charleston

this past week, chase and i took a kidless vacation to charleston, s.c. it was a much needed break, and we had a great time. we could have done without the nine hours in the car, but at least the satellite radio got a workout!!

we stayed at the governor's house inn which was in a great location for everything that we wanted to do. the staff was really nice, and chase would say that the breakfasts were great. i'm not really a breakfast food person (unless it involves sausage, bacon, cheese grits, biscuits, and that sort of thing), but he is. he gladly ate my spoleto inspired cinnamon raisin french toast stratta with pineapple and cream cheese. by the last day, i asked the people to bring me a bowl of rice crispies and not waste their banana toast concoction on me. it was at this point that i heard chase mumble something about taking me to a nice bed and breakfast and me just eating rice crispies! we may be staying at the holiday inn from now on!

anyway, while we were there, we took a carriage tour of the city, did the market (glorified flea market), visited a plantation, took a trip to fort sumter, and walked around looking at all the old houses. that was our favorite part. i wore a pedometer the whole time, and we were very good at walking around 10 miles a day. if something has been in charleston for 75 years, you cannot move or change it. so, they have had to build fences around trees, houses are the same, and there are carriage steps in the middle of the sidewalk from way back when. it was really neat to see all that. but our biggest wow moment came when we walked in st. michael's church to have a look around. the pews were like our pews except they had a door on the end that was locked. you have to buy your own pew!!! and, then i guess you get a key to your pew so that only you and your family can sit there on sunday. how weird is that??

and we definitely ate our way through the entire city. we had so many recommendations that we tried to get them all in! and our bed and breakfast had tea/snack every afternoon which we tried not to miss. thank goodness we walked so much every day because i'm sure we would have gained quite a bit of weight otherwise!! but, thanks so much to anna, emily, jenny ruth and michelle for the recs.....y'all were right on target!

i made a slide show of some of the pictures because i know that not everybody wanted to scroll through a bunch of pictures of old houses. they're really cool if you see them in person, though. so, if you're looking for a relaxing vacation other than the beach....give this town a try. but make sure you take your walking shoes. and a satellite radio for the drive doesn't hurt either!