Day five of our summer vacation, which was our second full day in Charleston, was also busy. It got off to a much better start, as we found no evidence of bugs in our new hotel room, so we were feeling a little more calm as we headed across the terrifying Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, which Moose loved, to the Isle of Palms for our beach morning.

We spent several hours at the beach building sand castles, looking for seashells, and playing in the water. We also saw either a dolphin or a shark…fortunately, it didn’t get close enough to us for us to tell for sure!

We took a walk down Ocean Blvd. on the Isle of Palms after we were done in the water, in a misguided attempt to dry off. It was fun experiencing the laid-back atmosphere of island life along the way, and I discovered that everything they say about island time is true!

After our walk, we headed to the neighboring island, Sullivan’s Island, to visit Fort Moultrie, which served our country from the time of the Revolutionary War through WWII. We got to see a great movie about the history of the fort, and then took a long walk around the fort to see what all the different parts of the installation were.

We then drove back across the scary bridge to visit the Waterfront Park, which is famous for its pineapple fountain. The children loved that they were allowed to wade in it, and I loved seeing it in person!

We had another brief hiccup in our plans when Ryan had to take our car in to have the brakes replaced. It didn’t take too long, though, and the children and I enjoyed watching more cable TV while he was gone. Once he got back, we drove to North Charleston to Holy City Brewing, where I was planning on trying a flight of their beer. The brewery wasn’t as family-friendly as they advertised, however, so we ended up not staying, but it was still fun to see it.

We then drove back downtown, to have the family walk through White Point Garden that we had missed due to the rain the night before. We walked along the harbor and admired the houses on The Battery while we were there. We also saw a Dungeness Crab in the water, which we identified thanks to some kind fishermen who were down there.

We said one last goodbye to downtown Charleston and the ocean before heading back to our hotel to pack up. On the way, we stopped at the grocery store, a Harris Teeter…I enjoyed seeing a new grocery chain, which is weird thing I like to do when I’m in a new place.