Continuing Our Christmas Vacation…

The day after Christmas…

We had made arrangements to spend a few days in Charleston South Carolina on this visit and we finally convinced the gang to come along, YIPEEE!

Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge or New Cooper River Bridge, Beautiful!

We found our hotel with the aid of GPS and my expertise in co-piloting. Once we all got settled in, we promptly set out exploring. Directly in front of our hotel was the city’s FREE, yeah I said free, trolley cars that will take you just about anywhere in the city.

We had made reservations for the following day on a walking tour of the city with Charleston Foot Prints, thank you again Michael, it was wonderful.

It was a 2 ½ hour tour winding through the historic portion of town. I was surprised how much our 11 and 13 year old nephews enjoyed it.  We all would reccommend it, highly.

Lunch that afternoon was at Sweetwater Café on Market Street. I’ve never had a fried pickle before and I liked it. It was burgers for our crew and salads for the ladies.

After further walking, we all needed something sweet…

We found Cupcake Downsouth on our first evening in town, but didn’t get a chance to stop in til now. Red Velvet with CreamCheese icing, Toasted Coconut and Vanilla with ButterCream cupcakes.  Worth every calorie.

That evening we went over to James Island County Park – Holiday Festival of Lights on James Island.  Fantastic!  My camera doesn’t take very good night-time pictures, but let me tell you, if you are ever in the area during the month of December, GO!

The next day we went out to Fort Sumter National Monument. On the boat ride out to the island, we were followed by Dolphins and Sea Birds. This is an amazing, historic place, where the first shots of the War Between the States were fired.

Lunch had been planned out and a table reserved, good thing too! It was a very busy afternoon and the restaurant was hoppin’.

Fleet Landing.

My husband ordered a platter of fresh oysters, it was all for him. For the rest of the meals on the table, they consisted of two baskets of biscuits and whipped honey butter, a burger (unfortunately it was too far across the table from me), a shrimp plate, a Cobb salad with black-eyed peas (interesting) and two orders of Shrimp and Grits with Andouille Sausage and Tasso Ham gravy. This was my first time trying Shrimp and Grits and I must say, not my last, WOW! If I could have licked the bowl I would have.  I wanted to get up and dance, it was that spectacular of a dish!

We needed to walk that lunch off, for sure.

Right next door was the Waterfront Park with Charleston’s infamous Pineapple Fountain. It was such a nice day, that we all kinda just did a slow saunter and enjoyed it. We did have a bit of a walk back to where we had parked the car, so that was good.

We went back to our hotel to rest for awhile and then it started to rain. Liz, our nephew’s wife, and I had wanted to try a restaurant that we thought our entire team would like, Toast. Since it was raining and it was two trolley-transfers away, we decided it best to drive. Charleston isn’t a difficult city to drive in, but finding parking is the trick.

This meal was quite the gastromonical delight! Crab cakes, fried shrimp, fried pickles (yum), beef stew soup, fried chicken, meatloaf, steak, I can’t remember what Liz had but it looked good, pork chops with black-eyed peas and greens, red velvet cupcake, coconut cream pie, chocolate layer cake and carrot cake… YUM!

The weather forecast was for rain all the next day and that was a bummer, because we had reservations for a horse-drawn carriage ride through the city. We made up a contingency plan and called Classic Carriage Works. Graciously, they agreed that it was not a good day for a carriage ride and refunded our pre-paid tickets. The five of us piled into the mini van and headed for the South Carolina Aquarium.

This was WAY more than just fish. We got to feed some little `rays, and the boys had a good time in the hurricane booth. The day prior a nice gal was handing out flyers to a deli just up the block, so that’s where we headed for lunch.

East Bay Deli hit the spot for all of us. Chicken salad in a spinach wrap, Philly Cheese Steak Sammie, `burgers (not pictured `cause they were gone before I could get a photo), a Greek Salad with Gyro meat and extra tzatziki sauce and a hunk-o-cheesecake was on the table this day. Oh, did I mention those flyers gave us $5 off? Sweet!

It was another slow walk back to the car. But wait, what did I see along the way but a bakery, hmmm, I think we need another treat.

The two young men in our entourage enjoyed cookies as the older folk had a coffee. Thank you Delish! Bakery and Bistro. Uber cute place and luscious goodies.

Well, we must bid farewell to Charleston and head back North.

On our drive back to Camp Lejeune we stopped for lunch in Myrtle Beach at Capriz Italian Feast, located on Broadway at the Beach. Let me tell you, it was a feast!

Lunch was all you could eat salad bar, pizza or both. I couldn’t even tell you the number of choices on the salad bar… olives, breads, pastas both cold and hot, soup, salumi, cheeses, salads, a display pizza kitchen… oh my gravy all over my two scoops rice (that’s OMG in my world)!

It was very quiet in the car for the rest of the ride.

ALOHA!

Tagged: Broadway At The Beach, Capriz Italian Feast, Charleston Footprints Walking Tour, Charleston South Carolina, Classic Carriage Works, Cupcake Downsouth, Delish! Bakery and Bistro, East Bay Deli, Fleet Landing, Fort Sumter National Monument, James Island County Park Holiday Festival of Lights, South Carolina Aquarium, Sweetwater Cafe, Toast, Waterfront Park in Charleston SC