on everything.

Here's my future dental student in front of Boone Hall. Scenes from "The Notebook" were filmed at this house (the main chick's super rich parents lived here).

This is the Avenue of the Oaks- a.k.a., the driveway to Boone Hall Plantation- 3/4 of a mile long, and lined with beautiful oak trees.

These signs are everywhere- mainly posted next to ponds. I didn't see one, but my husband did. Crazy.

Allow me to introduce you to some Southern cuisine. This is a side dish of tomatoes and okra at The Hominy Grill in downtown Charleston. Okra is a little slimy, but it's not bad!

Boiled peanuts- so weird. Nothing to write home about, but definitely something to try so you can say you did. Tastes like beans.

Here's a picture of the teeny-tiny Columbia LDS Temple. A solid 1.5 hour drive from Charleston. Kind of makes my 5 minute drive down the street not look so bad!

Here is a beach house at Folly Beach- there are a TON of fancy houses on this strip, and they're all on either stilts or tall concrete foundations.

Folly Beach- it was raining cats and dogs during this picture, but it was still nice to see the ocean!

Funny sign on the beach- "Over 176 million lbs of cigarette butts are littered in the US every year. Please hold onto your butts."

Cool pineapple fountain (symbol of hospitality) by the Battery (southern most edge of Charleston, right next to the ocean).

Rainbow Row (a line of houses painted all different kinds of pastel-ish colors- really pretty).

A LOT of the mansions around the Battery and downtown Charleston look like this- different colors, but they all have the east-facing, two-level balconies- to allow the cool ocean breezes to drift in during the hot summer months. There are no skyscrapers in Charleston- nothing above 5 floors or so- it's part of a major historical conservation effort. Charleston is nicknamed the "Holy City," because there is a different church on almost every street corner- and they are all beautiful buildings! The tallest buildings are the dental and medical schools and hospital complexes, but other than that, it's all church spires.

Charleston is definitely a unique place- a lot of history, beautiful and elegant houses and buildings, and a lot of different things to see. Anyone interested in visiting yet? =)