Playdate II: The Return

We just could not get enough of the zoo, a much better experience than our usual free zoo trip, which is a trip to Petsmart :-) Look at the majestic lions! Sometimes I think Miles must think we are making up all these animals to amuse him. I feel strangely vindicated by being able to show Miles that they actually exist. Particularly if one of them should make one of the noises we taught him.

No lion roars, sadly.
We could have happily spent MUCH more time in the awesome aquarium.

Gansta Miles and Jazz Hands Abby.

No, he doesn't think he's kissing the fish. He's kissing himself.

Wait, there are fish in there too??

This does not do justice to the awesomeness of the giant tanks full of things like sea turtles, sharks, and gorgeous multicolored fish. It was so peaceful! Took Jon and me back to our first date at the Philadelphia Aquarium, 9 years ago...

Miles and Abby take a break at the Kangaroo yard. Check out the 'roo way back in the distance!



Pensive Abby.

Miles making his elephant noise with raised arm-trunk.

Return to the giraffes and BOTH kids fed them this time!

Go Abby! So brave!

So thrilling.

I want a giraffe now.

With Leah and Matthew's pass we got a free ride on the Choo-choo!

Both kids had a BALL. Both had to be dragged away. Miles cried and said "Back?" He was easily distracted by the next animal, don't worry :-)


We left the zoo for lunch and naptime, but the late afternoon found us at the Edventure Children's Museum in Columbia!


Miles cheers for himself after putting his grocery cart away. Mini-grocery shopping is so mind-blowingly awesome for little kids.

Abby does not believe the fireman's hat is as fetching as the rest of us think it is.

Miles was pretty happy to pose.

Another thing we had to drag him away from! He loved it. I have to laugh at myself for all the ways Miles is a typical boy. I find vehicles and machines to be unutterably boring, but I cannot keep my kid away from them. What can I do but put on a hat and smile?

"I'm staying here, Abby, ok?"

I'll close out this exceptionally long photo diary with a video. No kids, but lots of monkies! Listen to their amazing vocal stylings!

Charleston Getaway

Can you believe it? We made it all the way to Charleston!!

Look, as promised... PALM trees. The real thing. It's been a very long time since I've seen actual palm trees.

Welcome to our suite!

Next month makes it our fifth anniversary. We took an early celebration, by the grace of Leah and Matthew.

Peace and quiet... our first night away from Miles!

Our kitchenette. I have frilly taste in Bed and Breakfasts.

Roses in this lovely person's garden!

ROSES! On March the 6th!! Egad!!

Ooh, and real Spanish moss.

You will be relieved to know that no snakes dropped on our heads this trip.

I just thought this sign was so Deco and classic.

The Roman Catholic church, St. John the Baptist.
This city has more churches per square mile (in the historic section) than any other American city. I think it was like 126 churches in the old city alone. Every imaginable Christian denomination (good luck being Jewish or Muslim here, though).


Trollys! To whisk you away to the Land of Make Believe! or uptown.

This is the inside of the RESTAURANT where Jon and I ate. It's a bar & grill now. They've got so many churches they don't know what to do.

Outside of the restaurant.

St. John Lutheran Church, pastored in the 19th C by John Bachman, a friend of John James Audubon, about whom Jon plans to write at least one length research paper. We might just have to return to Charleston... darn...

Rainbow row. There's a lot of pastel here, which makes it kind of surreal to me. Between that and the palm trees, I felt like I was in some kind of real, lived-in sort of Disneyworld. That's not intended to be a slight at all; it was just so clean, charming, tropical, frilly, and ...unreal.

This is the only Huguenot church/congregation in the country.



This is Victory the horse. I got to pet him for free :-)

It was a tacky souvenir shop, but I had to at least go in. One has to.

Look, a whole section of the city is still cobblestone! That would be the 18th century section.

This was the only part of the city where we could find any hint of Charleston's slave days. I think they felt obliged to make a museum, but no one really wants to talk about the slave trade in Charleston. I'm not sure if they think we're going to hold the current residents of the city responsible or something, but there's a bit of defensiveness there.

Waterfront Park, just a few blocks from our B&B. We didn't drive this whole trip.

Famous Pineapple Fountain. Children are allowed to play in it, though on March the 7th, it was still not a very enticing prospect.

5 years! (nearly). Go us!!!

This is our daylight return to the spot where, the evening before, we watched a gorgeous city sleep under a skyful of stars and a crescent moon. We couldn't believe our luck.

Our spot. Wanted to bottle the ocean air!

Here are some of the formidable Live Oaks. Their leaves look like no oaks I've ever seen before, they grow out, and they live to be hundreds and hundreds of years old. Their roots also resurface obligingly all over Charleston, so watch your step WHEN you go. Because if you can, you really should.

Playdate I

Here it is, the first of several posts about our epic trip to South Carolina last weekend! We were there in just five hours, of which Miles slept for about five minutes, preferring to spend his time gazing out the window looking at trucks or reading from the large stack of books we brought. We arrived Friday night and were put up very comfortably by Leah and Matthew.
What do you do in Columbia if you have a 20 month old? First stop: Riverbanks Zoo!!

As Miles would pronounce it, from right to left, are UhUhMamoo, eeeeeeeYAYA!! and Abeeeee!
He had missed his little friend!

The delight on his face here, however, are for another sight of his first favorite animal,

The Noble Goat.

This one is smiling. You see it, don't you?

These monkeys may well have been the favorite for their raucous howling. Video to follow.

Miles imitates the baboons expertly.

Abby pondering... the ineffable.

Miles looking aggressively at some lions. All this looking made us want to get a bit more involved, so in we stepped to the Lorikeet exhibit, thinking we'd have to bait and coax to tempt the birds to land on us, only to be immediately PELTED with birds! Here a bird clings to my hair a little closer to my eyes than I'd like, and Miles is appalled to learn that they are capable of nipping his curious fingers.

The panic subsided easily enough. Miles was so fascinated!

Family bird party.

Love the colors. Could do without the red eyes, though.

Taking a highly enjoyable trip on the merry-go-ground.

Boy did that thing SCOOT! We were flying!

Nothing like an array of huge exotic critters to astound kids.

This zoo is seriously awesome.

THISCLOSE to a giraffe!!

As there is only so much to accomplish before naptime, though, we had to make plans for zoo visit part two on Tuesday.

Bathtime is more fun with two.

Miles got live music performed nearly every night! He would nearly always jump on for a duet.
More adventures to follow!