I could say we saved the best for last! South Carolina was our number 48, and we got into town just in time to have Thanksgiving (or Friendsgiving) with good friends that we hadn’t seen in over a year. Ray and I lived in Beaufort, SC twice during his military career (in the mid-90s) and again from 2008-2014. We bought our first house there. We brought our babies home from the hospital there. It was the only place that I’ve ever lived (outside of my home state of Louisiana) that I’ve ever thought of as ‘home.’
We spent a week in Beaufort, our old Stompin’ Ground, catching up with friends and rekindling our love for the beauty of the “Low Country.” The girls, who didn’t remember a whole lot about their time in South Carolina (we left just before they turned 4), were very excited to meet up with their dear friend, Autumn. They have seen her over the years through visits (us to S.Carolina, her family to Virginia, and both families meeting once in N. Carolina). They were ready for a week of sleepovers.
We stayed with Autumn and her family: my good friend Sylvia, husband Junior, and son Evan. We parked the RV right in their front yard, and moved into their home for seven days. The girls got plenty of slumber parties, and I got lots of evening chats with my friend.
We were happy to get to visit a couple of other good friends: Stacie, who I’ve known for 14 or 15 years (we’ve been stationed in more than one place together), and Juliana, who shares my birthday and is mom to one of the girls’ good friends from when they were just three years old. We had dinner with Stacie, and I spent an afternoon with her later in the week. We met up with Juliana and her family for lunch downtown, and she hosted us for taco night on another evening.
We also got to see Ray’s cousin, Chana, and her two kids, while in town. She’s stationed at Ft. Stewart, Georgia, which is a bit over an hour away, and she drove into Beaufort to hang out with us one afternoon.
It was so great catching up with everyone, and that made our time in Beaufort especially warm and nostalgic for us. It really was hard to leave.
Since we had lived there before, we were familiar with the area, and we had several restaurants that we wanted to hit up while in town.
- Emily’s Tapas Bar – small plates, good she-crab soup, delicious desserts
- Panini’s on the Waterfront – best thin-crust wood-fired pizza
- Dockside – delicious crab cakes, fried seafood, and she-crab
- Alvin Ord’s – hole in the wall, but best sandwiches around
The food did not disappoint, and the company we shared it with made it all the better.
The girls got in some excellent park time, a stop at their favorite yogurt shop, and some crafting fun. I got a chance to take a nostalgic tour of the scenic spots around town that I used to see on a regular basis. And while this probably wasn’t the most enjoyable, Ray got to check on our house, meet the tenant, and chat with a contractor about things that need some work.
The girls have placed all the stickers on our states map (on our RV door) as we’ve scratched them off our list during the past 18 months of travel. But, I put the last one, South Carolina, on the map. It felt satisfying to place that last sticker in its spot, but it also felt a little sad at the same time. Our journey to all the lower 48 has come to an end, and while we still have a little bit of traveling left to do (a couple of weeks in Pigeon Forge for some holiday fun and a trip to Louisiana for Christmas and to ring in the New Year), we now have to decide what we will do next. We’re tossing some things around. We have some places in mind. We are still a bit undecided. But, we are definitely excited to see where life takes us next.
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