A Whirlwind Weekend in Charleston (with a 5 year old)
Sep 20th, 2009, 05:42 AM
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A Whirlwind Weekend in Charleston (with a 5 year old)
My mother, cousin, 5 year old daughter and I visited Charleston at the end of July. While the weather was sweltering, it didn't stop us from havng a wonderful time. Here is a summary of our adventures:
Hotel:
The Doubletree Suites - A great location right next to the City Market. Our room had two double beds plus a sitting area with a pull out sofa and a small refridgerator. We would definitely stay here again because it is a fantastic value, has spacious rooms, and is so close to everything.
Restaurants: We ate at some really great places!
Jestine's Kitchen - On Meeting St. - Our wait time for lunch was about 15 minutes. I had the corn bread and a meatloaf sandwich. My daughter's homemade mac and cheese was delicious. She was delighted that I let her order root beer and it came in a glass bottle. The service was spot on.
Blossom - On East Bay St. - The food here is excellent and everything is very reasonably priced. After dinner, we ordered three best desserts that we are still raving about - Key Lime Creme Brulee, a Peach/Blueberry Cobbler and Red Velvet Bread Pudding with Cinnamon Ice Cream.
Joesph's - On Meeting St. - Another favorite of ours. It is open for breakfast and lunch. I had the eggs benedict and split it with my cousin who had sweet potato pancakes.
Cru Cafe - On Pinckney - A charming little restaurant in an old home. I consider myself a mac and cheese conoisseur and they serve the best mac and cheese I've ever had. Hands down. My daughter hated it of course because of all the different kinds of real cheese, plus it had a little kick to it.
The Hominy Grill - We had to see what all of the fuss was about and upon eating there decided it is a "must eat at" place. We went on a Saturday morning and only waited 15 minutes or so. The homemade pumpkin bread was perfect as was my breakfast sandwich.
The Buccanneer - We had to choose one place to eat at that was just for my daughter and this was it. I thought all of the pirate artifacts were very interesting and the food was surprisingly good. if you have kids, definitely take them here.
Activities:
The Charleston Aquarium - The fact that this aquarium focuses on local marine life, and that they do not have dolphins and other mammals is admirable. Older kids might be bored but my daughter loved it.
Cypress Gardens - We were headed to Aiken, SC for the night so we stopped here along the way. I don't think it is worth a special trip if you are in the Charleston area, mainly because of all of the amazing old plantations, but we have already been to all of the plantations and wanted to visit someplace new. I did take some wonderful pictures of the swamp, with the trees reflecting off of the still water. It would have been nice to take a rowboat out like we saw others doing, but it was just too hot.
Sullivan's Island - The water was unfortunately very choppy and brown. But, my daughter needed a place to cool off and this was it. If it hadn't have been so dang hot, we would have visited Fort Moultrie. But, there was some excitement while we were there - A low flying plane, that almost looked like a commercial plane, disappeared into the middle of the island. We asked some residents and they seemed to think it was the Governor's wife.
The City Market - There are always tons of unique vendors at the City Market. Go in the late morning though before it gets too crowded.
Wandering through Old Charleston - We spent an afternoon just meandering around the side streets off of King and Meeting. I love photographing all of the gardens, porches and iron fences.
When you visit Charleston, be prepared to do a ton of walking. I don't think we took a cab once. But, that's one of the reasons I like the city so much. There is so much to see in just wandering around without a direction to which you are headed. I can't wait to go back! (but probably not in the summer)
Hotel:
The Doubletree Suites - A great location right next to the City Market. Our room had two double beds plus a sitting area with a pull out sofa and a small refridgerator. We would definitely stay here again because it is a fantastic value, has spacious rooms, and is so close to everything.
Restaurants: We ate at some really great places!
Jestine's Kitchen - On Meeting St. - Our wait time for lunch was about 15 minutes. I had the corn bread and a meatloaf sandwich. My daughter's homemade mac and cheese was delicious. She was delighted that I let her order root beer and it came in a glass bottle. The service was spot on.
Blossom - On East Bay St. - The food here is excellent and everything is very reasonably priced. After dinner, we ordered three best desserts that we are still raving about - Key Lime Creme Brulee, a Peach/Blueberry Cobbler and Red Velvet Bread Pudding with Cinnamon Ice Cream.
Joesph's - On Meeting St. - Another favorite of ours. It is open for breakfast and lunch. I had the eggs benedict and split it with my cousin who had sweet potato pancakes.
Cru Cafe - On Pinckney - A charming little restaurant in an old home. I consider myself a mac and cheese conoisseur and they serve the best mac and cheese I've ever had. Hands down. My daughter hated it of course because of all the different kinds of real cheese, plus it had a little kick to it.
The Hominy Grill - We had to see what all of the fuss was about and upon eating there decided it is a "must eat at" place. We went on a Saturday morning and only waited 15 minutes or so. The homemade pumpkin bread was perfect as was my breakfast sandwich.
The Buccanneer - We had to choose one place to eat at that was just for my daughter and this was it. I thought all of the pirate artifacts were very interesting and the food was surprisingly good. if you have kids, definitely take them here.
Activities:
The Charleston Aquarium - The fact that this aquarium focuses on local marine life, and that they do not have dolphins and other mammals is admirable. Older kids might be bored but my daughter loved it.
Cypress Gardens - We were headed to Aiken, SC for the night so we stopped here along the way. I don't think it is worth a special trip if you are in the Charleston area, mainly because of all of the amazing old plantations, but we have already been to all of the plantations and wanted to visit someplace new. I did take some wonderful pictures of the swamp, with the trees reflecting off of the still water. It would have been nice to take a rowboat out like we saw others doing, but it was just too hot.
Sullivan's Island - The water was unfortunately very choppy and brown. But, my daughter needed a place to cool off and this was it. If it hadn't have been so dang hot, we would have visited Fort Moultrie. But, there was some excitement while we were there - A low flying plane, that almost looked like a commercial plane, disappeared into the middle of the island. We asked some residents and they seemed to think it was the Governor's wife.
The City Market - There are always tons of unique vendors at the City Market. Go in the late morning though before it gets too crowded.
Wandering through Old Charleston - We spent an afternoon just meandering around the side streets off of King and Meeting. I love photographing all of the gardens, porches and iron fences.
When you visit Charleston, be prepared to do a ton of walking. I don't think we took a cab once. But, that's one of the reasons I like the city so much. There is so much to see in just wandering around without a direction to which you are headed. I can't wait to go back! (but probably not in the summer)
Sep 20th, 2009, 05:50 AM
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Bookmarking for future restaurant reference. DH and I visited some years ago and enjoyed it immensely.
We took a couple of house tours. One where original family still resided was fascinating because we saw original furnishings as well.
Thanks for your report!
We took a couple of house tours. One where original family still resided was fascinating because we saw original furnishings as well.
Thanks for your report!
Sep 22nd, 2009, 03:58 AM
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Yes it is hot here in summer, lol! I usually just run from AC to AC in July and August.
Great report. So glad you had a good time. You picked great restaurants and activities. Come back soon! Oh, and the plane was probably the gov himself. he flies, she drives,
Great report. So glad you had a good time. You picked great restaurants and activities. Come back soon! Oh, and the plane was probably the gov himself. he flies, she drives,
Sep 22nd, 2009, 03:41 PM
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We were fascinated to watch a plane disappear into the middle of the island. At first we were worried it was making an emergency landing because we couldn't see where there was a place it could possibly land! Do they have their own airstrip or something?
Sep 24th, 2009, 03:30 PM
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We were at the beach to the right of Ft Moultrie as the plane was landing. It looked larger than a private plane but I am not familiar enough with models to know whether it was private or commercial. Very strange indeed.
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