Charleston...a dining tour!

For those that don't know...Ben and I went to Charleston last weekend for our first trip sans Sam! AMAZING! We drove up to Maryville on Wednesday night to Ben's parent's house. They watched Sam for us. We drove down on Thursday and stayed until Sunday! It was SOOOO nice to get away just the two of us...long overdue and much appreciated! I had originally booked us at Wild Dunes Resort on Isle of Palms, but decided that we could do the beach anytime with Sam. We couldn't really stomp around the city much with him. Not the best city for stroller walking! It worked out perfectly and we still made it to the beach one day. Sam had a blast with NaNa and YaYa (as I knew he would). Mops was in Maryville too, so he was able to see her and Sara's girls at Kennedy's 4th birthday party (can't believe she is 4)! It was kind of rough leaving him for 4 nights. I haven't done that before, but knew he was in EXCELLENT hands! Thanks NaNa and YaYa for taking such good care of our little man!
Apparently when I uploaded pictures from Charleston, I mainly just had pictures of restaurants. Kind of pathetic to take pictures of dining establishments, but these were too good not too mention. Clearly, you can tell what we focused on...GREAT FOOD and BEVERAGE! To me, the best way to know where to eat on vacation is from word of mouth, so here you go! We just didn't take many pictures. I guess when Sam's not around, the camera doesn't make it out much.

This is one of the 2 pictures that we actually got of the two of us. Not a great picture (clearly this is not my "good side" if there even is one), but worth mentioning because the place we were at was AWESOME! We were strolling down East Bay St and noticed this really cool rooftop bar/restaurant. I actually think it was called The Roof Top Bar/Restaurant. It was so nice to sit outside (weather was fantastic) and see the water and the beautiful city. We just had beverages and appetizers, but this is a MUST VISIT if you go! Great atmosphere...so relaxing (maybe b/c I wasn't constantly trying to entertain a toddler)!

Saturday we made it over to Folly Beach (we have visited there before and it is a really quiet, family beach). We really enjoyed relaxing and soaking up the sun! WONDERFUL! I love the beach...pretty sure I could live there!

While driving down to the beach, we drove past this house. I made Ben go back so I could take a picture of these AMAZING hydrangeas. They were everywhere...and they were purple. You don't normally see them in purple. They were GORGEOUS...my favorite flower ever!

Okay, so on to some dining establishments. Ben's brother, Rob had mentioned that this is his favorite place to go while in Charleston. It is called Tommy Condon's Irish Pub & Restaurant. AWESOME! We stopped in here late one night and had a good dinner. Nothing fancy, just good bar food (and Irish delicacies). The great thing about this place and reason you must go is the live music. It started around 10:00 pm (yep...when you have no child with you, you can stay out late like this) and was this little Irish band. They were actually Irish and played authentic music. They have an outdoor patio which was nice too. It was great. This is on Church St (off of Market). AWESOME!

So...right next door to the Irish Pub place was this GEM! Bocci's Italian Restaurant! We had gone to another Italian place and couldn't get in until late, so we wandered upon this one. We decided to give it a try and were so glad we did. AMAZING. Friendly staff...waiting a little while but we didn't care b/c it was such a nice atmosphere. The food was incredible! Very reasonably priced, homestyle (and everything was made on premises...nothing out of the freezer here), AUTHENTIC Italian food. I had the lasagna (of course) and it did not disappoint! Again, great atmosphere. They open up the windows so you kind of felt like you were eating outside. We even had a guy serenade us with opera music! Another plus...Maggie Moos was right across the street.

Another GEM! Jestines Kitchen. This one was on the corner where our hotel was. Everyday we passed it and saw a ton of people lined up. It was kind of by itself (not in the main touristy part of Meeting St), so you kind of had to know it was there. We figured that it must be good if all those people were lined up. Sunday, on our way out, we stopped in. It was great. Mainly meat and three type of place. They had cornbread, fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, and the list goes on and on. I had meatlof (which I am very weird about, but loved it)...oh and the mashed potatoes...to die for! You kind of feel like you are in your grandma's kitchen! GREAT...definitely will go back there!

This was our super nice hotel. Great location...great service!

Okay, so sorry this turned into "Kate's Quick Guide to Charleston", but wanted to share some of the great things we did...or rather, great food we ate.

Have to give a birthday shout to two of my beautiful nieces this week. Kennedy turned 4 on the 9th and Grace is celebrating her birthday today...8 years old. Can't believe they are getting so old! Such big beautiful girls!
This was from Thanksgiving...here is Grace (on left) and Emma...posing of course! Grace just made the Blount United soccer team (I used to coach for them). Crazy that this was around the age Sara and I started (I think) playing competitive soccer. How I miss those days and so happy that Grace is going to get to experience it as well. I really thought she would be the cheerleader of the family, but she loves soccer! Whoohoo!
Crazy Kennedy. This is one funny child. Love her so much!