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!

Heading Home | Virginia Beach to Charleston

Hello everyone! Tuesday was definitely a shorter day than Monday! Only about seven hours of driving, which is much better than ten hours. Dad and I woke up bright and early to get a good start on driving. From our balcony there were amazing views of the sunrise over the beach.

After about four hours into the drive, we hit South of the Border. Dad was amazed to see how large it had grown since when he had been there as a child. Since I had been to South of the Border only a few weeks before, it all looked the same to me! We went to the Sombrero Restaurant for some lunch where I had the beef tacos and Dad had the burger. I got to say, it their lunch is better than there breakfast. Before heading out, we stopped in the gift shop to get some stuff for Emma.

We got to Charleston around four o’clock, just in time to watch the US vs. Belgium game. After the game was over Dad and I picked a restaurant on Urbanspoon, Lowcountry Bistro.

At the restaurant we sat on the piazza (traditional Charleston side porch), which was thankfully in the shade. Dad and I also learned that the bistro was the sister restaurant is 82 Queen, which is one of the best restaurants in the city. So we knew that we were in for a treat!

For an appetizer, we got the shrimp and grits because you got get shrimp and grits when in Charleston! It was so good, but a bit different from traditional shrimp and grits. The grits weren’t really creamy and there was a tomato sauce on top of it. Different but still very delicious!

For my dinner I had the most delicious meal ever! It was a sweet potato-cornmeal-bacon waffle with fried chicken on top. It was one of the best things that I have every eaten. The waffle was sweet and salty, the chicken was perfectly cooked, and the two were just magical together. All other chicken and waffles pale in comparison. As you can see in the second photo, I ate it pretty fast!

Dad got potato crusted trout with sautéed rainbow chard and grits. He loved it and agreed that we would have to be back again!

After dinner we walked along Broad and East Bay streets to Rainbow Row and the Waterfront Park.

Dad then took out his phone to look for some geocaches in the area. At the time we were a few caches away from finding 200 caches. Our searches took us to see some amazing views of the city at sunset.

Thanks for reading!

Heading Home Part One | Boston to Virginia Beach

Well I’m back on the road! Instead of driving north with Mom, I am driving south with Dad. As I am writing this we are driving on I-95 south, about an hour away from South of the Border (UPDATE: As I am publishing this, we are in our hotel in Charleston).

Yesterday Dad and I made the long journey from Boston, MA to Virginia Beach, VA. It was a twelve-hour day including rest stops and lunch. We left the apartment at 6:30 am and ate at a Starbucks for breakfast (a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich for the both of us).We went on the George Washington Bridge where I took a bunch of photos!

On the New Jersey Turnpike, we stopped at the Walt Whitman Rest Stop where I had a prosciutto caprese sandwich and Dad had a Nathan’s hot dog. Before the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, most of the drive was through rural Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

Then we got to the Bridge-Tunnel, which was really cool. As the name suggests, some of it is a bridge and some of it is a tunnel. At the rest stop we stopped and took lots of pictures and Dad got a Geocache.  The sun over the water was beautiful and would be lovely to see at sunset.

We finally got to our hotel (the Ramada Oceanfront) at around 6:30 pm. We had to switch rooms because the first room was smoking and we had requested non-smoking. The views from both of the rooms were fantastic!

I quickly freshened up my hair and makeup before Dad and I headed out to find some dinner. I took a few more pictures on the beach before we went to Waterman’s Surfside Grille. We ate inside because the wait was short and we were happy to still be able to see the ocean from our seats. For an appetizer we got hush puppies, which are fried cornmeal balls that shouldn’t be so good. They were served with some butter, but I don’t think that you needed it. As my entrée I got the Parmesan Peppercorn Halibut, which was good but I think it had too much of the cheese sauce on top. Dad got the crab cakes that tasted really yummy!

At a nearby table set for sixteen, there was a wedding party that had just gotten married on the beach. The groom was a sailor in his dress whites and the bride was in a flowy, long, white dress. They were adorable and I wish them all the luck in the world.

Before heading into the room, I took a couple of photos of the sunset from the windows on our floor. Then Dad and I watched Harry Potter: The Making of Diagon Alley (which looks amazing) and American Ninja Warrior (the stuff that they can do is crazy) before going to sleep.

It was long day, but we were up early this morning for the next leg of the journey: Virginia Beach to Charleston, SC. Thanks for reading!