In October, Kyle, Gideon, and I took a road trip in the Southern part of the United States. We rented a car and drove from Key West, Florida to Washington DC with a side trip to Kentucky to visit relatives. We covered 2,000 miles, nine states, four national parks, and 10 cities. We did all this with a 2 year old.
Yes, we are crazy.
Here’s a map of the route:
Pictures:
Florida:
Hemingway’s house in Key West.
The keys are pretty.
When we visited the Everglades, this alligator appeared and started swimming right up to us. We didn’t stick around to see how close it was planning to get.
Delray Beach, Florida
Georgia:
We loved Savannah. It was one of the highlights of the trip.
South Carolina:
We visited Fort Sumter, where the Civil War began. Gideon loved the cannons.
We also visited Charleston, South Carolina, where I had awesome barbeque. There were lots of navy guys walking around:
North Carolina:
Asheville, North Carolina was a study in contrasts. We stayed at the Inn at the Biltmore Mansion, a home built by the Vanderbilts in the early 20th Century. It was very Downton Abbey.
Asheville has a great community of working artists and lots of interesting galleries. The downton is also pretty seedy with lots of street urchins running around.
After Asheville, we went through the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Great Smoky Mountains, the other highlights of the trip. I couldn’t get over how beautiful it was.
Photo bombed by an alligator.
Charlottesville, Virginia:
The main reason we stopped in Charlottesville was to see Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home. It didn’t disappoint. I could go on and on about it, but I’ll restrain myself and just show you this awesome picture of the garden (which I didn’t even take).
Then we went to Washington DC, where I have been many times. It was rainy and cold, and it turned out that the Smithsonian had closed down all the exhibits we wanted to see. Apparently October is a very bad time to visit DC.
Ah well.
Goodbye, The South.