Spring Vacay part 5

After a very full day capped off by a seafood dinner, we headed back to our campsite to crash for the night.



None of us slept very well that night, since Lilly was pretty anxious, probably about the ducks and geese that surrounded us. We could hear them quacking overnight. They walked right up to our campsite the next morning, but they were a little camera shy at first...







I knew they would warm up eventually, though.





We discovered another (quieter) neighbor as we were eating some fruit for breakfast.



First thing in the morning, we headed downtown for a very pleasant walking tour of Charleston.



We hit some traffic on our way into downtown, so we didn't get there in time for the tour we wanted, but there were many others and we didn't have any trouble finding one. I wanted to hear about civil war history, but even though our tour didn't focus on that, it still surrounded us and we picked up bits and pieces. Our tour was more about the history of the city, which was still interesting. It was a lovely day to be walking around.



I loved all the blooming flowers and foliage.







I liked the old houses too.







It included a tour of an old house which is still basically in the same state it was in during the 1800s so that was pretty neat. Although they didn't allow us to take pictures inside, this is the house from the outside.



The Blue Angels also happened to be practicing that day, and I managed to get a couple shots!





Not easy, because they fly really fast. They are also quite noisy and I think our guide was getting a little frustrated.

Next we grabbed lunch at another place that we'd heard good things about, Juanita Greenbergs.



We were excited for some really good Mexican food, but weren't that impressed with it.



The margaritas were decent.



Next we headed off to find a dog park - doggies need to enjoy the beautiful day, too! We had asked the waitress at Hyman's for a good one, and she gave us some directions which seemed hard to follow. As it turned out, they were great directions, but we also consulted our best assistant google. There are 3 dog parks in the immediate vicinity of Charleston, but the one we went to that had been suggested by the waitress happened to be closed for the week! What a bummer. We were able to get to another one, even though it was the exact opposite direction, it was totally worth it because Lilly had such a good time running around. It was a large, grassy, well maintained, clean park, and was almost totally empty. We had lots of fun throwing her ball and she got worn out pretty quickly! It was a great find!



We finished the day with a little trip to the beach, which was kind of disappointing. It was about 5 by the time we got there, and the wind made it too cool to really want to swim or even take off our long sleeves. We enjoyed reading our books next to the ocean for a while, and then headed off to find some dinner.

The beach is located on a separate island and the bridge between them was pretty cool.





For dinner, we found another Mellow Mushroom!



We ordered a pizza to go, and then sat at the bar for a quick beer while we waited. (We originally discovered Mellow Mushroom in Asheville in part 2, and saw them in a couple of other Carolina cities.) Even after getting our pizza back to the campsite, it was still delicious by the time we ate it. (And I shouldn't admit this, but even after sitting in the car overnight, it was yummy for breakfast!) After our active day and subpar sleep the night before, we hit the hay pretty early. To be continued!

Spring Vacay part 4

After lunch in Columbia, SC, we cruised down to Charleston, SC.



This is an old southern city that is very charming. The entire drive, even from Charlotte to Columbia earlier in the day, was very green. Lots of lush trees lining the highway. It made for some nice driving conditions.

When we got into Charleston, we checked into our campsite and set up our tent.



We were happy to be setting it up and getting settled in during the daylight hours!



We liked this campground a lot more than the previous one, even though we had some interesting neighbors.



There were turkeys and geese at the site, and unfortunately, we had to put Lilly in the car a while when we first arrived because she pulled and whined so much to try to get to them. There was one nesting in the bushes about 15 feet from our tent, and we just didn't want her to get to them. She calmed down after awhile. That night, we headed downtown (about a 20 minute drive from our site) to eat dinner.

A friend at work had recommended a seafood restaurant called Hyman's, and once I started looking for reviews online, it sounded like it is THE place to go when you visit Charleston.



Amy and Josh, who we visited in Asheville, had gone there during a trip to Charleston too. Amy has a very funny story about her visit there that you'll have to ask her about next time you see her. So we headed there for dinner. They had this bench outside where we waited for our table that kind of bounced up and down when you sat on it.



They had them in other places down there too but I can't remember if it had a certain name. It was kind of fun to bounce though.



There have been tons of celebrities that have eaten at Hyman's. All of the tables there have plaques that tell you who has eaten there before. Most actually have several plaques. Our table had Neil Young, Kevin Costner, and a couple of other people that I can't remember. When Amy and Josh went, they were seated at Phish's table which is really cool because Josh is a big Phish fan.

Chris and I have been trying to eat responsibly and not eat fish that have a negative impact on the environment. So this limited our ordering but luckily we have an app on our ipods that helps us figure out which fish we can eat in good conscience. He had pollock, which is listed as having "healthy populations, minimal environmental impact, and minimal contaminant levels." I ordered the crab legs, which was the special. The crab was listed as "enjoy in moderation". I don't eat a whole lot of crab so I figured I was being moderate. But that was before I saw the plate. I don't know if I could call this moderate...



Anyway everything was really tasty. This is getting long! Guess I will continue our trip to Charleston in the next part!

Spring Vacay part 3

We drove from Asheville to Charlotte on Tuesday.



It was a relatively short drive, about 2 hours. We checked into our hotel and then drove around a bit. We briefly checked out downtown Charlotte, and then headed to an arts area that we had read about in a tourist magazine at the hotel. There was a store that had a huge variety of handmade stuff, along with several artists studios where some artists were working while we were there. There was a kid there who looked about 10 years old that was sketching a polar bear and he was really, really good! It was fun to look through the studios and see works in progress.

We headed to meet cousin Lindsay and her husband Mark for dinner.



We went to a bbq place which was really great. We sat on the patio and it was another beautiful evening. I haven't seen Lindsay for years, and hadn't met Mark. We had a great time chatting and catching up, and they actually had Tommyknocker on draft there! That is the brewery in Idaho Springs, we served their brew at our rehearsal dinner. We each had a couple of those.



The next morning, we had the breakfast at the hotel. Unfortunately, it was a little chilly and too cloudy to swim, so I never got to enjoy the hotel pool! It looked really nice, though, and we enjoyed everything about the La Quinta we stayed at. Before leaving town, we stopped by Lindsay and Mark's house to meet their baby Mason. Lindsay was at work but Mark was there to introduce us to the little guy, and Lilly got to play in the backyard with their two dogs for a little while before we hit the road again to head to South Carolina.

We were going to spend the next two nights in Charleston, but on the way we stopped in Columbia to have lunch with cousin Tyler. He had class in the afternoon but we timed it so we could meet him at school and have lunch between classes. He took us to a restaurant that had been featured on the Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We thought that was pretty cool because we love the show, the host makes everything look so delicious! We each had a burger, which was yummy. I still have to search online and see if I can find that segment about the place we went to. After lunch, Tyler showed us around the campus briefly. He was a law student - I say was because he graduated a couple of weeks ago! Congrats to Tyler!



The campus was beautiful, of course it was a lovely day and flowers were blooming everywhere. The buildings were all really nice too. I don't know much about architecture but it just seemed like a pleasant place to be.

Next, we headed down to Charleston. More to come!

Spring Vacay part 2

On Sunday around noon, we arrived in Asheville, North Carolina. The drive down there was beautiful. We headed to the home of our friends Amy and Josh with the assistance of google maps - don't think we would have found it any other way! Thank goodness for gps.



After showers and a Fat Tire (they recently started selling it in NC, and Amy and Josh luckily had a few bottles on hand!) we headed to lunch at the Mellow Mushroom. This place was so great! They had tons of beers on tap and tons of delicious looking items on the menu. We had a really tasty pizza and some yummy salads, along with a couple of pale ales. They have Mellow Mushroom in a few other cities in the area, I so wish they would come to Manhattan.

After lunch we went for a little hike in the Blue Mountains. It is so beautiful there.



We had to stop at a scenic overlook to get some photos.









Later that night, we headed out to a brewpub in town, Lab. It is a neat place where the entire front wall/windows opens like a garage door so we were inside but it was open to the air. I should mention that the weather was really amazing all week, we lucked out and had sunny days and nice nights with the exception of the first night. After the Lab, we had to make one more stop to play some pool.





The next day, we went to breakfast at a place called Sunny Point. Delicious. I had huevos rancheros, along with grits, and it was awesome. Later, Amy and I went to a pilates class while Chris and Josh went to play frisbee golf. Then in the afternoon we continued our brewery tour of Asheville with Wedge, where we sat outside next to a river and enjoyed a beautiful sunny afternoon, and Asheville Brewing Company. After the brews, we took Lilly to a dog park that she loved. It was huge and she had a great time running, playing, and wearing herself out! For dinner, Amy and Josh made us lasagne, which was so tasty. Then we relaxed for a while before heading to bed. And we got to get our laundry done, which was a huge bonus!

Tuesday was our last day in Asheville. Amy and Josh went to work in the morning, and Chris and I got ready and packed the car. Then we met Amy for lunch at a Thai restaurant downtown.



It was good but I wish we had gone back to the Mellow Mushroom instead!

We said good-bye to Amy and headed to Charlotte for the next portion of our trip.



The time in Asheville was way too short and I am really looking forward to our next visit down there!

Spring Vacay part 1

Chris and I went on an awesome road trip for our vacation last month.



We got to do a lot of fun activities! For some reason, I didn't take a ton of pictures but I did get some.



We left on Saturday April 10, and had our longest day of driving.



I had picked out a brewpub to stop for lunch.



As usual, we left later than we had hoped and it was about 4 by the time we arrived there. So we had a late lunch at Cally's in Harrisonburg, Virginia.



The food was good, the beer was good, the bartender was friendly, and they had wifi so we could check in with our ipods!



Can't go wrong. We had a great lunch and then we were on our way again.



We headed down to Virginia to our campsite for the night. We got there after dark and it was getting chilly. We set up our tent in the dark. We had food that we were looking forward to cooking over the open fire, but since it was dark and we were tired, we debated about just using our camp stove. Unfortunately the entire dinner plan was thwarted when we realized we didn't have any lighters or matches. DOH! We figured out later that we could have used the car's cigarette lighter to get it started but since we'd had a late lunch it wasn't that big of a deal. I did munch on a few cold s'mores. They were almost as good as the hot ones! I love s'mores!

That night, it got cold. And I don't just mean a little chilly, I mean COLD. We were both shivering all night and neither one of us got much sleep! I think it got down to about 40 and maybe colder - there was frost on the ground in the morning. We are mean doggie parents and don't let Lilly sleep in the bed with us, but that night we coaxed her onto the air mattress with us so we would have some more heat and keep her warmer too. (Our goal of keeping her off the bed was reaffirmed when we woke up and the two of us were in about 1/3 of the mattress and Lilly was taking up the other 2/3.) The next morning when we broke down the tent it was difficult as we couldn't feel our fingers. I couldn't even tie my shoes. We shoved everything in the car as fast as we could and headed to the first diner we saw for a hot meal and hot coffee. That really hit the spot!

Then we were on our way again. We headed out to Asheville, NC. See you soon for part 2!