Watch Out For Alligators

Important tips to remember when visiting South Carolina:

•   Watch Out For Alligators!
•   Don’t leave your boat anchored when the tide is going out
•   Stock up on your booze by 6:00pm on Saturday
•   Don’t get on the scale too soon after returning home

Moss Covered Trees On
College Of Charleston Campus

After landing in the small Charleston, South Carolina Airport in early October, the warm ocean air greeting us, we picked up our rental car and headed out to the beautiful community of Kiawah Island, a beach and golf resort community located on a barrier island fifteen miles south of Charleston, ready for the first home exchange we had committed to through Homeexchange.com.  As we left the city of Charleston and began to approach Kiawah, the roads began to narrow, little white steepled churches started popping up everywhere, and we noticed the hauntingly beautiful long green moss hanging from the century old oak trees, making everything look a little eerie, almost like an old horror movie.  Mark kept expecting to see crazy old ladies with evil grins on their faces rocking in their chairs on their front porches with a hidden axe under their skirt.  We certainly weren’t in California, but it was beautiful, and so different from anywhere we had traveled to before.  This South Carolina adventure in exchanging turned out far better than we had ever expected, providing us many wonderful stories to tell, and encouraging us to continue on with fifteen different home exchanges over the next three years.

  

Before arriving at each exchange home we always try to stop at a grocery store to pick up supplies for our stay.  The wonderful thing about exchanging homes is that many, if not all, of the basic supplies are there for you to use, so one doesn’t need to worry about paper goods and soaps, spices, or even coffee.  The one unwritten rule is that you replace anything that you use up so that when the owners or other exchangers arrive they will have the basics there for them as well.  Driving into Kiawah on Saturday night, we found a small shopping center where we were able to find everything we needed except for liquor, which no good vacation can be without! There were beers, wines, and mixers in the well stocked grocery store, but no gin.  The clerk informed us that the liquor store was just around the corner in the same shopping center, that it was the only place where liquor could be purchased, and must be done so by 6:00pm that night, or we would have to wait until Monday when the liquor stores would be allowed to reopen.  It was now 5:45pm, and after searching for the store and having no luck in finding it we had to return to the grocery store a third time to ask the clerk to please explain to us how to get there, as we were running out of time and starting to panic. The clerk walked outside with us, pointed to where we needed to turn and said that it was on the right side of the street, which we were finally were able to find with its very tiny sign perched in front of the building at sidewalk level, almost as if they were embarrassed to be selling alcohol.  At 5:55 Mark entered the store quite exasperated and told the man behind the counter that we had had a difficult time finding his store and wondered why it was so hidden from view.  His response was, “Welcome to the Bible Belt Sir!”  Yes, we were no longer in California!

Our Kiawah Island Home

After entering the gated community of Kiawah Island and nervously searching in the dark for Ed’s house, not sure of what we would find, I spotted the home from the pictures I had seen of it on Homeexchange.com even before we spotted the address on the mailbox.  We found the hidden key where we had been told it would be, entered the home,  proceeded to look through it room by room, and were pleasantly surprised to realize that our new home for the week was exactly as it had been represented in the Homeexchange.com web site.  Ed’s beach house looked out upon the 13th tee of the Cougar Point Golf Course, set among live oaks, pine trees, magnolias and palmetto palms.  A hammock hung between the pine trees positioned just right so that I could lay and leisurely read a book while watching the golfers go by.  The kitchen was fully equipped, there were two televisions, a comfortable king size bed and a large jetted tub in the master bathroom, as well as a welcoming deck to sit upon and sip cocktails in the evening as the sun set over the golf course.  What more could we have asked for?  There were even several guest rooms, one of which we used when our daughter came and stayed with us.   If we had had any doubts before about home exchanging they had all been erased, and decided that there was no better way to travel than this.

Drayton Hall Plantation

South Of Broad Homes

View of Charleston From Ft. Sumter

Part of the home exchange experience is getting to explore and learn about the community one is temporarily living in, and with the help of our daughter who had been living in the Charleston area for three months we were able to do just that.  First on our list of must sees was visiting a plantation, and Whitney chose Drayton Hall, which has survived the American  Revolution, the Civil War, the earthquake of 1886, hurricanes like Hugo, and even today’s urban sprawl. The beauty of this historic home located on the Ashley River and the undisturbed authentic landscapes, as well as the stories and history of this great old home made early Charleston come alive for us.  We of course toured the beautiful city of Charleston itself, walking through the various historic neighborhoods, viewing the privately owned homes, beautiful gardens, churches and public buildings, and stunning mansions south of Broad which included a tour of the Edmondston-Alston House, built in 1825, and from where General Beauregard watched the bombardment of Ft. Sumter.  One day was spent taking a boat out to the Fort Sumter National Monument, where the Civil War began 150 years ago, enjoying a tour of the historic island guarding the port of Charleston and where we were able to enjoy breathtaking views of the city of Charleston and her harbor.  But there was more to this trip than just visiting the historical sites of the city and the surrounding area.  

Alligator Tracks

Golf was the next important activity!  Kiawah Island is home to five beautiful golf courses and since our new home was located directly on the Cougar Point Golf Course we decided to begin with that one. As a guest of Ed’s we were able to get a members discounted price, which is always a nice perk when doing exchanges on a golf course. The dramatic vistas of the course located along the Kiawah River made for a memorable first day of golf, not only for the beauty of the course, but it is where we saw our first alligator. On Kiawah Island there are signs positioned along the river and swamp areas which say, “Danger - Alligators”, which we laughed at when we first came upon them.  After Mark reached for his out of bounds golf ball along the river one time and an alligator seemed to appear out of nowhere, we were no longer laughing at the signs, and it was always interesting to see the alligator tracks in the sand traps where they seemed to enjoy warming themselves in the sun.  We also played Osprey Point Golf Course which featured large natural lakes and a grassy, saltwater marsh, as well as dense maritime forests which was very different from Cougar Point. 

Biking On The Beach

After two days of golf I decided that I needed some beach time, so Mark decided to play the top course on the island by himself, The Ocean Course at Kiawah, and I borrowed one of the bikes left by Ed at the house to ride down to the white sand beach for some reading and relaxing.

                                             Cocktails At Sunset At The Ocean Course Club House

Panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean from all eighteen holes of The Ocean Course, host of the 2012 PGA Championships, and the beauty of the club house setting is hard to adequately describe. It was voted the number one golf course of South Carolina by Golf Digest and is a spectacular place to play, even if the easterly and westerly winds are blowing, which they often are.  Armed with a caddy for help, Mark took on the course, and enjoyed the day immensely. Later, Whitney and I met him after the round for a cocktail on one of the large wraparound porches of the wood shingled club house which overlooks the ocean and the sand dunes while we watched the sun slowly set.  A very romantic setting, and a lovely way to spend on of our last nights in Kiawah.  

Sunny Day On the Intercoastal Waterway

Charleston is nestled between the Intercoastal Waterway, which runs from Maine to Florida, and the Atlantic Ocean, with boating, fishing, and crabbing being important activities in the area.  One day Whitney, her boyfriend, Scott, Mark and I decided that a few hours out on the water would be a lovely way to spend the afternoon.  We packed up our picnic lunch, rented a small motor boat from Bohicket Marina on John's Island, just off of the Intercoastal Waterway, and took off for our adventure.  We were warned when we rented the boat that the tides came in and out quickly and to be aware of shallow waters.  It was a warm fall afternoon as we cruised down the Waterway, in and out of various outlets until we found a small island where we decided to stop and have lunch on the sandy shore.  We dropped anchor and waded to shore, lunch in hand, where we all enjoyed the sunshine and some good conversation, until one of us noticed that our boat was now partially aground! Quickly forgoing the rest of our lunch we proceeded to push, pull and prod the boat into deeper water and decided that we had better get the boat back to the marina before we got into any more trouble.  Boaters we are not, but it was still a great afternoon on the warm South Carolina waterway.

Sticky Fingers' Ribs, Chicken Baked Beans & Slaw

Jestines' Fried Chicken,
Okra and Mac & Cheese

Now what would a trip to the South be without talking about the food!  Much gravy and grits, deep fried fish, and messy bar-b-cued ribs were all on our menu, and my did we enjoy it all! At Rosebank Farms Cafe on Seabrook Island we were able to get our fill of fried green tomatoes which I have tried to make myself, but have never even come close to duplicating.  Heges on Kiawah Island had some outstanding crab cakes, and the huge serving of southern fried chicken at Jestines Kitchen in downtown Charleston was enough to feed the entire table. By far our favorite meal was at Sticky Fingers, a South Carolina bar-b-cue chain serving the best ribs I have ever had, and when we left we certainly had sticky fingers! We ordered so many ribs that we were even given three bottles of their special barb-b-cue sauce to take home. Unfortunately the sauce alone is not the only secret to their outstanding ribs, and I have never been able to experience those tender, mouthwatering bites of pork in California, even with their sauce.  Another reason to go back soon!

The food, the history, the beach, the golf, and the over all beauty of the Charleston area made for a trip to always remember, and one we were looking forward to making again.  Ed’s lovely home which he had shared with us, along with his complete instructions about the home and advise and information about the area made for a very successful home exchange experience. Once I was back home in Sacramento I began searching the Homeexchange.com site and started looking for other places to stay in Charleston on our trip we were already planning for the next year, as well as for other new and exciting locations for the future.

Sunset Over the Atlantic Ocean On Kiawah Island

Watch for the next exchange trip we take to San Diego for a week of water polo games and high rise city living.