Winter Break in Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC

This is the seasons for quality time traveling to places to unwind from a year of work; lo and behold, government SHUT DOWN at the end of year and into the New Year. What’s a better time of the year for government shutdown than the Holiday Seasons. How great is that when your travel plans encompass visiting destinations controlled by the government? Not a joke. Our initial Christmas trip consists of multiple National Parks/Museum, which to our dismay was closed due to government shut down. For that, we had to make a lot of last minute (on the trip) changes.

Snow tubing has been on our list of things to do with kids in Winter and after some research, we stumbled across Stone Mountain Snow Tubing. That is how this winter trips comes to live. More on that at Atlanta post.

Savannah, GA
Winter time in Savannah, GA. and given many places are closed on Christmas day, we flew into Atlanta, Georgia on Christmas day and drove about 3 to 4 hours to coastal Savannah, GA. Georgia has many historical attractions worth visiting and Savannah is definitely on the list. The downtown historic district, parks, and historic buildings are few popular spots.

Forsyth Park A fountain in the middle of the park along with playground makes it nice for a stroll any time of the day. We went in the early morning to avoid crowds.

There’s a free ride within downtown via Chatham Area Transit (CAT) that runs every 10 to 15 minutes at designated stops, which makes exploring downtown much more pleasant. No need to hassle around finding parking. More information could be obtained at the visitor center, where you might find some hidden gems during your visit.

Savannah City Market. Looking to dine or shop? Head on to Savannah Historic District - City Market. It looks like it may be a more lively and nicer place during evening time.

A few blocks from it is the Savannah River Street. A nice walking harbor by the river is a must stop for Savannah. You’ll take steps to the underground as the city seems to be built above ground. There’s a free ferry (Green color) via CAT across to the convention center that runs every 20 minutes or so.

Tybee Beach
About an hour from Savannah is the Tybee beach. You would enjoy the beach more if you don't expect clear water because you will not see it at Tybee Beach. Mommy was disappointed to see eastern coast beach with such color water. But gege was on the roll of discovering the sand beach.

The moment we crossed the bridge onto the beach, he walked toward the direction of the ocean and suddenly dropped and started making a sand angel! That was a surprise! First, we didn't expect them to get themselves into sand that fast (lol), and second it wasn't snow.. Daddy really enjoyed the spontaneous moment.

Guess what he was doing? Enjoying the view, or maybe trying to find stone and see how he could throw it to bounce on the water. His new favorite things to do nowadays :)

Gave up but in the mood of writing alphabets on the sand!

Mommy did what mommy did best.

Charleston, South Carolina
Fort Sumter was the initial plan that brought us here to explore the city. We actually drove there to see whether the gate remains open to allow us in; unfortunately, the gate was down, but there were cars parked outside the pay booth and people walked in.

Charleston! The first thing came to mind is the Charleston move in Lindy hop! I digress. Charleston city is actually a very pretty and diverse city. Most of the popular tourist places are in the downtown. We visited the Charleston visitor center (see the trend now?) for more information. Do you know you can ride the CARTA bus for free!? However there are parking fees at the visitor center.

We took the green line bus to the city hall, and walked to The Battery. On the way, there are many historical buildings and museums. Weather was nice and the walk was easy to enjoy the views.

The Battery. Kids love to explore those canons and stuff.

From there, we walked along East Bay Street towards the waterfront park. On the way, there are the Rainbow Row of buildings.

Ok, few buildings with color. Great, moving on. Probably it is more fun trying not to get wet at the Waterfront Park Fountain while mommy went to buy some snacks.

We stopped by at a corner restaurant for lunch, and enjoyed the open space view.

The seafood was pretty good. Overall, Charleston, SC downtown is much like Melbourne, Australia’s Queen Victoria’s Market. Vendor booth concept with local made products.

By the way, we were shocked on the sales tax at Charleston. We were used to Houstons' 8.25% sales tax and most people use that as simple calculation for tip (like x2 for ~16%+). In Charleston, here is the break down as of 2018,

South Carolina state tax = 6%
County tax = 3%
City hospitality tax = 2%
For restaurant food without liquor drink = 11% (With alcohol, add another excise tax 5% to total 16%)

Wow.

Magnolia Plantation
With extra time on our itinerary, we found Magnolia Plantation. Inside the plantation, there’s a pet petting area, small maze, and holiday houses for kids to play with. Admission is $20 per adult and kids 5 year under free. During December, there was a food drive, where you buy one get one free when you bring one non-perishable item to donate. It looks like this food drive goes on in to January as well.

It claims as the most romantic place. But I think this is a golden place for this, throwing rocks! Since it was winter, there wasn't much flowers blossoming. But we can see it could be a very beautiful place when all flowers blossom in the Spring.

There is a maze! The WHOLE reason we came here for. It was disappointing as the bush was trimmed too low where the kids could still see each other and their way around. I guess they just have to duck or crawl..