Ya’ll – Do you ever feel like you received a blessing that you didn’t deserve? That’s how I feel about our trip to Charleston over New Years. So thankful to our hosts for letting us stay with them over the long weekend!
Here are some of our favorite Charleston memories:
Exploring Savannah on our way up. Um, hello beautiful city! Can’t wait to come back to see more!
Brunch at Hominy Grill. Even though we waited for 45 minutes in the – brrrrr – freezing cold, their gravy was DELISH! Thanks, Food Network, for the tip! By the way, do you guys know what a John Daily is? It is basically an Arnold Palmer (sweet tea & lemonade) with vodka. These people waiting outside with us were just sucking those things down! We picked coffee to keep warm but I guess they were trying to get warm from the inside out! Geesh – it is 10 AM people!
Shopping at the Slave Market. No, slaves were not actually sold here. I know – we thought so too. Turns out it is where they shopped for meat, veggies & seafood for the plantations. Think of it as a Farmer’s Market – they don’t actually sell farmers there! These days they sell lots of “touristy” items to commemorate your trip to Charleston. I ended up with this headband because – let’s be honest – Florida girls are just NOT cut out for the cold! Oh. And we got a totally cute Christmas ornament, as always.
Horse carriage tour. Loved this. We covered over 20 blocks of the historic city – going by the battery, rainbow row, and other beautiful homes. We learned some fun facts about the city’s history and some stories around individual homes.
During that time, people showed their wealth by “rope” molding around their door. You could tell just how wealthy they were in two ways: 1. By how thick the rope molding was or 2. How MANY they had. This wealthy dad that I mentioned above wasn’t exactly, well, modest. His house had thick rope molding around his door, oh, and around every. single. window. If that wasn’t enough, every other post in his wrought-iron fence was rope too. Let’s just say he wasn’t everyone’s favorite person. In fact, when he died and they opened up his home for people to tour they, um, changed the name. Oopsie! Guess that’s what happens! They re-named it after the man his youngest daughter married – the grandson of John C. Calhoun.
We also saw homes that were volunteered as confederate headquarters during the Civil War and rode by a church that gave up their church bell to make bullets from the confederate (much like many others). They received the no-bell prize! Get it? Okay, I know that is cheesy…annnd I won’t try to claim it as my own. Apparently the guides on these tours have time to get creative with their jokes!
Anyway, after strolling around some more we decided to get inside and get warm (I am making it sound like it was FREEZING cold – it probably wasn’t but it certainly was to ME!). We came across this super cute Starbucks.
Favorite part about it? Besides it being in a totally cute little house, of course… they had games to play! We Scrabbled it up and, I am not one to brag, but I totally won! This is a milestone, people – this never happens! & do you know what my winning word was? Kay. Yes – K-A-Y. As in Every Kiss Begins With. BUT I know you can’t use proper nouns and I am pleased to announce that, even though Matt challenged me, it is in fact a legit word. It means…*drumroll please*… the letter k. Yes, really.
So after that we strolled some more, soaking in the history and beauty, and I rambled about all the reasons Charleston is an awesome place to live. Want to hear?
Not only is it beautiful, it is filled with history. As in – hi, I am standing here and George Washington also stood here. You know George – the first president EVER. Anyway. So you have the history-filled city with old buildings and fun facts and beautiful stories. Then you have the ocean too, right? I mean, that is Florida’s biggest draw but turns out the East Coast actually does continue up to Charleston so, yep, beach. Then, throw in a couple of colleges which constantly shuffles new people in and out, some stopping to start a family. It’s southern. We Floridians think we live in the South but other than our location on the map, I’d say no. In Charleston, every single menu I saw had shrimp & grits and fried green tomatoes. THAT is south. So, in addition to all of that, you get seasons – all 4 of them – with occasional snow, but not too much. Loved it.
We had dinner at Hyman’s Seafood. We waited a while but it was so worth it – and to make up for our long wait they sent us 3 appetizers on the house (yes, 3) along with 2 free t-shirts from their gift shop. So, as you can imagine, by the time our food arrived we were ready for a to-go box. It was DELISH!
The next day Keely & Kelsey joined our adventuring and we started the day with brekky at Toast of Charleston. On my dearness was it good! The group of girls behind us were certainly enjoying their bottomless mimosas – that is all I am going to say. The food was amazing – the company was even better. Oh and their biscuits – so yum! (right, Kels?)
Next up, Patriot’s Point.
As a kid, Matt spent a few days staying on the USS Yorktown (or New Yorktown if you’re Keely) with his Boy Scout troop so he was excited to revisit. We had a great time touring where they ate, slept, had teeth cleanings – the works.
In the sick bay
Typing away at the nurse’s station
Making sure we were prepared for a crash landing (yes, I know we were on a boat)
Steering a boat
Flying a plane
I didn’t think the USS Yorktown was particularly spacious and oh my dearness, how did they run up and down those steep stairs? I literally climbed the staircases like a ladder. Well, if I thought that was cramped I was certainly in for a rude awakening when next we toured….a submarine.
How can they possibly breathe in there!? Thank you to those who spend their days on military submarines – a whole new level of respect, I am telling you. And just because my brain is trained, I will go ahead and let ya’ll know that it is definitely not handicap accessible – check it.
So we concluded our touring after walking through a mock base as would be in Vietnam and then indulged in some shopping and froyo at TCBY (how bad do you want TCBY right now?). After dinner at Moe’s (classic!), we watched the ball drop, rung in the New Year, and it was straight to bed for me. How can I possibly be that old? Well, I am. I am old.
We had a super great time & the trip would not have been a possibility had it not been for our awesome hosts! We are excited to see what 2013 brings our way!
No comments:
Post a Comment