Heading Home | Charleston

Hello everyone! Instead of driving to Florida right away, Dad and I decided to stay in Charleston for one day. One of the best things about this was that we could sleep in a bit! And when I said sleep in I mean sleep in till 7:30 am, we still wanted a full day of sightseeing!

When Dad and I left the hotel around 10:00 am, it was already hot and humid. We stopped at a local deli for breakfast then we headed to Old South Carriage Company for a historical carriage tour. Charleston has a bunch of carriage tours that basically do the same type of tour. Our tour guide was great, hilarious and seemed to know everyone in town! At one house, we stopped to sing Happy Birthday to this 98-year-old woman that he saw everyday during his tours. It was so sweet!

  

Robert E Lee stayed here once 

I think these flowers are beautiful! 

Our horse!

After the carriage tour ride, Dad and I decided to do a house tour. We ended up choosing the Aiken-Rhett House.

There are some other houses that you can tour in the area, but this one has become my favorite. The house has been conserved, but not restored. That basically means that the furniture, wallpaper, books, and art are the same as they were before the Civil War. It reminded me of my favorite plantation, Drayton Hall, where it is also conserved but not restored. I could not take pictures inside, but I took a bunch outside!

From the back

The original outhouse!

Building that houses the slave quarters and kitchen

Through the audio tour we went into the kitchen, slave quarters, carriage house and the main house. It was very interesting and I want to follow their conservation efforts online.

Walking to and from the house we got a few Geocaches and now TeamSchiap has found over 200 caches! Whoo hooo! We’ll get up to 300 in no time!

Looks like a face!

Outside of lock/key store 

For lunch, we met up with one of Dad’s friends from high school and his daughter who happens to be going to the same college as me! We got to discuss what classes we’re taking, what we’re going to pack and how we’re going to decorate/organize our rooms. It has made me even more excited for college! We went to TBonz where I got the Dixie Chicken Sandwich (sorry that there isn’t any photos!).

Dad and I then wandered down to Rainbow Row again and then headed back to the hotel where I took a nap. The driving from the past two days had made me very tired!

After napping, Dad and I went to dinner on East Bay Street called Blossom. For an appetizer we got the mussels in a white wine, tomato, and caper sauce. The sauce was so good; I could have eaten with a spoon!

For my last night in Charleston, I had to get some shrimp and grits. Again, it was super yummy. I need to perfect my shrimp and grits recipe to somehow resemble this one.

For dessert, Dad and I walked back to Kaminsky’s for some of the delicious berry cobbler. There is a picture of it HERE from my post about a month ago. I didn’t take another photo of it, though I did a couple photos while walking there.

And that is it for the road trip posts until Mom and I drive to D.C. from Boston in mid-August for school. The next day, Dad and I drove from Charleston to St Petersburg. We stopped at a place called Highjackers for lunch and I got the Mahi-mahi sandwich, which was pretty darn good. Then we got home where we watched Iron Man and The Avengers. Two of the best movies ever! It was relaxing end to a busy four days of driving and sightseeing.

I have a feeling that our next mini road trip will be here in no time! In the meantime there will be posts about trips to Walt Disney World, Leaky Con, One Direction and much more!

Thanks for reading!

New York Day Two

Sorry that I didn’t post yesterday, I stayed at my aunt’s apartment last night and I didn’t have time to write up a post. But on with what I did on Saturday . . .

Saturday morning, Mom and I woke up at 8 o’clock to get a fresh start on our day. We went to Le Pain Quotidien for breakfast. I love this restaurant because everything is so fresh and made in house, and selection of spreads is wonderful. Mom and I both got the soft-boiled egg with bread, and I got a fresh-squeezed orange juice. It was a yummy breakfast but not too filling.

After breakfast we caught a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art because I had really wanted to see the new Charles James exhibit. We took some pictures outside the museum and in the lobby before heading into the exhibit where we could not take pictures.

The exhibit itself was amazing. The way that the Met did it was amazing. All the dresses had screens in front of them that explained how the dresses were constructed, what inspired them, who wore them and how James cut the fabric. It was really interesting.

Afterwards, we wandered through the galleries at a leisurely pace. Mom and I went through the European sculpture garden, Asian art, American art and Egyptian art. I love taking zoomed in pictures of the heads of sculptures.

There is a taxidermied deer inside the glass bubbles!

 Mom and I then walked through Central Park to Mom’s cousin’s apartment for a mini family reunion. I got to see family members that I haven’t seen since I was really little and Mom got to reconnect with her cousins.

Since we still had our Met stickers on, so we walked back through Central Park to the museum. We also stopped at the Grom food truck for some gelato. I got a small cone with chocolate-hazelnut gelato (my favorite) and Mom got pistachio (her favorite). YUM!

When we got back to the museum we immediately went to find the Impressionism gallery. I took AP Art History two years ago and Impressionism was my favorite era to study.

Mom taking a candid picture

Doesn't this look like Benedict Cumberbatch?

We stuck our stickers to the board and took a cab to the hotel before heading to dinner. 

I found him! 

What?

Instead of going far, Mom and I decided to go to the restaurant right next door to the hotel called the Barking Dog. For an appetizer, we got the mussels with a white wine garlic sauce.

For the entrée I got a bison burger with American cheese, French fries, and sautéed spinach. It was good, but not great.

Mom and I chatted for a little bit and then headed back up to the room to rest up for the busy day ahead of us!

Thanks for reading! Please check by tomorrow for New York day four!