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Back in February we finalized plans to go to Isle of Palms, SC for a much needed vacation. Our friends Brian, Heather, and their son Liam live in North Carolina and after discussing with them we decided to rent a beach house for the week and enjoy some warmer weather and some new scenery.

This trip would also mark Isaac’s first plane flight. We booked early and got one the few direct flights from Boston to Charleston. On Friday, the day before we were to leave, we got a foot of snow in Chelmsford. I cleaned up the driveway enough so Su could go into work, and immediately set to doing the laundry, packing, and cleaning that needed to be done before we left. The snow continued to fall…

Su got home from work early and took her afternoon telecons at her deck in the dining room. I kept cleaning and doing laundry and the snow continued to fall. I decided to take a short nap while Su finished her phone calls and wake up to clean the driveway one last time when the snow stopped.

I woke up and was greeted by a message on my phone; our flights had been cancelled. No worries, they had rebooked us they said. So I got on the computer and checked our new itinerary. Instead of a direct flight at 10am we now had a flight on Sunday morning (a day later) at 6am (a terrible time) with a connection in JFK (a terrible airport) and the connection was only 45 minutes long (yeah… try taking a 4 month old across JFK at 6am to make a short connection). This was not going to work so I called Delta. After waiting on hold for 45 minutes they transferred me to an operator who promptly hung up. At this point I was becoming rather irate. I called back, waited 45 more minutes, and discovered my options were to wait until Monday or Tuesday, take the crappy 6am on Sunday, or to flying Sunday at a better time but have 2 connections. So Su and I huddled and did the only reasonable thing we could think of; we got a refund on our plane tickets and decided to drive the 1000 miles!

I went outside relieved to have made plan, cleaned off the driveway, came back in, had dinner, and finished packing. We were in bed by 11pm and planned to leave the following morning sometime after 7.

The drive ended up taking 18 hours (for a 15 hour drive). Isaac did great again. A few more stops to feed than our last roadtrip but by far the biggest delays were NYC traffic, Washington DC traffic, and a backup in Virginia caused by the setting sun. We rolled into the beach house about 3:15am (would have been 2:15 except for DST) and went the bed happy, warm, and safe.

Isaac got to travel through 7 new states and Brian got 2 new states (the Carolinas). Susan had been to all of them previously. Brian has now been to 47 of the 50 states (Alabama, Mississippi, and West Virginia) and Isaac has been to 12 states. Not bad for only 4 months old!

Susan practiced using our new camera taking state line shots as we traveled. Brian took the final shot going into South Carolina. I was a little tired by South Carolina and the shot looks nothing like a state line marker. Oh well!

Sunday was a slow day around the house as we got acquainted with the area. We walked down to the beach and explored before heading back to the house for naps and a nice dinner out. The rest of the week will likely include a plantation visit, a trip to Fort Sumter, exploring downtown Charleston, and definitely more beach time. More pictures later!