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!