5.05.2014

Charleston Getaway

Happy Monday readers!

Bryce and I had the best weekend and I'm sad to see it end.  Each Monday at school, though is one Monday closer to summer break!

I am so excited to finally be sharing our Charleston trip with you.

As an FYI, I will be back later this week, with a detailed recap of our Charleston dining, so today you will just see teasers from the many delicious restaurants we visited!

As you will see in this post Charleston was AH-mazing!  Bryce and I have not stopped talking about moving there since we came home.  I joked that I had found my soul mate in a city during our trip!

As a bit of background, Bryce had been traveling for work during the week leading up to our trip. He ended up driving for his work travels so that we could have a car in Charleston.  Friday, my last day of school before break, he made his way to Charleston from Orlando.  I flew from Richmond to Charleston that evening after school.  My flight came in around 9:00 pm and he picked me up.  After getting settled into the hotel room, we went to a very late dinner near our hotel at Rue de Jean.

The restaurant reminded us a lot of Can Can, the location of our first date and the food was really good!

After dinner we walked down King Street a bit and spent some time just soaking it all in.

The next morning we got up early and headed to the Farmer's Market!


The Charleston Crepe Company came highly recommended, so I decided to grab breakfast there!

After breakfast (and managing to get nutella from my crepe all over myself), we wandered around the Farmer's Market.

Bryce loved the sweetgrass baskets and ended up bringing two home from the trip.

Picklelicious!

I first posted about The Charleston Soap Chef here and was thrilled to find them at the market so I could get some more Lemon Sugah Scrub!

After the Farmer's Market we made our way to Sullivan's Island for a beach afternoon!  I have to admit, I am much more of a river girl than a beach girl.  A dock is more my thing than sand, BUT, Sullivan's Island had me singing a different tune.  The beach was so majestic.  I didn't want to leave!

We had to make our way around this miniature marsh to even get to the beach!



After spending some time on the beach, we walked to Poe's Tavern for an afternoon snack.

Sullivan's Island was full of beautiful homes and this was one of my favorites.



This might actually be my favorite picture from the trip.  It just screams happy, messy hair and all!

After Sullivan's Island, we napped at the hotel until it was time to get ready for dinner.  We were headed to Magnolia's to meet Cambron, the blogger behind The Southern Sophisticate, and her boyfriend for dinner.

We took the scenic route and Bryce had his debut as a fashion blogger, posing in his York River Traders Mariner Belt (more on that in a future post).




Before meeting Cambron and Elliot, we grabbed drinks at The Gin Joint, which is just across the street from Magnolia's.


I was happy to try their "Bartender's Choice" and chose refreshing and fizzy as the two adjectives to inspire my drink.

And Mr. Bryce was happy when I treated him to a shot of Pappy Van Winkle 23 Year.

After Gin Joint, we had a great dinner and even better company, with Cambron and Elliot at Magnolia's.

The pork belly appetizer was my favorite part of the meal.

Cambron was truly a sweetheart!

After dinner, Cambron and Elliot suggested a drink at The Griffon.

The bar is literally covered with dollar bills, people have stapled to just about every surface, so we decided to add ours!

We did one as a couple, and Bryce also stapled this VMI bill up, since The Citadel, located in Charleston is their biggest rival!

After The Griffon we stopped for a drink at the Market Pavilion Rooftop before heading back to the hotel.

The bar was uber-swanky...I felt like I was a movie star getting a drink there!

The next morning we headed to brunch at Poogan's Porch before taking a carriage tour of the city.  We, of course, chose to walk a scenic route.





Brunch was incredible, to say the least!

We had some time to kill after brunch before our carriage ride, so we decided to visit the Charleston Waterfront Park and its famous pineapple fountain.



The weather could not have been more perfect, beautiful sunshine and a nice, calm breeze!


Next up was one of the highlights of our trip, a carriage ride!



All carriages have to check in here to ensure that there are never too many carriages out at one time.  It's also a lottery to see which route your carriage takes and we were thrilled to get the waterfront tour, which included mansions along The Battery!


"The Pink Palace"


Wisteria is just starting to come out now in Richmond, but was in full bloom while we were there!


After our carriage ride, we made our way back to King Street for a little shopping and the first Second Sunday of the season!

I cannot remember the name of this design shop, but I absolutely loved it!
Anyone recognize it?

I really wanted that top marsh painting!

The Moon & Lola store did not disappoint.

I really enjoyed getting to taste all sorts of honey at Savannah Bee Company.

No King Street shopping experience would be complete without a stop at the local Lilly store, Palm Avenue.

After some much needed rest time, we geared up for dinner again!  We had reservations at The Macintosh, and decided we would just pick a random place on King Street for cocktails before our reservation.

 
I spied Closed for Business and knew Bryce would love it since the window advertised their selection of craft beers!

 
B was pleased that they had many of his hard to find favorites.

Once we made it to The Macintosh, I was excited to meet a blog reader, Dina.  She and her husband were on a getaway from Atlanta and surprisingly, had spotted us earlier while we were on the carriage ride.  It must have been fated for us to meet, because they were also having dinner at The Macintosh!

 
Dina was so cute and I hope that I look half as good as her when I have two young babes!

 
The Macintosh turned out to be our favorite dinner of the trip, so I can't wait to share the meal with you in my Charleston dining post!

After dinner we were exhausted!  We had covered quite a bit of ground during our 2 days in Charleston, so we went to bed early so that we could be well energized for our last full day.

 
Our last day, was pretty dreary in the morning.  We had hoped to make it back to Sullivan's Island, but given the weather, we decided to try Hominy Grill instead.

After brunch we headed to Johns Island to see the famous angel oak.  Fortunately the weather cleared up during our ride!



 
Bryce is 6'1, but looks teeny next to the magnificent tree.


After the angel oak, I was still itching for some more beach time, so we stopped at Folly Beach on our way back into town.  Our visit was short though, given that the beach was windy and cool!



Once we got back into town, we decided to spend a bit more time on King Street, since our time had been limited the day before.

 
Grady Ervin had been closed on Sunday so we were thrilled to get the chance to go inside.

 
Bryce brought home an oyster knife and handcrafted belt buckle from the shop.  It was one of the highlights of our trip.

 
I also found my favorite purchase of the trip on Monday at V2V .

 

 
We visited some antique shops as well.

After shopping, we spent some time, just roaming the streets and taking in even more of the gorgeous scenery.  The sun had decided to make an appearance and we couldn't have been happier!




For our last dinner of the trip, we had reservations at Charleston's most famous restaurant, Husk.

 
We rode to Husk in style on the back of a rickshaw!


 
Per the suggestions of many fellow bloggers, we stopped at the Husk Bar before heading into the actual restaurant.  Bryce thought it was the coolest bar he had ever visited.

 
I sipped on a drink called "The Teacher's Lounge" and Bryce enjoyed some Jefferson's Reserve 18 Year bourbon.


 
Bryce's duck was perfection!

After dinner, we walked to Kaminsky's for late night dessert!


 

With full bellies, we took our last Charleston stroll back to the hotel!

 
Tuesday morning we had an early breakfast at the Marina Variety Store and enjoyed the gorgeous views.

 
It was definitely a hole in the wall, but our breakfasts were delicious!

 
I have been craving their hot chocolate regularly since we've been home!

 
As we left, we laughed at how appropriate this sign was for the end of our trip.

Have you been to Charleston before?

What are your favorite vacation spots?

Have a great day!