Sweet November: Mandi's Trip to SC

This weekend we had our very first visitor, Tate's sister Mandi! Her flight got in on Friday around lunch time, so while Tate finished up some conference calls Jace got to spend some quality time playing with his auntie and taking her to Chick-fil-a. Jace warmed up to Mandi right away and kept running over and giving her hugs and sitting in her lap. A measly 5-6 weeks without seeing her didn't seem to effect his memory of her at all, which was good to see! When Tate was finally done working we headed out to get fresh seafood in downtown Charleston. It was dark by the time we got to the restaurant, so Mandi didn't get to see much of the city, but we had some really delicious seafood. We had clams, shrimp, crab legs, oysters (a first for Mandi), crabcakes, fried green tomatoes, hush puppies, BLT salad, garlic bread...

Afterwards, Jace was ready for bed so I dropped Tate and Mandi off in downtown Summerville to check out a couple pubs, while Jace and I headed home to bed. I think they had a pretty good time considering our late start on Saturday. ;)

Saturday afternoon we walked all around Charleston. We spent a good chunk of time walking along King Street, which is one of the most popular shopping and dining areas in Charleston. King Street is very historic, and all of the buildings have alot of character. There are fancy shops like Louis Vuitton, right next to small town cafe's or smoothie shops. There are several seafood restaurants, delis, old fashioned ice cream shops, hole in the wall bars, specialty kids stores, ritzy stores, antique shops, art galleries... everything. The streets are always filled with people strolling down the side walk, enjoying the sunshine that fills the roads since there are no sky scrapers blocking the rays.

We stopped at Ye Ole Fashioned Ice Cream and Sandwich Cafe for a little lunch and then headed a few blocks down to Battery Park. The battery is a long strip of antebellum (pre-civil war) houses that line the Charleston Bay. You walk along the sidewalk with gorgeous historic houses on one side, and the water on the other. Across the water you can see Fort Sumter where the first shots of the civil war were fired 150 years ago this April. There is so much history to be seen in this area... we just didn't have enough time to see everything that we wanted to.

We drove past the Aiken-Rhett house, which we'll have to tour next time. The house is said to be one of the must-see places in Charleston because the house has not been restored, it is in it's original form and is a great glimpse into the past. The furniture and artwork in the house are the originals and the slave housing is the most authentic, and disturbing, portrait of what life was really like in America in the 1800s. Since Charleston was the number one slave port in America, there are several museums and houses that feature a glimpse into what slavery was like. But since Governer William Aiken was one of the largest slaveholders in the state of South Carolina, his home has become one that everyone seems to want to see.

As the sun was starting to set we drove out to Folly Beach to see the ocean. Folly Beach is a cute little beach town that still has that lazy feel to it. There are seafood shacks and surfshops lining the coast and the beach houses that line the ocean are in all shapes and sizes, from huge mansions to small little old rickety shacks... which adds even more personality to the area. We were in search of a good Barbeque place in Folly Beach but last minute decided to come back to Summerville and eat at Sticky Fingers instead. Sticky Finger's is a little chain BBQ restaurant in the Charleston area. We got a ton of delicious comfort foods (think: ribs, wings, cornbread muffins, mac and cheese, fried corn on the cob, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet tea, bread pudding... etc) and then came home and crashed on the couch watching a movie.

The next day we headed back down to Charleston in search of something fun to do. Since we're in the "bible belt" nothing is open for tours until noon or 2 pm on Sundays because everyone is at church, so we took a little trolley ride around town and then decided to take advantage of the sunny weather and check out another beach. This time we headed to Isle of Palms, which is about 15 minutes from downtown Charleston. The bridge that connects Charleston to that side of town is absolutely gorgeous to drive over, and you can see Fort Sumter off in the distance as you drive past.

Isle of Palms is more up-to-date than Folly Beach. The town had alot of cute restaurants and shops lining the beach, and a Ben and Jerry's walk up ice cream shop that caught my eye! We ended up grabbing lunch at a seaside restaurant called Coconut Joe's. The restaurant has a top patio that you can eat on and catch some rays, or (where we sat) a patio below it with a gorgeous view of the ocean with some seasonal window coverings to keep some of the ocean wind out. The food at Coconut Joe's was amazing. I ordered a Carolina Burger and I don't think I'll ever go back to eating normal burgers again. This burger was topped with american cheese, chili, cole slaw, and mustard. Then of course all the normal fixings: pickles, onions, tomatoes and lettuce. The fries were epic as well. We'll definitely be going back here in the future!

After lunch we walked down to the beach and Jace immediately started running around with a huge smile on his face. He had fun chasing all of the birds around, and chasing pretty much everything else he could see as well. He loved stomping on the "bubbles" in the water that appeared from the waves washing in. I can tell already that he's going to love hanging out at the beach this summer... we'll just have to find a really good sunscreen for his little casper skin! I'm looking forward to next month when it's actually beach weather, so we can put on our suits and have even more fun. It will be perfect tanning and swimming weather when Mandi comes back, along with Tate's parents, in April. Looking forward to it already... Jace just doesn't think that a weekend was nearly enough time with his Auntie!