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.

 

Heading West – A Long Weekend in Denver, Day 1

It’s been a while since we’ve travelled west (about 5 months now), so we decided to take a long weekend trip to Denver and, as usual, are documenting each day in my blog.  We flew out of Louisville Friday morning and will return Monday morning.  A nice long weekend that started early on Friday with a plane ride…   

The wife in front of her windowless window seat

After arriving in Denver, we decided to drive up to Boulder.  We were pretty hungry from the travelling and decided to try a University of Colorado hotspot called The Sink.  The walls were covered in paintings and the low ceilings were covered in signatures of diners.   It was also featured on a recent episode of the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.

The Sink

Wall paintings

A shot of the ceiling graffiti

Next stop was Chautauqua Park to check out the Flat Iron Mountains.  We walked about the park a bit and then up the trail to the tree line of the mountains.  The trail was busy with hikers, families, and dog walkers.  It offered a nice view of both the mountains and the city of Boulder below.

 

After checking out the park, we decided to head to downtown Boulder and see the Pearl Street shopping district.  Soon after we arrived, we saw a pretty impressive street performer.  He started out on stilts and moved to a very tall unicycle.   

He started out with juggling

 
Then tossed his hat from his foot to his head while on his unicycle


Street Sign in Downtown Boulder

Storefront on Pearl Street

After we had our fill of walking around Boulder, we grabbed a quick snack at a chocolate shop before heading back to Denver.  We relaxed at our friend’s place (who is graciously hosting us for the weekend) for a while to get some rest before dinner.

 
Random shot from the car on the way to Denver

With March Madness in full swing, we had to catch the UK – OSU game which was conveniently during dinner time in Denver.  I did some research and found the perfect bar to watch the game.  It was called College Inn and was the official bar of the University of Kentucky, Colorado Alumni Association.  The bartender noticed the wife’s Ohio license right away and warned her that she’d be outnumbered.  The bar was full of enthusiastic UK fans who would burst into spontaneous C-A-T-S cheers throughout the game.  They even played the UK Fight Song at halftime.  There was a few Ohio State fans to keep the wife company but the roar of the UK fans drowned out her small cheering section.

After watching the Cats pull out a last minute win, we headed home amid the congratulating (for me) and consoling (for the wife) messages.  Go cats!  Tomorrow we’ll actually try and see some of Denver itself.

Philly/NYC Trip, Day 4

Saturday morning in NYC was relaxed, involving sleeping in and then a run along the Hudson River. The winds were down and the sun was shining, so even though it was cold out, it felt pretty comfortable while running. By the time we were ready to go out on the town, it was midday and we were ready to get some brunch. Only a short walk away was Edward's, where we had brunch last year. Since there was an additional member of our party this morning who hadn't had an Edward's brunch experience, it provided a good excuse to go back and enjoy more Chillaquilles.

Once fed, it was back to the condo to welcome a couple other friends to the fold. They settled in and got a quick tour of the condo before we left for touristing. Since it was nice out, we wandered South along the Hudson and made our way to the ground zero to see the construction progress. There is a long way to go, but it's nice to see buildings actually starting to rise. From our pit stop at the World Financial Center, we continued south toward Battery Park to get a view of Lady Liberty.

Ground Zero A symphony practicing at the World Financial Center

The Statue of Liberty

Our next goal was to check out a snow-covered Central Park. Unfortunately, the subway we grabbed terminated at Times Square. Since it's an interesting destination, we decided to return to the surface and hike the rest of the way to the park. A lot of weaving was needed to navigate the crowds and there were also a variety of photo-stops along, but we eventually made it to the park.

Times Square

Of course, the park itself is huge and our feet were sore, the temperature was dropping as was our energy. After a brief walk through the SW corner of the park (and a brief snowball fight), we were ready to return to the condo for some pre-dinner rest.

Based on some recommendations from our cousin we headed to the Meatpacking district in the evening, after a good break at the condo, and grabbed food at a casual burger bar. The waitress recommended a nearby pub as a follow-up. We ended the night by checking out a speakeasy that was back down in TriBeCa area before calling it a night.

Sunday morning meant time to go home...a long road for Susan and I. We packed up and grabbed the bus to Philly, loaded the car, and hit the road for the 9 hour drive back to Cincinnati. Another successful trip was completed. Now to dive head-first back into the real world.