Check out Greenville!
Falls Park
What Is Happening?
Kids n’ roots at the Reedy
We have been hanging around the Southeast for about 6 months now from our home state of California, pretty much since the start of COVID-19 back in March.
After making some stops around the country including visits to family in both Austin & Houston, TX, we got cozy in Nashville, found paradise in Florida, cooled our jets in the mountains of North Carolina, and made it to, yes, that Greenville. See their website to get what I am saying, ya’ll.
Anthony had watched a Househunters episode with a family relocating to Greenville, SC. He thought it looked really cool. We happened to come across a vacation rental there and decided to check it out for ourselves.
Back To School
Untethered Family life: Eat, live, explore, exercise, love, repeat. ❤️
Simultaneously, school started back up again, so we are up and running with homeschooling and working as usual, so this is where we hunkered down for the next 30 days.
Many days are spent just doing our schooling, working, living, exercising (with bands, hiking, walking, yoga), running errands, getting the laundry done, cleaning, playing games (video, card, & board), cooking, reading, even celebrating two birthdays (Anthony & I in the same week).
Bonus, we took care of our adopted cat friend, Shadow. Turns out she belonged to the house across the street, but she took to us and loved Vallen. We fed her and gave her love. The funniest part was we named her Shadow because we didn’t know her name. After meeting the neighbors who owned her, they called out to her, “Shadow,” and we're excited we had already been calling her that.
Let’s talk Greenville
So happy to have some new animal friends to love on our adventures. Anthony’s bday treats from the kids.
The city is built around waterfalls, hiking trails, and parks, along with 22 miles of walking/biking paths known as Swamp Rabbit Trail. It is really unique to be in a city, yet, feels like you are in the woods, too.
Main Street is a foodies’ paradise. There are so many amazing restaurants, cafes, candy shops, coffee shops, doughnut shops, clothing boutiques, art galleries, and souvenirs.
Friday nights there is music on all the street corners, exuberant evangelists, lively art galleries complete with music and wine, and people out having a good time and cruising down Main street.
Gather GVL & Hen Dough Biscuits, Hughes Main Library & Falls Park
Our vacation rental ended up being on the sketchier south-side of town near a men’s homeless shelter and got off to a rough start.
We attempted to take a walk through the neighborhood but had a rough go at it. As we walked down the street about a block from our rental, our 7-year-old was riding his scooter ahead of us, when a man walking down the street looked at our son and yelled, “what the bleep are you looking at?” With that, we turned around went home, and decided we would not be walking around the neighborhood anymore.
However, once you are in the downtown area, everything is fine and it comes to life with a great mix of young, old, singles, families, and people of all backgrounds.
Greenville Zoo & Swamp Rabbit Trail
We reserved a spot at the Greenville Zoo. The location is on the Westside, which is the upscale side of town. Though the zoo was small, it had a nice array of animals, lions, monkeys, gibbons, an ocelot, and giraffes just to name a few. The kids enjoyed hanging out there.
Afterward, we enjoyed a picnic and shaved ice from the Kona Ice truck that was in the parking lot. While there we discovered a really nice spot to enter Swamp Rabbit Trail for walks. Lots of families come to this location, so we enjoyed it for getting exercise. We loved all the exercise equipment along the trail.
Another spot we visited was Lake Keowee, about a 45-minute drive from Greenville. We enjoyed swimming in the lake and had a nice picnic. It was a popular spot for swimming and boaters.
Foodie Town
Some of the beautiful art & buildings of Greenville.
If you are in need of some tasty eats there is no shortage. Mostly, the kids spent their own cash on frozen yogurt, candy, and treats. Here are some of our favorite spots: Mast General Store, Spill The Beans, Blueberry Frog Frozen Yogurt, River Street Sweets-Savannah’s Candy Kitchen, and Hen Dough Chicken & Donuts. On our first night in town, we ate at a restaurant called Nosedive. It is an urban twist on Southern comfort foods. All I can say is you could go hog wild for all the good food in this town!
No shortage of things to eat, see or do downtown.
We opted to cook as we normally do on most days. Being inspired by our environment, I incorporated some Southern dishes to dinner; cornbread, grits, sweet potato pie, and biscuits, oh my!
On The Road Again
Thirty days came and went in a flash, but now it’s time to wrap things up and continue the journey. Let’s hang out again as we road trip across America. Also, if you missed my last post, you want to check out Road Trip Cross-Country (Part 3). See you soon!