If you've been keeping up, you know I decided to drive down to start my DCP and do it in style with a road trip. Check out how my road trip went!
Overall, my road trip totaled five days, giving me and my family ample time to make pit stops along the way. Road tripping was exhausting, but it definitely lived up to the hype and is one thing I can now check off my bucket list. Interested in my road trip journey? Check out how I got down to Orlando to start my DCP!
Day 1
We officially left home today and are on the way towards Orlando. It has been a whirlwind past few days between moving home from London, unpacking my London life, and repacking for the DCP, but all the craziness is about to be worth it because I am off on my DCP!
Our first pit-stop on the road trip is Washington DC. Normally when my family comes to DC we stay near the mall, so this time we wanted to explore a bit further out. When looking at things to do we saw that Second City was in town! I have wanted to seem them perform for years, but could never stay up late enough for their show in Chicago, so this was our chance! We arrived in DC grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed over to the Kennedy Center to see Second City's show (which was absolutely hilarious by the way!).
Day 2
We spent the majority of today in DC, although between the time we got to DC yesterday and the time we left today we hadn't even been in DC for 24 hours! We started the day off going to monuments we had never made the trek to before. When we were on the mall headed towards the Jefferson Memorial a very nice volunteer told us about the DASH buses, which are FREE buses around DC! We've been to DC many times and were surprised how we had missed that!
So on the DASH bus we went and had a leisurely ride to the Jefferson Memorial. We spent a good amount of time there before strolling over to the FDR Memorial as well as the MLK memorial. After that we made our way to the Wharf for a boat tour.
The Wharf is a trendy built up area in DC and again we were surprised we had missed it all the other times we visited the city. There were loads of places to eat as well as food trucks and leisurely areas to hang out. So we grabbed a quick bite to eat before our boat tour began. Our boat tour was very relaxing and took us up and down the Potomac River. It was a relatively hot day, so the wind from the boat felt amazing. When all was said and done we hoped back in our car and headed off towards our next destination.
Day 3
We started day 3 of the road trip driving. The night before was merely a pit-stop to sleep before we continued on to our next destination. We arrived in our next destination, Charleston, mid-morning. Again we started off with a boat tour through the harbor, but because we had arrived slightly before our departure time we went into the Downtown area to grab a bite to eat.
Now I don't know if you know this, but Charleston has laws where no building can be above the height of the church steeples downtown which helps keep the charming feel you get when you want downtown. I low-key love that! We wound up eating at a trendy little cafe called Kudu Coffee & Craft Beer. We also found out that Charleston also has free bus services in its downtown area, but we couldn't figure out how often the buses come, so we walked back to the harbor.
While the harbor tour of Charleston was interesting and filled with a lot of fun facts, the heat was stifling! Turns out the heat index was near 115! That will do it! We got to see all the major points of Charleston from Ft. Sumter to the USS Yorktown. After the boat tour, we drove past the house my parents built in Charleston and the one I used to live in before heading to Sticky Fingers for dinner. All I'm saying is if you're ever in the Charleston area and want ribs go to Sticky Fingers.
Day 4
We continued our day in Charleston by heading to Isle of Palms to spend a bit of time at the beach. Afterwards we headed over to Magnolia Plantations. At Magnolia Plantations we decided to do the Slavery to Freedom tour as well as the House tour. When we first got there, we saw peacocks roaming around the grounds free range! Now that's something you don't see everyday! I also learned that wild armadillos are a thing down south.
Our Slavery to Freedom tour was really cool because it showed the history of the slave cabins from the Civil War to the 1960s, with different cabins restored to different time periods. I really enjoyed hearing the history that was associated with the cabins because that's not something that was focused upon where I went to school. The House tour was also interesting because there were some pieces in the house from the 1700s! Overall, I really enjoyed it because it was giving a concrete perspective of that part of history. The only thing we didn't like about the plantation was the garden because it was a bit of a let down with not many flowers along the pathways.
When we finished at Magnolia Plantations we headed to California Dreaming for lunch. Apparently this is the place my parents always took guests when they had people visiting from out of town because it's situated on the harbor and has these huge glass windows you can look out of. The food there was really good especially the salads and it definitely filled us up for our next leg of our road trip. After California Dreaming we headed out for our final pit-stop.
Day 5
We started our day at the Kennedy Space Center and it definitely did NOT disappoint! Honestly, seeing it for the first time I was a bit disappointed my parents never took us here as kids because we would have loved it! But, you can't change the past and I was enjoying it now! There were so many cool things to see and do as well as really interesting information to learn about, for example the SpaceX program that was initiated by Elon Musk has leased out a certain area for that program. There was also a giant slide that you could go down!
However, we didn't get to spend a ton of time at the Kennedy Space Center because we had to continue on our journey. We only scratched the surface of what is offered there and I can't wait to go back and explore more. While our time at the Kennedy Space Center was over, it only meant one thing: We were off to Disney! One hour later we pulled up on Disney property ready to begin my DCP journey.
Road tripping down to start my DCP definitely did not disappoint. While it was hectic and we barely spent more than 24 hours in a single location I got to do and see some pretty cool things before embarking on my Disney journey. So if you want to spice up your drive down to the start of your program, take it from me, a road trip is well worth the time and effort!
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