South Carolina

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Death Valley sunset

How a Year of Solo Travel Transforms a Life

When I started traveling alone on a long road trip, it would be for three months. It ended up being almost two years. I didn’t intend to transform. Now, I know that experiencing and learning so many new things about myself and the world makes it unavoidable. Inevitable. My solo travels have taken me through many states in the US, parts of Mexico and Canada. With time alone in ways that we are otherwise never alone, I dove deep. It...

St. Phillip's Church in Charleston

Charleston Haints and Graveyard Ghosts

Down south, I went looking for Charleston haints and other cemetery ghosts. Haints are just Southern ghosts. In the south, there are ghosts on every corner, so it’s a good place for storytelling. In Charleston, there are the ghostly soldiers still dueling in the street, an apparition of the proprietress still in the restaurant bathroom, and a library patron who haunts his old books. There’s a great story about a famous poet, another about a female serial killer, and even...

A white marble bust of Poe
Boone Farm Plantation allee with live oaks

3 Unique Charleston Plantations Worth Visiting

South Carolina isn’t as known for its Charleston Plantations as it should be. Most people know about its historic colonial architecture, coastal seafood, and the old southern way of life. Still, it should also be known for its preservation of history through a series of stunning plantations. While I was in the area for more than a month, I visited three unique plantations that preserve important pre-civil war history. While plantations are representations of our grim past with enslavement, they’re...

Thin trees in a swamp with green moss at their base.

5 Unique Reasons Congaree National Park is Worth Visiting

Synchronistic Fireflies and Champion Trees are two reasons to visit Congaree National Park. Plus, Congaree is among the least visited parks, making it blissfully uncrowded. I’ve been to 25+ national parks and there are essentially two types: those people go to and those they don’t. Some parks are filled with amenities, trails and things to do and see, and other parks quietly exist to protect rare and spectacular environments. Congaree is one of the latter. It protects the largest intact...

Boat next to Beaufort marsh

Exploring the Low-Country Charm of Beaufort, South Carolina

Beaufort, South Carolina, is known for its low-country charm, antebellum architecture, and quite a bit of Hollywood credit. It’s a little-known but wildly charming low-country community. On the coastline between Charleston and Savannah, Beaufort is worth visiting because it’s the quieter, lesser-known cousin of the two more famous cities, which is probably what brought Hollywood calling so many times. It has all the charm, Spanish moss and coastal character as those other great cities, but none of the bustle or...

Mount Pleasant Shem Creek

Shrimping on Shem Creek near Charleston

Mount Pleasant Shem Creek is known for its shrimp boats and seafood restaurants, so that is where I went just east of Charleston on the central coast to learn about Charleston’s shrimping history and try my hand at catching a few myself. I booked a tour with a local who promised to walk a group of us through the evolution of the shrimping industry in Shem Creek. To do that, we had to go back a few hundred years. Where...

Charleston house with double staircase and clairvoyee

8 Reasons Charleston’s Architecture is unique

Charleston’s architecture is what makes the city the most charming of southern belles. It’s beloved for horse-drawn carriages, light-colored antebellum houses and more history than any book you read in high school. Charleston, South Carolina is a romantic little city along low country waterways is known for its rich cuisine, maritime story, and as the holy city for its 400 church spires. These things are anchored by architecture preserved and immaculately restored over hundreds of years. No place else can...