Recently my dad visited from Oregon and we tagged along on one of his adventures!
One of my favorite things about my dad (there are lots) is his love of adventures and just general spontaneous nature. I get a lot of my wanderlust and spontaneity from him. Growing up he would often walk in and announce he was going off on some adventure, and did I want to come?
Sometimes it was to a junk yard (hello digging for loose change and CD’s!) and sometimes it was flying to Rhode Island for the day. You just never knew with dad!
This time, it was a simple trip to Charleston, but it’s never dull with my daddy! He has friends who live on the Isle of Palms who invited him for dinner, so we decided to tag along and spend the day on the coast. We are only about 1.5 hours from Charleston so it’s perfect for a quick trip!
We started out around 10am (because I have two kids and can never just have my ish together) and on the way there we decided to stop off at one of my favorite ‘off the beaten path’ destinations: Bee City.
Bee City has grown a lot since the last time I was there (about 10 years ago now) and it costs a little more to get in but honestly it’s worth it! It’s like a miniature zoo with less crowds and plenty of hands on activities and up close encounters.
There are a ton of interesting creatures like kangaroos, peacocks, camels, lemurs, even a zebra! My favorite thing is being able to feed the lemurs. Their little hands are so soft! There were a few baby lemurs this time and I nearly died of cuteness! You can purchase a cup of food and feed almost all the animals. There is an aviary you can walk through, a children’s garden, an indoor reptile area, and lots of places to stop and have a picnic. I also love that it’s largely shaded and not too spread out so you can keep out of the sun and not get too overcome in the hot and muggy coastal atmosphere.
I would definitely recommend making a pitt stop at Bee City if you are ever headed to the coast! They have a gift shop and a cafe, so if you allow 2-3 hours it would be a perfect spot to stop and grab lunch!
After Bee City we decided to head to the Waterfront to snap a few photos in front of the pineapple fountain. Leopold and Finley loved splashing in the water at the bottom of the fountain! I wish we could have stayed here longer but we had to rush off to beat the Charleston traffic and get to dinner with my dad’s friends.
They live right on the Isle of Palms so after dinner (and a little rain) we walked to the beach and the kids played in (and ate) the sand while I snapped a million photos.
It was such a great day and so many lovely memories were made!
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