Building on the Rock: Charleston Girls Weekend

S and I have spent the past two days in Charleston! It was so so nice to just have time with her and to do stuff that the boys wouldn't necessarily appreciate and enjoy as much!

We left the house at 7am yesterday and drove straight to our hotel, The Francis Marion, and were able to check in early at 10:30 when we arrived! I wasn't expecting that, but was definitely grateful! We knew the weather was going to be rainy today, so yesterday was our day to get all of our outdoor activities done and we sure did! We walked down King St. stopping in a couple of the shops and then decided on Sweetwater Cafe for a breakfast lunch. Re-energized, we strolled through the Market, stopping to look at every.single.table with jewelry because S absolutely loves that stuff! We each bought a little something while we were there and even had carolers come by singing through the Market - I felt like I was Candace Cameron Bure in a Hallmark movie!! I wish they'd come by again, but once was all we got! After the market we went to Waterfront Park and walked out on the pier where the wind was just whipping! Then we walked along the Waterfront down to Rainbow Row and then around to the Battery! S was super cooperative, unlike the boys, and posed for lots of pictures! It was getting close to our carriage ride tour so we walked back through the Historic District, checking out the houses and winter gardens, back past the Market to the barn where we boarded our carriage for the tour! Our feet were tired by now and the ride was much needed and quite relaxing - but also really chilly with the wind in our face! Our tour took us through parts of Charleston I'd never seen before, the ghetto pretty much, but we learned a lot of stuff I'd not heard on past tours so it was definitely worth it! We were chilled and tired when we got off the carriage, so we stopped in for a cup of hot chocolate at City Lights Coffee to warm up! We strolled back down King St. on the opposite side we'd taken that morning, stopped in a few more stores and then went back to our hotel room to rest before dinner. Dinner reservations were at Coast, just a couple of blocks up the other side of King St. It was a restaurant recommended by the hotel and I didn't realize it until we got there that M and I had been there many, many years ago before we had kids! Dinner was good, but the crab cakes were nothing compared to my favorites at Soby's! I'd heard that Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams was worth a visit and since it was just a short walk from Coast, S indulged with honey vanilla in a cinnamon baked sugar cone! She put that thing away really fast!! After ice cream, we walked the several blocks back to the hotel where we promptly got ready for bed and watched The Santa Clause before calling a day!

This morning we woke up and had ordered breakfast to the room! It was a ton of food, and so nice not to have to go out since the weather was getting a little drizzly! We ate leisurely, again watching Christmas movies in bed. We got ourselves ready, checked out of our room, retrieved the car from valet and drove a few blocks to the South Carolina Aquarium! We arrived about 9:30 and they had just opened at 9am so we had the place to ourselves for the first hour or so. The aquarium was decorated for Christmas throughout the exhibits! We followed a scavenger hunt through all the exhibits and enjoyed the small crowds! S wanted to check out the gift shop, where she purchased herself rock candy for the ride home(lol!), and then we went back to the large tank to watch Scuba Clause diving in the tank;) It was cute, even though S rolled her eyes at the whole thing! Afterwards, we joined a small group to do a behind the scenes tour and feed the large fish in the tank! This was something we'd never done and I'm so so glad that I spent the extra to do it! It was neat seeing things that we hadn't seen before and feeding those huge fish and seeing the dive suits(and the Santa dive suit that was still sopping wet from Scuba Clause an hour earlier!)! When we'd finished the tour it was time to get lunch. I was really wanting to try Callie's Hot Little Biscuit, but didn't want to have to walk 10 miles in the rain to get there. I scored a parking spot, that I did NOT have to parallel park in because I haven't done that with the Sequoia ever I don't think and especially not on a busy street in Charleston, and it was less than a block from Callie's! Because of the weather, the line was not out the door like I've heard it gets but we were able to walk right up and order and had room at the tiny counter to stand and eat! S thought they were amazing - I liked them, but did not love them! With full bellies we got in the car and drove home!

We need to do this more often! It was so easy with just one and we just enjoyed all of it!!