To celebrate our 25th Anniversary it seemed fitting that we re-visit our favorite city, Charleston. Just a short drive up the coast, Charleston has for years been our city of choice for quick weekend trips. We only had a couple days in our schedules but we made a celebration happen.
It was such a good trip!
The weather was perfection. Hot, yes! But, our carriage rides offered cool breezes coming in off the waters and gave us thankful respite from the heat. Plants, trees, and bushes were in bloom and everything was beautiful.
Of course, I visited Trip Advisor for our restaurant possibilities. First and foremost was pizza. I found a local pizza joint, De'llesandro's, off of King Street, and we were not disappointed. Great pizza. It will definitely go on our 'visit again' restaurant. We only have a few of those because we're always looking to try new-to-us restaurants.
After having bread pudding at Hall's Chophouse last year during our trip, then, we could not come to Charleston this trip without bread pudding being on the dessert menu. We had to get it to go, which we shared back in our hotel room, roomy, but off the beaten path and not in the historic district this trip.
We picked up an actual historic district map, visitor friendly, at the carriage house, Palmetto Carriage Tours, the big red barn, and relied on it to take us where we wanted to go the rest of the weekend.
Because of my hearing aids, we were given seats in the front of both carriage tours so I was able to capture some pretty decent photos this trip, unencumbered by other's taking photos. We are always interested in hearing, and capturing on film, the wrought iron story, especially now that John is taking welding and is interested in forging and blacksmithing.
We didn't mean to. We only meant to buy Jeff another pair of Sperry deck shoes because, while still comfortable they aren't really fit for even business casual and barely fit for summer casual. Instead, we left Charleston with - count 'em - 6 pairs of shoes.
Almost every time we've visited Charleston we've asked someone, this weekend it was our carriage driver on Saturday, "where do the locals eat?" With probing questions we found out that the Swig and Swine had fried pickles. I think when he said that, both Jeff and I were in agreement we'd be trying those pickles.We saved the 22nd Avengers movie in the series for this trip, knowing without a doubt it would still be playing in theaters, even a month after opening night as it was the highest grossing movie of all time. It was sooo good and made me want to watch, in order, all 22 movies, again.
Except for t-shirts for Jeff, we rarely buy souvenirs or memorabilia on our trips - well except for mugs, occasionally. There's that...
And, this trip I wanted a mug, of course. But, I also purchased a 'Charleston' map print. I actually found it on the internet (no shame!) and represents Charleston as I think of it. Colorful. Everyone uses an historic district map to get them around.
Although the pizza was amazing, my personal favorite meal was at Miller's All Day, Sunday mornings' breakfast. I had the best quiche I've ever eaten in my life - and I have eaten a lot of quiche. Silky smooth, fluffy, full-bodied flavor. Even now I am salivating! And, the décor in this place...
Fun! A retro, 50-ish décor in my colors! I was gazing at every square inch, taking it all in, because it was just so much fun. We leisurely ate, drank super-tasting coffee, and people-watched.
Two carriage rides under our belt and we toured just a small portion of the historic city. The city has broken carriage tours into 10 city routes which generally take about an hour, maybe a little more, as ours did on Sunday. We had two different routes yet didn't come close to seeing ev-ery-thing.
I didn't catch pictures of our Saturday evening meal but it was a little strip mall Mexican restaurant across the Ashley River, next to the Spencer theatre where we saw the Avengers, Endgame. We had decided on Mexican and after the movie we went back to the truck to find a restaurant with good reviews. Low and behold there was a highly rated Mexican restaurant right in front of our eyes. We were not disappointed! We both had two tacos of our choice - which were fantastic, full of flavor and chips and salsa. Both were quite tasty.
Kind of 'cheezy' by the numbers - but it was fun! And, it finishes off my album, celebrating our 25th anniversary.