Charleston, South Carolina

In my last post, I mentioned my girls trip to Charleston, so it is only appropriate that I fill you in on the fabulous vacation we had.  We left town the morning of September 15th.  Booking the vacation, all being tax accountants, we thought it would be no big deal to fly out on the day of our biggest deadline of the year.  I mean, who waits till the due date to file tax returns, right?!  Wrong!  In our past experience, everyone was always done by the 15th and cruising to happy hour at noon.  This year was a tad different and unfortunately two all-star 150%ers, Annie and Jessica, had to hang back because of work and fly out on Friday.  We missed them for sure, but the rest of us tried our best to have a great Thursday in Charleston!



Flight to Charleston



150% on the flight, of course

 

Our Suburban Rental Car - One vehicle for all 8 of us!



Afternoon snack and wine at Fast and French

Yummy seafood dinner and champagne at Rue de Jean



Drinks at the Belmont

We did some major walking on Thursday and really saw a lot of Charleston.  After drinks at the Belmont, we walked over to another nightlife area and had one drink at the Social club before heading home.

Friday we woke up and a cold front had blew in - the weather was amazing!  We walked up to Starbucks and got some coffee and breakfast and then headed out to walk all over downtown Charleston. 



Walking the Battery

We also walked through Charleston's famous market.  It had a ton of vendors and lots of cool hand made items.  My favorite station was http://www.rewinedcandles.com/ which had candles made from old wine bottles and beer bottles.

After walking around, we got changed, grabbed a quick lunch at Hominy Grill, and picked up the rest of the group at the airport.  All 8 of us ran errands at the grocery store and liquor store before heading home to get ready for our Friday night out on the town.

Group at the Rooftop Pavilion - super windy and chilly so just took some quick pics

Rooftop Pavilion

Before dinner drinks at High Cotton



Cheers to our nice dinner at High Cotton!

  

Drinks at Gin Joint after dinner

Most of the group at Gin Joint

 

150% at Gin Joint

Williams' Sisters at Gin Joint - drinks from the 1920's!



Saturday we kicked off the day by heading out to Middleton Plantation.  It was so pretty out there and we got to take a tour of the place and enjoy lunch at their cafe.



After we got home from Middleton, we had a private carriage tour of downtown Charleston. 

Saturday night we hit the town again with dinner at Manzo for gourmet pizza and drinks at the Blind Tiger.

Manzo



Sunday we did some more sightseeing.  We walked the bridge between Charleston and Mt. Pleasant.  The bridge was completed in 2005 and is common for people to exercise along.  We walked halfway and took some pics.

Lunch at Water's Edge after walking the bridge

Then we took a one and half hour boat cruise of the Charleston Harbor including going by Fort Sumter.  No pictures from the boat as it was pretty cold so I spent most of the cruise in the inside section of the bottom of the boat.

After the boat cruise, we split up in to a few groups.  Some went to tour the Calhoun Mansion which I heard was amazing, some went to visit family or some took naps.  Jenny and I went to church.  This was pretty exciting because I have not been to church in forever.  What we learned over our trip was that Charleston is also called the Holy City.  Because in its small downtown area, it has 187 churches.  St. Michael's, the church we went to is famous because it was built in 1761 and all but three presidents have worshipped there.  We were glad they had a casual 6:00 mass and it was really cool to see the inside of such an old church. 

After church we met up with the rest of the gang at Basil for our last dinner.  This was a Thai restaurant that came recommended from a lot of people and it was pretty delicious. After dinner, we headed home to drink all the alcohol we had bought for the house and pack.  Early flight home on Monday!

All in all, it was a fabulous trip.  I hadn't really ever thought about vacationing in Charleston but I would totally do it again.  It would be a great destination for girls, couples, and families.  There's so much to see and do.  The market, the history, the tours, the churches, the nightlife, etc.  The food at every restaurant was amazing too - I loved every meal.  I would totally recommend going there to anyone and plan on going back for sure!