Sonya's Blog - Day 175 - It's My Birthday!

Sonya’s Blog - Day 175 - December 14th - It’s My Birthday, It’s My Birthday!!!

Well I am 45 today, getting pretty old. I was not allowed to come out of my bedroom because Isaac was busy getting things ready in the main area. That was fine with me, as long as they bring me tea then I am happy to make myself cozy in my room and sip my tea. Blake had to run to the store to get groceries for my Big Birthday Breakfast.

Blake made me Eggs Benedict for breakfast. We don’t make hollandaise sauce, just cheese sauce because we like it better. I also don’t like English Muffins very much, so mine was a stack of with eggs, avocado, tomato and back bacon covered in cheese. It was delicious.

It was time for me to open presents after that. Blake and the kids are making me High Tea for my birthday, later this afternoon. Kizmet was super excited about me opening the presents and got right in there to help out:

I got some items for the High Tea, yummy. I also got a new sweater and Isaac bought me a little finger puppet and gave me some treats:

I wanted to go into Charleston and walk along Waterfront Park and in the Historic District, which also encompasses the French Quarter. Off we went. On the way we called my twin sister to wish her a Happy Birthday. The kids and I each had a nice chat with her.

We found parking and made our way towards Waterfront Park. First we stopped to grab a drink and a small bite to eat. It was the smallest, most pathetic little latte we have ever had. It wasn’t even very hot. We really got to stick with making our own before we take off.

Waterfront Park was lovely to walk along and looks out into Charleston Harbour. We got a nice picture with the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge (Ravenel was a Charleston politician who spearheaded the construction of the bridge, which opened in 2005) in the background, which we had drive across to get into Charleston. It’s a cool looking bridge. There was a huge cruise ship in dock, so I could only get 1/2 the bridge in the photo.

The park is not very big, so it didn’t take us long to walk the length of the park. We then headed up one block and walked back along Bay Street and through the French Quarter.

The first thing we saw was Rainbow Row. This is the longest cluster of intact Georgian row houses in the United States. The earliest structures in this section were between 1670 and 1680. Some of these houses were destroyed by fire and the present structures date from the 1720’s to the 1790’s. There was some damage to the homes by Union artillery bombardment during the Civil War. The buildings deteriorated into slums after years of neglect following the Civil War. Preservation and rehabilitation of this block began in the 1920’s. It was named Rainbow Row in the 30’s and 40’s after the pastel colours they were painted as part of the restoration project.

We continued on our way down Bay Street. Lots of the buildings have plaques on them that tell you a little of their history, so we stop once in awhile and read about the buildings. There was a large market area in the heart of the French Quarter that we decided to check out. It was three blocks of market stalls. Natasha managed to find a Christmas present for Isaac and I found a new leash for Kizmet, that is super cute and covered in bow ties. We like to have one leash in the truck and one left in the RV because it makes it easier with all of our traveling. The one we had kept in our truck broke, so we needed a replacement.

After we were done in the market we headed back to the truck with a couple of quick stops on the way. When we got back to the campground Blake and the kids got to work on the High Tea. I was instructed to stay out of the way, so I hid in my bedroom and started a new book. Good enough for me. When High Tea was ready I was instructed to come out, what a feast! Here is the picture:

We all sat down and enjoyed all the food, but there was tons left over. Well, we won’t have to cook at all tomorrow, that will be nice.

After supper we decided to head out and check out the lights. First we walked over to the walking area, but it started raining while we were heading over there. By the time we got there it was coming down pretty good. We went in and checked out the gift stores, but we had Kizmet with us so Blake had to stay outside. Well, the rain really started chucking it down so Blake ran back with Kizmet to grab the truck. This all happened in a span of 10 minutes. Blake and Kizmet got soaked going back to the truck. He pulled up right to the edge of the sidewalk and we just had to run from the store to the truck, but we got pretty wet. Now we can’t just get back into our campground because it is all one-way traffic when the Festival of Lights is on. It wasn’t very busy, like we predicted. We toured around the park and checked out all the light displays. There were some really good ones. We did the whole park, which took about 1/2 hour or so. We then headed back to the RV and settled down for the night.

It was a lovely, relaxing birthday.

Sonya