Last time we wrote, we were in Savannah, Georgia heading to Charleston, SC. When we arrived in Savannah, it was really exciting because I knew we had made it into a quintessential southern town. It was really beautiful. The streets were lined with big trees covered in Spanish moss and paved with red cobblestone. There were parks on almost every corner with saxophone players, giant fountains, and people taking pictures of the huge monuments in the middle of the square. We walked around a bit and then headed into Lulu's Chocolate Bar. This bar is exactly what it sounds like. Cakes, pies, tarts, chocolates and any desert you can think of were behind the counter, but what really caught our eye were the 20 or so different chocolate based martinis. I ordered a peanut-butter cup martini while Conner ordered a more tart chocolatey type martini. After we ordered, they brought us a plate of chocolate cookies dipped in chocolate, chili sauce. It was definitely a different bar experience than either of us had ever had but super yummy. After that, we were pretty full so we just headed back to our hotel and hung out.
On the 4th of July, we woke up, went for a run around the park and then headed into Charleston. We drove along the outskirts of town along the bay which was lined with huge southern homes with wrap-around porches and huge backyards. It was so pretty, I instantly fell in love with the whole vibe of the city. We parked by the water and walked into downtown. I swear, this is the happiest, nicest city in the world. Everyone we passed on the side walk either smiled or said hello. The city actually kind of reminded me of a smaller (and kinder) San Francisco. So after walking around the town for a little while, we headed to our awaited lunch spot. Hominy Grill has been raved by tons of people on the food network, locals and tourists around town. It took us about 40 minutes of walking in the heat and humidity and then another hour wait once we got there but it was VERY worth the wait. They are known for their shrimp and grits, so Conner got those while I got the fried green tomato BLT. Both amazing. Fried green tomatoes are the best thing in the world and I'm actually a little mad at California for not having them. After lunch, we walked back downtown and headed to Wet Willy's, a bar known for it's daiquiris. I knew we had entered into the charming south when on the front door there was a sign explaining the male dress code. Shirts must have sleeves, and if shirts are longer then arms length, they must be tucked in. Luckily, this dress code wasn't enforced until after 8pm, so Conner was in the clear. After Wet Willy's, we walked around the town and saw all the beautiful churches and houses. These houses are so beautiful, it was hard not to pick out my future home. We had been walking around for a few hours so we decided to head back down to the water and relax there for a little while. Once rested, we headed to the brewery and had a few southern beers while over looking the water. This is also where we started sorting out the menu for Conner's restaurant we have decided he is going to open so stay tuned for that :) After the beers, we went to the Gin Joint, a very classy little bar that is famous for their cocktails. I got a New Orleans fizz and Conner got a Habanero Cilantro martini. Since we were feeling classy, we got a cheese platter as well, we figured this could be an appetizer to our dinner. We were really lucky and got a table outside, right on the water at a great restaurant called Fleets Landing. We were so excited to eat that we ordered a little too much. We had been seeing a ton of people ordering stuffed hushpuppies, and since we had no idea what hushpuppies were and felt too dumb to ask anyone, we had to order some. We soon found out that they were basically corn-dogs stuffed with lobster instead of hotdogs. After eating a few bites of my salad and Conner's fried sea food platter, we were stuffed. We watched the fireworks over the water and finally headed back to the campground. I was sad to leave Charleston and wished I had more time there, but we were both ready to get to the Great Smoky Mountains and get back into our hiking boots.
As we got closer and closer to the park, I was surprised at how tropical it felt in North Carolina, it reminded me a lot of Maui. When we finally got into the park, I fell in love. Everything was so green and mossy and beautiful, it was so refreshing. We got to our campsite, ate some dinner, played about 20 games of Speed and when it got dark, we headed up the road to a waterfall. We were the only ones up there so it was pretty amazing feeling, especially with all the fireflies around the waterfall. This got us super excited for our back country trip we were going on the next day. Early the next morning, we packed up our camp and backpacks and headed to the Deep Creek Trailhead. We had it all mapped out. Hike up Deep Creek to our first site, camp, hike about 6 miles to our next site, camp, then loop around and hike about 9 miles back. It sounded like the perfect 2 3 day backpacking trip. Well, we headed off and the trail was gorgeous. Hiking along this beautiful creek was super motivational because it was so pretty. We were happy because we weren't getting any rain, as we knew it had been showering once or twice a day. We finally made it to our camp around noon, we were excited we had made such good time and had all this time to spend exploring around our camp and relaxing. The site of awesome, right on the creek and under 3 or 4 rhododendron trees. We were a little bit annoyed because there were so many flies, but whatever. After about an hour by the creek, we felt a little sprinkle. We figured we should put the rain cover on the tent and maybe start putting stuff back into our packs. Within a minute it was a full on downpour. We were running around the camp like crazy people throwing stuff into the tent and trying to close up our packs. We brought our ponchos from Disneyworld just in case (one thing we were prepared with) and put them on our backpacks and then hung them from the cables set up for our food. When we finally made it into the tent, it was pouring. We thought we would just wait out the rain and then go on with our day. No. Our tent has about an inch of space between the actual tent and the rain cover, so bugs are able to get into that little space. Within 10 minutes, our tent was surrounded by flies, mosquitoes and bees. We were both too scared to get out of the tent and also saw no reason, as it was still raining, sooo we were trapped in our tent for the next 15 hours (the rain hit around 3pm) and we didn't get out until about 6 the next morning. Luckily, we had a book of crossword puzzles (thank you to the Hayes family) and we are now pro crossworders. Around hour 6, cabin fever set in. You may be able to follow the time line with the pictures, I'll let you decide which picture defines our insanity. Finally, we got tired (I don't know how, we had spent the last 8 hours laying down) and fell asleep. In the morning, we woke up to the sound of the creek and the sun shining. Everything will go smoothly from here. We had decided the night before that we should probably just hike back today because we knew it would rain again and we would just be stuck in the tent. We got out of the tent and saw that our packs, shoes and whole camp was swarmed by bees. Side note, I had already gotten stung the day before. Packing up camp was a night mare, we were getting chased by bees and they were swarming everything. I ran down the trail a little ways with my backpack and the next hour consisted of me running back and forth from camp to my pack yelling at and dodging bees. Conner kept saying they wouldn't sting me bla bla bla, but I think he was just saying that to keep himself calm :) When everything was finally packed, we booked it down the trail and didn't stop for about 2 miles. We laughed for a while about the whole thing because we knew we looked like freaks but it was a good adventure. We made it back down to our car a little while later and decided we needed to do some laundry. We got a hotel in Cherokee, did about 25 loads of laundry and layed by the pool. After a good nights rest, we went back into the park and hiked up Laurel Falls, a short, popular hike up to some waterfalls. It was really pretty and there were tons of people swimming and climbing around the falls, but it was so packed we decided to head back down and do a less popular hike later that day. We got a campsite but as soon as we were going to set up the tent, it started pouring again. It only lasted a few minutes, and the sky was looking pretty clear, so we headed to Abrahams Falls for a 5 mile hike to some more waterfalls. The trail was really cool, it had a a little foot bridge right at the beginning to cross the creek and the rest of the trail followed right along the water. About a mile and a half into the hike it started to sprinkle but we didn't care. About 5 minutes later it was a complete downpour. We thought it rained hard at Deep Creek but this was on a whole different level. We contemplated for a few minutes whether we should turn back but we thought it would be pretty fun to do it in the rain. We started up again and 10 minutes later, we could barely see 3 feet in front of us and we were absolutely soaked. We decided we should turn back, but it was super fun being in the pouring rain. We started running back just completely soaked. When we made it back to the trailhead we stood under a little cover for a few minutes, waiting for the rain to die down. 20 minutes later, it did. Totally wet, we headed back to camp and set up the tent. Of course, it was beautiful as soon as we got back but so far that was pretty much the story of our trip.
We left the Smoky Mountains today and are now in Asheville, North Carolina. A few years ago, it was named the weirdest town in the US so I'm excited to do some shopping. The Carolinas have been amazing and I could definitely see myself living some where around here for a while. I actually would love to live around Asheville because the entrance to the Smoky Mountains is free so I could go in whenever I wanted. I don't think I could ask for anything more.
Okay, that's it for now! Enjoy!
Love,
Katie and Conner
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