Mark and I indulged the two and half days were gone…and it all started with the box of Godiva choocolates and sparkling cider that we had as part of our babymoon package.  Mmmm!

Sunday night, we used our gift certificate to Mercato’s.  A short walk and we arrived at a beautifully decorated Italian restaurant.  The food was pretty good and the prices were great (since we didn’t have to pay for our meal).  As a salad, I got a Caprese Salad.  I wasn’t sure what that was but was interested in trying the house made mozzarella…which turned out not to have too much flavor to it at all.

This year marks 10 years that Mark and I have been married.  (Okay, I was going to put 10 years that he’s put up with me in the same house under the same roof…but it’s more romantic to say it the other way).  Given that on our actual anniversary I’m going to be right smack in the middle of third trimester uncomfortableness (and that is a word), we decided to plan a trip a little ahead of our anniversary. 

We threw around different places to go all the way from the Grand Canyon to New York City.  And then, one day, I realized, we’d both never been to Charleston which is practically in our backyard (okay about three hours from our backyard but that’s pretty close compared to where we were looking).  We started looking at places to stay in Charleston and crept upon a pretty little inn with a sweet romance package…called a Babymoon Package.  It was a great deal on a room which included a spa gift certificate and a gift certificate to a restaurant.  We were pysched!  After arranging childcare we made reservations and set the date.

And it happened this month!  We had a wonderful time and this was the first time, since having children, we’ve taken a trip and not had to do anything!  So, the next few days, get ready to visit Charleston with us (briefly, you really have to go to get the full experience).

We stayed at the Andrew Pinckney Inn.  This is the main building and the rest of the hotel is across the street.  The room was beautiful.  A bit small…and my only other complaint (besides getting a call from what I can only imagine was the front desk, the first night at 3 in the morning), was that we were put on a streetside room.  Not too big a deal.  The noise outside died down about the time we headed to bed.  However, the street sweepers came by both nights twice around 5 in the morning.  Not ideal for a couple who is on their Babymoon trip.  So, if you are pregnant and want to get in on this deal, request an inside room!  Oh, and don’t drink the beverages served at breakfast.  Something with those machines makes them all taste like metal or rotten or something….but the breakfast was good and served it’s purpose for our ventures out that day!

The best thing about where we stayed was that we were about two blocks from Market Street where all the tourists go to experience Charleston.  We were also within walking distance to a ton of restaurants.  We pretty much kept the car (or truck…we had to borrow Mark’s dad’s truck…long story) parked except for two outings.

Mark took a picture of a front door.  Well, it’s two front doors on one house.  We took a carriage ride (highly recommended to learn more about Charleston and to look at the beautiful houses) and our guide told us why most of the houses have these doors to the porch.  They’re called “hospitality” doors.  If they are open, it means the homeowners are open to receiving guests.  Closed means “get lost.”  Either way, we thought they were unusual and beautiful.

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church that they started building in the 1800s and finished just this year!  The reason being that they just added the beautiful metalwork steeple to it this year.  This is just one example of the beautiful eccentric buildings that can be seen all around Charleston.

One day, we ate our breakfast (at the inn) on top of the “roof.”  Which is really a little terrace balcony on the top floor.  It was beautiful and romantic.  This is a view from the breakfast area (and also the only shot of both of us together).  I was hoping she would be able to get the church in the shot…we were at the corner of Church St. and Pinckney St. and there was a beautiful huge steeple that could be seen from the terrace area.

A loooooonnnnng time ago…well, not that long ago.  Just several months ago, Mark turned 30.  With that, the kids and his parents decided to give him a memorable gift.  A trip to see a space shuttle launch.  This is the last year, unless intervened upon by Congress, that NASA will send men into space using their own space transportation system.  Long story short, this was going to be the last year that the shuttle would be launched and next year they would start sending up a new rocket (like what the Apollo missions used only modern).  However, the NASA program to use the rockets (which were already being tested) has been cut from the government budget.  This, obviously, is going to put a big delay on more man-space missions.  Anyways…all that to say that there were only a handful of missions left to see an actual shuttle launch.

We couldn’t go to the first few…but this month was THE month to make it.

Now, I must admit we almost had to “scrub” our mission to head to Florida to watch the launch.  Josiah and Liam both decided to start with a fever (that Mark and Ceili Rain had had the previous week) on Friday.  Mark was still feeling a little under the weather on Saturday night and then I started to get a sore throat.  We made the decision to cancel our trip unless we both felt better Sunday morning (two parents plus two kids down and out would not make for a very fun trip).  Easter Sunday dawned and Mark and I both were up and ready to go.  After church we loaded the van, kids, and food and headed to Florida.

We stopped that night in Daytona and slept for a few hours and then got up at 2:30 in the morning (I’m so not kidding on that).  Woke the kids up at 3 a.m. (not kidding on that) and headed the extra hour to Titusville.  Going from a tip from one of Mark’s co-workers, we squeezed into a spot to watch the launch.  And we had an awesome view.

We really hoped the kids would sleep on the way to Titusville.  But they didn’t.