Folly Beach Camping Trip | Wander

What can I say about Charleston that hasn’t already been said? Known as the Holy City where church steeples dot the skyline and old cobblestones draw you back into the past, Charleston is still as vibrant and full of charm as the first time I visited. We have been to Charleston plenty of times and as a matter of fact, we go almost ever other year.

We wanted to fit in another camping trip for early October and decided Charleston SC would be great. I have heard great things about some of their beach campsites so we looked in James Island Campground and we were not disappointed. For a state campground it was one of the more expensive ones but when it comes to clean facilities and on-site activities, it makes sense as to why it’s on the higher end. We liked the location being a mere twelve minutes to the beach and about a twenty-five minute drive into downtown. We stayed on loop one and the kids loved that we were situated right at the pond where they marveled at catching tadpoles.

This blog post is long! I could have separated it into two parts but with two toddlers I may not get back to it so I’m dumping it all here lol. What I love the most about road trips, that I haven’t really been able to do in a while, is making random stops. We usually have to stop at Chic-fila to get the kids something to eat but now that the kids are a little more self-sufficient and have become such an enthusiastic foodie, I looked up the town of Greensboro, passing through North Georgia and came across Ripe Thing Market.

This market is what you would expect to see in films shot in an old town where everyone knows everyone. It just had that vibe. I mainly wanted to make a stop here because the online reviews said they had fresh daily soups and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had quite the variety. They also had home-brewed sweet teas and so much more. We ended up with a bag of homemade pork grinds, deep fried okra and other snacks to add on to our snack tote for the drive. How cute are the kiddos in these photos? Nova is actually yelling out “No” in a couple of the photos cause she didn’t want to take photos but she thought it was funny so I still snapped the shot.

Back to our camp trip.

We have never actually stayed in the Folly Beach area. We usually end up in North Charleston and have always done Mount Pleasant or Shem’s Creek. Folly Beach has really become its own little nook with a newer ice cream/frozen yogurt shop and a couple seafood restaurants that isn’t part of a chain. That’s just the beach strip but if you explore Folly Beach as a city, there’s plenty of new modern and chic places to check out (which I share further down in the post).

This image with the kids facing each other is my absolute favorite and I intend to have it in large print for our family photo wall. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect and the kids had a blast looking for fishes and crabs while also digging themselves a little burrow as they pretended to be little sharks in the water. I seriously would prefer a beach trip early October just because the weather truly is ideal.

After an all day outing soaking up the sun, we ate at Rita’s for lunch and indulged in Dolce Banana Cafe and Ice Cream. Then for dinner we also had our carb fix at Crust Wood Fired Pizza where they had a selection of pastas as well.

I’ve missed the cobble streets of Charleston where every turn would take you back into history. One of my favorite things to do is walk around the residential area admiring the narrow gardens and courtyards. I love seeing the different antebellum homes.

We also got coffee and gluten free vegan pastries at Point Break Coffee. It was such a cute chic little shop and I loved that they had vegan options.

On departing day we tried to have breakfast at Millers All Day but it was packed so we ended up doing togo. I was quite impressed with their no fuss grilled cheese sandwich that came with a side of tomato soup. I’m talking gooey cheese and a crunchy bread crust perfect for dipping. I also really enjoyed their traditional chicken biscuit that had a sweet spicy jam spread that gave it the right kick.

As if the kiddos didn’t have enough ice cream and sweets, our drive home included another stop at the coziest coffeeshop in Wagner SC. With its dark oversized furniture and partial industrial look, I appreciated that they had puzzles, board games and stacking blocks for the kiddos to play with too. Brayden did not want to leave which was understandable cause we all knew we were heading home and that vacation was coming to an end.

I also wanted to share that I developed all the color film myself from this trip. I’ve been developing my own color film for over a month now I’m so glad I decided to give this another go (as it was so intimidating the first time). Who says you need professional grade equipment as a developing tank?! I personally want the old school nostalgic look anyway. I have the sous vide and it works just fine. I’ve always wanted to have my own dark room ever since I was a little girl when I first held my dads’ Minolta film camera in my hand in middle school. I mean, I could have my own darkroom as we do have a basement, but I’ve been doing just fine with the dark bag and my bathroom lol. It’s definitely not out of the question to eventually have a proper dark room as my next goal is to create black and white prints myself.

What you don’t see pictured here is our blast from the past visit to the waterfront (where the water fountain is). We would also visit Belgium Ice Cream which I’m sad to say is no longer there. One of our favorite memories to reminisce on is the stroll along the waterfront with ice cream in hand. Instead there is now a Dutch mini pancake shop that still serves gelato ice cream. We got ice cream for the kids and tried the mini pancake and Brayden devoured it! I shot a few black and white photos but I haven’t developed it yet and when I do, I’ll add it here.

We had so much fun on this trip and I’m so grateful to have been able to shoot more film this time around and have this sweet collection of memories with the kiddos. When we were in Charleston in 2022 I couldn’t take much photos because of how clingy Nova was. But look at her now. She smiles for ice cream and is more than happy to say “cheese” for mama when there’s treats in her hand lol. I’m not sure when we’ll visit Charleston again but this trip really satisfied my road trip itch and I got to visit one of my favorite historic cities.