Doin' The Charleston, Part Two

On Sunday, we decided to go downtown and walk , which is the best way to see the prettiest parts of Charleston. This is where we began:
There are so many beautiful, old houses around Battery Park and East Bay Street. We each had our favorites, but we all agreed: this dude was just showing off.

Cathryn's favorite (naturally) was pink:

This house was Richie's favorite. I believe the museum called this Georgian architecture, and described it as a masculine style. It even had cement lions decorating the outside.

This is the house that really struck me. Maybe because it reminded me of the house in Mary Poppins. Of course my favorite house would be pop-culture related!

Next, we decided to take a break from walking and let Cathryn run around the park, like a lot of the other kids were doing. She quickly became obsessed with this cannon.

Cathryn loves taking pictures so much, that we found it difficult to take a picture of her when she wasn't posing. Richie was the only successful photographer:

Here's another that Richie took. He says that it's his favorite, and it's definitely one of mine. It's my desktop background right now.

Our only family picture! My only regret is that Trey wasn't with us. My mission is to get someone to take a picture will all four of us in it.

I love this picture. They are so sweet together.

The next place we went was Liberty Square, which houses the Fort Sumter National Monument, the American Military Museum, the SC Aquarium, and various shops. This sign was near the shops. I thought it was quite whimsical.

As I've never been to the SC Aquarium, I was thoroughly fascinated by the design of the place. This artwork on the outside of the building continued inside along the ceiling of the main lobby.

These frogs were great. We saw one atop a house on East Bay Street.

River otters in "The Mountains" exhibit! We were all so excited to see them. These guys were total hams. They loved the crowds and continually played to them.

We all agreed that the best thing about the aquarium was the ocean tank. It was phenomenal. You literally felt like you were standing at the bottom of the ocean. Cathryn went wild over the sharks:

Here's a better shot of the ocean tank. We came right at feeding time, which was particularly exciting.

No trip could be complete without sticking your head through a cardboard cutout!

Our trip to Charleston was wonderful. I almost don't have the words to describe how great it was to have us together, doing touristy things. The three of us had the best time being goofy together, and just hanging out together as a family. Really, I can only think of one thing that was missing from our trip, and that was Trey.

Toodles!