Famous Movies Made In Charleston: Kiawah

My wife and I have endured watching the mini series North & South (books I & II) over the last few days. I enjoy books and movies that cover this period of our history, whether fictional or not. Anyway, I recalled the plantation of Mont Royal from the movie being filmed at the Boone Hall Plantation. I do remember this from the tour (which I recommend). There are even some shots of the Cooper river (tributary) just to the south of the home that looked very familiar from our visit. I thought that perhaps the plantation of Resolute was also in South Carolina, but have learned that was filmed in Louisiana. It was also fun to see downtown Charleston filmed with dirt and sand thrown over the streets to create the old time effect.

I was able to put together another quick list of movies filmed in the area:

Charleston
Cold Mountain (2003)
Patriot (2000)
The Notebook (2004)
For the Boys (1991)

Kiawah
Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)

Live Kiawah Cam

In my rumblings and stumblings across the cyber universe, I managed to find a live kiawah cam feed accessible 24/7 for beach views! Be sure to check out the hall of fame shots from previous dates. There are some spectacular sunrise/sunset pics. You can access the link right here. Enjoy!

Top Ten Beach: Kiawah Island

Kiawah Island’s very own Beachwalker Park has achieved the ranking of #10 in Top 10 beaches in the United States. This is a pretty darn good achievement given the stiff competition (Hawaii included).

Every year this ranking system is established by Florida University’s very own Dr. Beach or Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman. Professor Leatherman of Florida International University established his ranking system of beaches upon several categories evaluating the beach and marine life affected by biological, physical, and human factors. His research and rankings are a culmination of studying over 650 beaches throughout America. His study has received mention on the NBC Today Show.
For more information, please visit http://www.drbeach.org

Kiawah 2008

Another March 2008 spent in Kiawah. We decided to rent through Resort Quest and had another wonderful year on the island. We got into our villa the day before Easter after our 16 hour drive and had time to take a quick walk to the beach and get back for dinner. This is the second time in eight years of which we have visited Kiawah during the Easter week and we were able to enjoy some of the really fun activities that are offered to the kids staying on the island. There was an easter egg hunt, rides, jumpies, music, ice cream socials, movies. The place was "hoppin" during the easter weekend and we all had a good time. After the weekend we did a whole lot of bike riding, golfing, and playing on the beach. The water temp was a little chilly so swimming was kept to a minimum. The kids did enjoy getting their feet wet as well as making sand castles.

Our trips into Charleston during the week featured none other than a trip to Sticky Fingers barbecue and another ghost tour. This time we decided to take the dungeon tour which was pretty impressive. I look to post some additional Kiawah 2008 information on this blog very soon.

Traveling with Pets

We are planning another excursion to the lowcountry and will be traveling with a dog this time around. (that's 15 and a half hours in the vehicle). We plan on taking plenty of stops since we have two little kids and the dog. I now realized that taking along the dog also affects where you can stop for overnight stays when en route to your destination. Lo and behold there are chain hotels/motels that are considered "pet friendly". I thought I would share some great websites I stumbled across to share with you travelers that like to bring fido with.

http://www.officialpethotels.com/
http://www.takeyourpet.com/
http://www.dogfriendly.com/

These sites make it easy. You can plug in the city, state, etc and the site will point out which hotels are "pet friendly". They also provide good traveling tips