Grits and collards anyone? Yes, we traveled back to South Carolina last fall for another wonderful exchange, and of course some good old fashioned southern cuisine was at the top of the list! We came to visit our daughter Whitney again who was living in Mount Pleasant, just outside of Charleston and we were able to make a delightful seven night exchange for a waterfront home in Isle Of Palms, a beautiful beach town located between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean, twelve miles from downtown Charleston. Homeexchange.com came through for us again, and we were able to make this wonderful exchange with Paula and her family, who decided that they would love to go to Costa Rica for a week during their daughter's spring break from school.
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| Certainly Not A California Menu! |
Our home this time in South Carolina was located directly on the Intracoastal Waterway and also included a boat dock, which proved to be an excellent place to enjoy evening cocktails while watching the numerous boats and yachts cruise by.
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It is also where we learned how to catch crab!
And cook it too!! Paula had left the crab cage on the dock with directions to bait it with raw chicken, so we gave it a try. Just wish we had caught more, as it was delicious once we figured the process out!
Our island home had four bedrooms and plenty of room for not only Whitney to stay with us for most of the week, but for our friends from Florida who drove up to see us in South Carolina and spent two nights with us. That is my very favorite part of home exchanges - the opportunity to share our home with friends and family and enjoy them in such relaxing environments. I would never had invited my friends for a visit if we had been in a hotel room.
Whitney gave us all a tour of historic downtown Charleston and we enjoyed a lovely time with old friends.
The owners of our home left us their small boat to use while we were there, which was a wonderful addition to the home exchange, and which enabled us to cruise down the waterways and view the multiple homes and docks dotting the shoreline. The Intracoastal Waterway runs for most of the length of the Eastern Seaboard, from New Jersey, where it connects with the Atlantic Ocean, then all the way south around the Gulf of Mexico to Texas. We only went a couple of miles, but some of the large yachts we saw had come from as far as Massachusetts, and looked to be headed south to Florida for the winter.
Our home exchange in our island home in South Carolina was once again a success! A gracious southern home, a boat with a dock, wonderful food, and of course the very best part, spending time with my daughter! If you haven't yet tried a home exchange vacation you don't know what you are missing. After fourteen exchanges under our belt in the United States we are now looking for exchanges in Europe for next year, and are looking forward to some fabulous new experiences!
