We had a wonderful Christmas in Charleston. Thanks to suewoo (who made me a hero with the butcher and breakfast at Sea Biscuit) and everyone for their input.
Our SIL found us a great house on Isle of Palms. It was a block from the beach and the main level (up) had a large master bedroom and bath, a bedroom and hall bath, large kitchen, dining room and living room. The house also had a very large front screen porch. From the main level, you stepped out onto a deck with a grill, a few steps down to a pool and the guest house, which consisted of a studio type apartment with king bed, kitchen, and bath. The downstairs of the main house consisted of a media room with a very large projection TV, a small bedroom with bunk beds, laundry room, bar and a queen bedroom with full bath. It was the perfect house for us, our dog, SD, SIL, our granddaughter, their dog and another guest. I recommend this area highly as it is pretty, private and has easy access to other parts of the Charleston area.
Our first night, we had dinner at Home Team BBQ on Sullivan's Island
http://hometeambbq.com/. It had a great atmosphere and was a good place for the baby and to meet up with friends from home. The service and food were great. Their smoked wings are a must-have. After dinner, we went across the street and had a drink at Poe's Tavern
http://poestavern.com/sullivans-island/. A great place for a cocktail and by all accounts they have fabulous burgers as well. We then headed home, with friends from Richmond in tow, and spent the evening catching up, drinking wine, listening to music and next thing we knew it was 2 am.
Tuesday morning, we went by SD's dental office and then had a great lunch at Hominy Grill.
http://hominygrill.com/ It is a great spot for Southern food and once again the service and food were both terrific. This is another place that is good for taking kids.
We then spent the afternoon on Christmas errands and picked up our Christmas beef from the good guys at NY Butcher (thanks again suewoo). They had the tenderloin, trimmed, roped and gave us a bag of their seasonings.
http://www.nybutcher.com/ They also had a good selection (and good pricing) on wine.
Christmas Eve we had a good dinner at the house and Christmas morning SD made us all brunch.
Christmas night, DH & I were on our own, so we headed downtown and was able to get a bar table at Magnolia's.
http://www.magnolias-blossom-cypress...sp?catID=20426. We were concerned it would not live up to the hype, but it did. We also had never been out for Christmas dinner and found it to be a very festive evening. While not overly crowded, it was definitely hustling and bustling. After dinner we stopped at the rooftop bar at the Market Pavilion
http://www.marketpavilion.com/ for a cocktail and then headed home.
Thursday we stayed in and walked the beach, hung out with the baby and took it easy until that night which was our "baby-free" evening with the kids. We started with cocktails at The Rarebit
http://therarebit.com/...a true cocktail bar where they make their own tonic and ginger beer. We had Moscow Mules served in copper mugs before heading across the street to Macintosh for dinner.
http://www.themacintoshcharleston.com/. This was one of the best meals I've had in Charleston or anywhere in a while.
Friday, we took our granddaughter out to breakfast at Sea Biscuit Cafe on Isle of Palms. (Thanks again suewoo)
http://www.seabiscuitcafeiop.com/. It is a perfect breakfast place and great for kids and families. It is tiny, so I am sure it is packed during the summer.
We headed back home, played on the beach, snuck in a nap and then when SD & SIL got off work, we headed to the House of Brews for a beer
http://houseofbrewsmtp.com/ and then met friends back at Sullivan's Island for a very good dinner at Salt, including some fabulous oysters and oyster shooters
http://www.saltstation22.com/. We all headed back to the house and then the 30 and under crowd headed back out around midnight or so.
We headed home yesterday and agreed this could easily become a Christmas tradition.
