Traveling

(Just figures that the day I put up a proper 'blog schedule' sidebar on my blog, I wouldn't follow it.)

Hello, blog world. For those of you who didn't notice, I've been adventuring the past two weeks and mostly absent from the blogging world. I've never taken a vacation by myself which means I've never flown by myself or been away from home that long, again, by myself (because most times I'm a hermit). 

I flew to South Carolina for 9 days to visit a friend/penpal who I've written to for the last ten years. I stayed with her family, and we drove all over the place, in constant motion from the moment I arrived to when I left. It was amazing and exhausting and one of those best of life times.

The actual traveling wasn't bad at all. Airports aren't complicated. Just follow the signs. I wrote in the other post how I was dreading the all- night flight. As I expected, I didn't sleep at all,  but I guess I can stay up all night like a pro (never did it before then). I took a 45 minute nap in the afternoon, but otherwise, lack of sleep didn't affect me much. Maybe on the last day or two, all of my optimism was getting low, but the whole thing went exceptionally well (minus the part where I almost ended up getting car sick on the way to the airport at 4:30 in the morning. Gah, I hate morning flights...and the feeling green on trips part).

Random house on the side of the highway. I approached with great caution since I had been told of the glorious bugs and snakes and spiders SC has.

My friend took me to Charleston where we walked downtown and admired doors and fences and railings and old churches. We camped near the coast in a state park with alligators (saw a 6ft one. Yup, definitely don't have those in Washington). I was eaten by mosquitoes which kinda figured. She freaked me out after finding one of those tiny ticks crawling on her (that's the only time I freaked, and that's saying something since she told me wonderful stories all the time she was here last year. Actually, I didn't totally freak. I surrendered to my fate).  I saw the sunrise on the ocean for the first time. Drank sweet tea (😐). Visited old Mill towns. Went kayaking for the first time (and didn't drown. I don't much like water so that's a pretty big feat. Now I'm thinking about buying a kayak. I just gotta find myself a lake...Okay, I actually do know where a lake is. It's just the kayak buying I have to do). Saw fireflies! (Okay, so, the proper Southern way is to call them 'Lightning bugs', but I like fireflies better. Though, they do look more like a bug).

Doors. They be incredible.

I also went to a Catholic Mass for the first time. That was different. Drove around in an old jeep with the doors off. Also different. We drove a bit on the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway. The weather was absolutely perfect which meant I didn't die at all. In the 70s-80s with limited humidity. We did get caught in the rain once (which might be the highlight of the trip), and it definitely doesn't rain like that over here. We visited Carl Sandburgh's home and saw adorable baby goats. Wandered downtown Asheville and Greenville (Asheville wins for best iced chai latte, but Greenville's park won my heart) and Spartanburg. Visited the plantation which belonged to SC's poet laureate, Archibald Rutledge. And my friend even did Henna on the back of my hands. Lots of firsts.

Every time I go on a trip, I always come home with loads of new thoughts and questions and wonderings, but I'll leave those for another post.



My favorite part of traveling is the people. It doesn't matter where I go or the places I see if I don't have someone to share the memories with. I'm extremely blessed to have a friend that makes everything a blast, even waking up at 5:00 am (technically I was still on West Coast time then; so more like 2:00 am) which is saying a lot since I don't like mornings.

What are your plans for the Summer? Any grand adventures? Have any of you gone to South Carolina? If so, what were your favorite parts? Is Henna a thing all over the place? Or have I just been living under a rock?