Anniversary Trip to the Carolinas, Part 2

The second portion of the anniversary vacation, South Carolina, began Friday evening upon arrival at the Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina, a small resort hotel across the bay from Charleston proper, near Mt Pleasant. Once checked in, we ventured out for fresh seafood and made our way to the Shem Creek Bar and Grill, as recommended by my mom.

Here, we enjoyed a drink on the back creek bar and listened to a local artist do island influenced renditions of rock and pop hits, including A-ha's Take On Me. Once seated next to an aquarium, we befriended our neighbor fish and got down to the business of eating. The food was delicious and included my first experience "shooting an oyster". I am pretty sure it was also my first experience eating an oyster in any manner...and it was a lot of fun.

 

After dinner, we checked out the resort a little more in the dark before calling it a night. Friday had been a long day. Saturday morning, we were welcomed with mid-90's temperatures and 110+ degree heat indexes. Seems this is a common theme this summer. To make the best of it, we started the day with breakfast at a local coffee shop, Metto, before catching a water taxi to Charleston.
Once in Charleston, we had to make a hot walk to the market area, where we began our trek through the city. There were plenty of shopping stops, mostly to take advantage of air conditioning. Unfortunately, we didn't take very good advantage of the many opportunities to checkout a museum or historical site...either due to being disoriented by the heat or a lack of planning. We did take a quick walk down Rainbow Row.  After burning out, we caught "Ollie", the resort trolley, back to the hotel.

 

Some much needed relaxation by the pool recharged our batteries for a trip to Sullivan's Island for an early dinner. We must have picked a local favorite (Sullivan's) because it was packed by 6 pm. More delicious seafood was had before we took off to cruise the strip between Sullivan's Island and Isle of Palms. We caught our first glimpse of the actual Atlantic Ocean (instead of the inlets and harbors), which will be the focus of Sunday's activities, before heading back to call it an evening early.

Sunday began with an early morning run in the Charleston heat and humidity. The run involved 2 passes (over & back) of the largest "hill" in the Charleston area, the Arthur Ravanel Bridge (see photo at the bottom of the post). Despite the heat and lack of shade on the bridge the views of both Charleston and Mount Pleasant provided a worthy distraction.

Once business was taken care of, Susan and I headed out for the day, with our late morning activity being bumming on the beach. We hit the Isle of Palms public beach, which was packed with locals and tourists alike. Tide was moving out, so there was plenty of space for everyone. Since we only took books and towels with us, the beach stay mainly consisted of reading, sunbathing, and wading through the surf. I was tempted to steal the buckets of a neighboring beach goer so that I could build a monumental sand castle.

The heat had not come down much from Saturday; thus we only survived until around lunch time at the beach. After grabbing some food at a beach-front dive, we made our way back to the hotel to rinse off the sandiness and prepare for the rest of the day. Since we didn't want to venture immediately back into the heat and still had areas of Charleston I wanted to see, we took a Sunday cruise over to Charleston to check out the historic mansions of Battery St. and the King St shopping district. This also got us out of the hotel room long enough for housekeeping to do their thing.

We returned late afternoon and took up our places by the pool to relax the remainder of our last day of vacation. Clouds began to roll in, so it cooled considerably. Neither of us were feeling up to getting geared up for a fancy dinner, so we just hit a local pub. The food was a letdown considering the rest of the meals on the trip, but expected considering the establishment.  After dinner, we returned to the hotel to pack up and prepare for our 10-hour journey back to Cincinnati.

Anniversary Trip to the Carolinas

In celebration of our 3rd successful year of marriage, Susan and I took off on another extended weekend vacation to mark the occasion. To help alleviate some of the necessary driving, the trip was divided into two segments, we'll call them North Carolina and South Carolina.

North Carolina began on Thursday with a midday drive from Cincinnati to Asheville. We had purchased a package through a hotel that included Biltmore Estate admission for consecutive days, so stopped off at the hotel to grab our tickets. We arrived at the Biltmore entrance when most people were leaving for the day since the house tours were closed. Luckily, our plan was to check out the newer section of the estate, which was Antler Village (and farm) and the Winery.

The village is a circle of shops, restaurants and an exhibition gallery. When we arrived, there was a guitarist jamming some Bluegrass in the rotunda. We hit the area shops and made sure we'd have time to hit the winery last, before we grabbed some ice cream and made our way through the farm.

The farm has one section devoted to turn of the century agricultural technology to give an idea of what life was like at the beginning of the estate's history. Another section has a small garden and a farm animal petting zoo, complete with baby goats, rams, horses & chickens.

   

We concluded the estate visit with a tour of the winery, with a very talkative tour guide, and a tasting (which was unlimited and free with admission to the estate). To make up for the bargain tasting, we spent a good deal restocking wine in the shop afterwards.

Before leaving the estate, Susan was taken by a field of sunflowers so we stopped for a photo shoot. Then, we made our way to downtown Asheville for dinner. We hit up The LAB (Lexington Avenue Brewery) and returned to our modest hotel to take advantage of the rest of the package deal we received, which included champagne and chocolates. 

Friday began with a return to the Biltmore and a tour of the gardens. The tour was abbreviated due to excessive heat, so we grabbed some lunch and decided to take the audio tour of the house. It is mighty impressive, especially the indoor swimming pool. Unfortunately, they outlaw photography in the house. Once our tour was complete, we cruised around the rest of the estate grounds before bidding farewell to Asheville and North Carolina. The remainder of the vacation will be centered in and around Charleston, SC.