Charleston, Days 1 and 2

Charleston, SC– days 1 and 2

So, the husband and I decided to save a little money this year and skip out on the larger vacay we had hoped to take this year, pushing that off til 2011. Instead, we decided to do two smaller getaways, a long weekend this summer and a long weekend after Christmas. For the summer trip, we decided to head to Charleston, South Carolina since I hadn’t been in years (and even then it was only a day trip) and he had never been. I’ve also been jonesing for a beach trip this summer and this was as close as I could talk the hubs into.

On Wednesday, we left bright and early to head down to SC. We stopped in Greenville (only a little out of the way, ha) to have lunch with my brother-and-sister-in-law. We did get to see their new house for the first time, so even though it was just a quick visit, it was nice to be able to see them.


walking towards the Battery in Charleston

Onwards to the coast! After about 8 hours total in the car, we got to Charleston around 5:30 pm and found our way to our hotel. We stayed at the Anchorage Inn on Vendue Street which is the perfect location, near shopping, eating, and sightseeing. The hotel is a former 19th century cotton warehouse across from what is now Waterfront Park. We had one of the front rooms with a big window looking out on the street. The hotel itself has lots of character, and we enjoyed our stay. Small minuses– the bathroom is tiny, the turndown service they offer doesn’t actually exist, and the included breakfast leaves a little to be desired. The pluses– the location, the ambiance, free wine and cheese in the afternoons, free sherry in the evenings, bath and body works toiletries.

Since we arrived semi-late that evening, we did just a little walking around, exploring some neighboring streets and Waterfront Park. We ate dinner at Sermet’s Corner on King Street. I’m pretty sure that this was the husband’s favorite meal of the trip. It was definitely very good! After a late walk on the pier-area of the park, we turned in early to get a good start the next day.

DAY 2

We were up bright and early to see some of the sights that Charleston has to offer. We started at the Old Slave Mart which was very close to the hotel. While it’s an informative place and shares some important pieces of history, I was slightly disappointed by the fact that you see very little of the actual building since most of the walls, etc are covered up by the museum’s poster-like exhibits.


street view from the carriage tour

After seeing the Slave Mart, we headed up a couple of blocks to Anson Street. There we purchased tickets for a carriage ride with Old South Carriage Tours– they’re the ones who wear Confederate uniforms (tho I’m not sure why.) The tour lasted about an hour and we were on route 3. For those, unfamiliar with Charleston carriage tours, there are three routes that the carriages are able to take and your carriage is assigned a particular route each time it goes out in order to cut down on traffic backups. It’s an interesting system that seemed to work pretty well. Our guide, Mike, was enthusiastic and entertaining. I do feel like we learned a lot of information and gained a new perspective on Charleston history. I do believe my favorite part of the tour was when Mike was pointing out the blue that many houses had painted on their piazzas, doors, or shutters… in pointing it out, he asked us what color blue we believed that was. Someone shouted out, “Carolina blue.” Without missing a beat, Mike replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Carolina’s colors are red and black.” Snort. Mike did have on his proud red and black University of South Carolina t-shirt visible under his uniform. (p.s. The blue is called haint blue.)

After the carriage tour, we headed up to the Aiken-Rhett house to take a tour of the home which was originally a private residence built in 1817 for a former SC governor. On that tour, you get an individual audio tour which takes you through the house and outbuildings, including slave areas, stables, and carriage houses. The home, which was held by the original family until the 1970s, is completely unrestored. Rather than being restored, it has been preserved as it stands. There are many pieces of original furniture that were handed down within the family, and it really is amazing to see the layers of history in the decorations of the home. In some rooms, original wallpaper and wall fixtures can still be seen. I would highly recommend this tour for anyone even remotely interested in history!


Aiken-Rhett home

After having finished up the Aiken-Rhett house by around 2:oo, we decided to spend the remainder of the (very warm) afternoon at one of the local beaches. We headed out to Folly Beach after grabbing a couple of quick slices of pizza from a little pizza place in Rainbow Market. Folly was about a 30 minute drive from Charleston but we made it to the beach with no trouble. I was really surprised too by the lack of people. Don’t get me wrong now, there were tons of people, but everyone was so spread out that it didn’t feel crowded at all! I also loved the fact that there were virtually no high rises within eyesight. It was just a pretty beach area with lots of families out enjoying the sunny weather!

After playing around in the ocean, FAILing a few times in battles against the waves, and laying out on the beach, we headed back to Charleston for dinner at SNOB. SNOB (or Slightly North of Broad) is only about a block away from the Anchorage Inn and seemed to be quite the popular place. Helpful hints – make reservations and wear something decent (think khakis/polo shirts for guys, nice slacks and top/sundress for the ladies). I’m glad I did some research on the restaurant scene so we had no trouble getting in to where we wanted to go and never felt out of place. Dinner at SNOB was probably my favorite meal we had while it town. The service was excellent, very attentive. The food was fantastic– I could have eaten that banana cream pie every day for the rest of the trip!

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for a quick change and then over to Waterfront park to meet with our ghost walk tour guide. We did a walk with the Ghosts of Charleston. Patrick seemed pretty pleased with it, but I thought it was a little skimpy with the stories. Our tour did take us inside the Unitarian Church's graveyard (which is closed after dark) which was interesting if only because it is a stunning graveyard (as odd as that may sound.) Our guide was also a little... off. He was even kind of rude to a couple of people who were trying to get information from him early on, but not all guides can be overly nice, one supposes. After the tour, it was pretty much off to the hotel for sleep after a long day!

decisions, decisions

Since the husband and I totally bailed on a good summer vacay this year, I’m already planning my options for next year. Right now, the leading contenders are a 3 week tour of England and Scotland OR a 3 week tour of France. I’ve been to both London and Paris (both with a couple of day trips outside the respective cities) before, but the husband has not been to any of the aforementioned countries. It’s just hard to really decide between the two! If anyone has thoughts either way, I’m good with hearing them. Right now, it’s basically coming down to my love of Scottish castles and lore vs my love of French cuisine and wine. … But that totally oversimplifies everything, ha! Anyhoo… Just thought I would share one of the ever-so-many things on my mind today.

if you'd like to vote in the poll regarding this decision then head over the post on the main blog: http://quspork.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/decisions-decisions/

another weekend in d.c.

so the husband had to be in d.c. for work last weekend. since it was over my birthday, i decided to tag along for fun!

we stayed at the embassy suites on 22nd. it's an ok hotel-- more for the business traveller than for a leisure tourist. we had some issues with our toilet and the remote controls for the tv don't work very well. you have to pay (thru the nose) for Internet service in the room and the in-house gym was (i swear to god) 80 degrees when i went in to work out. it's clean tho and there is free breakfast plus drinks in the evening. so while it might not be my first choice, it works for a moderate hotel.

for my birthday, the husband surprised me tickets to see the washington capitals play on saturday night against the phoenix coyotes. we had awesome seats, and i had a really great time. especially since the caps won 4 - 2!

as far as sight seeing this time around, while the husband was off to work during the day i wandered over to georgetown to look around. i love taking a book to the park behind the old stone house and reading in nice weather, and this weekend was pretty lovely as far as winter weather in d.c. goes. georgetown is mostly shopping and eating. i really didn't do much in way of shopping as i can't really afford the higher end stuff which is what you'll find here. i did peek in a couple of antique shops. again looking at things i couldn't afford, but i do love old furniture and artwork.

for dinner, we did try martin's tavern one night. this a small bar/restaurant on wisconsin ave. that serves typical pub food in a quaint atmosphere. it's claim to fame is that it's been around for over 75 years and has served every president since truman. supposedly jfk proposed to jackie o. in one of the booths there as well. dinner was pretty good. i had the shepard's pie and the husband had the chicken parmesan. both tasted pretty good and the price wasn't terrible for d.c. dining.

on the husband's day off, we headed to the national geographic museum to see the terra cotta warriors exhibit from china. that was really neat. they have about a dozen or so of the (possibly) 7,000 warriors on view. i learned some interesting information and really enjoyed seeing the exhibit. afterwards we headed over the national archives since neither of us had ever been. we really only visited the rotunda, but again, we enjoyed the exhibit. i had no idea that the u.s. had an original copy of england's magna carta. it was really interesting to read some of the information regarding the declaration of independence and the constitution, as well. the great thing about visiting on a tuesday afternoon in january too was that there were very few people in the archives, so we could really take our time visiting. after that, we still had some time to kill before heading back to the hotel, so we headed over to the national museum of the american indian which i had been asking to visit for a few months. honestly, i was a little disappointed with the american indian museum though. the layout of exhibits is somewhat confused and odd. also while they have an large collection of artifacts from different eras and areas, the artifacts are often poorly labeled and lumped together with too many items. in the one area i was probably most interested in, one that showcased carvings and arts from various tribes and times, everything (and i mean everything) is placed in a huge glass showcase and they have two flip books on either side of the case where you can look up the artifacts to see when and where they came from. that's just far too difficult. you spend so much time trying to figure out which artifact is which and it's really just frustrating. it's unfortunate that a museum that has such interesting stories to tell doesn't have them displayed in a more accessible manner.

now my favorite part of this trip were my birthday dinner and post-birthday lunch, both at restaurants by top chef contestants! for dinner, we went to art and soul, owned by top chef masters contestant art smith and for lunch the following day, we drove to frederick, md to eat at volt run by this season's top chef runner up, bryan. i'll post reviews about both in the next post!

Ireland - day 8

our last full day in ireland ::sniffle::

we started with breakfast in the castle dining room. in addition to the continental buffet, i had the traditional irish breakfast and patrick had ? i must pause here and breathe. the food and service we experienced at the dromoland breakfast was BY FAR the best i've had. from the coffee and tea service to the amazing food - i just can't say enough. the fruits and pastries set out on buffet were INCREDIBLE. the freshest berries and melons and a wide selection of danish, muffins, and filled pastries. everything was stellar. and i discovered that i love black pudding! go figure.

after a scrumptious meal, we headed north stopping at bunratty castle and folk park. the castle is one of the smaller ones we visited but i enjoyed looking around. the site reminded me of colonial williamsburg in that it's set up as a small village where you can go around and visit different homes and businesses the way they would have looked a couple hundred years ago. there are a few people in character working different shops and lots of cute animals roaming the grounds. we were nearly attacked by a roaming band of killer baby chicks. luckily we could out step them! ;-)


after visiting the folk park and doing a little more shopping -- this is where i managed to find my waterford pig! -- we continued on to the cliffs of moher. these cliffs are the quintessential irish visitors' destination. they soar hundreds of feet into the air rising magnificently out of the ocean. patrick was brave and wandered past the "do not pass this point" sign to get some better views and pictures. my sense of self-preservation did not allow me to go with him, ha. but we did wander the area getting some amazing views of the cliffs and the ocean. it really is breathtaking.


once we had finished visiting the cliffs, patrick decided that he really wanted to get an aran sweater like we had seen a few days before in some shop. soooo off we went to find a sweater! we ended up heading north into galway for the evening. we hit a few shops in town (success on the sweater shopping) and enjoyed walking around in the very pedestrian-friendly downtown. as somewhere we had not planned on seeing, i'm glad we got the chance to see just a bit of galway, and i'd love to go back and see more. while in the city, we decided to have dinner at buster brown's which is highly recommended in several guidebooks. we were not disappointed. having our final pints with some pub grub in a luscious atmosphere was just how i wanted to spend our last irish dinner.

after dinner it was back to dromoland to pack and sort out our tax info for the VAT refund. btw the whole VAT refund is probably more trouble than it's worth, but we still went through it. apparently we had purchases that fit all 3 different ways of getting a VAT refund, so it took awhile to get everything sorted out. two of the refund policies grant immediate refunds from the airport. the third involved a snail-mail refund which we have still not seen. but alas. i pilfered what toiletries i could from the castle and we packed everything up for our early morning departure the following day.

DAY 9
we were up early for breakfast before our flight. we and two or three other couples were in the castle dining room as it opened so that we would make our flight. we opted to just have items from the buffet and again, we were not disappointed. after breakfast and checking out, we headed into the trusty fiat for the last time and continued on to shannon airport, only about 20 minutes away. we turned in the car (get the extra insurance!) and checked in for the flight. shannon airport is easily navigable. we did a little last minute shopping and sadly, waited for our flight. our flights back home were uneventful, thank goodness. and we arrived home safe and sound (but pretty gosh darn tired) around 10 p.m. that night.

we truly had the most amazing trip and i can't wait to go back. ireland is an amazing adventure and you can't go wrong visiting this incredible country with some of the friendliest people you will ever meet. i highly recommend making the trip if you have the opportunity. and i would be happy to answer any questions regarding our trip if you have them!

ireland - day 7

after a good night's sleep at ballyseede, we were up bright and early for breakfast and more travel. i will say that the food was slightly lackluster that morning, but we did only have the continental buffet. we were also seated with two couples from oregan, i think. i guess i was slightly annoyed at that-- i'm not much for conversation that early in the morning ;-)

anyhoo, after leaving breakfast, we headed out to travel the dingle peninsula. we decided to start our very windy day in dingle. we had hoped to try driving connor's pass (an especially treacherous yet gorgeous stretch of road along the way) unfortunately, with the wind shaking the car as much as it did on the highway we decided to pass on that experience for this trip.



in our trip around the dingle peninsula, we followed rick steve's ireland guide in which he gives a kilometer by kilometer guide of the peninsula and its sites. i highly recommend this route. we saw some amazing views and stopped at several areas to see the sites along the way. it took us a few hours including the stops, but eventually we ended up back in dingle for a late lunch. we ended up eating at marina inn. the warm food and beverages were just what we needed after a blustery day. with our stomachs full we headed out for a long drive up to the shannon region where we checked in to our last hotel, dromoland castle.

the castle and grounds are immense and stunning. if you have the means and the opportunity, i highly recommend you look into the castle for accomodations. our room was enormous and filled with charm. the castle grounds have several restaurants, a gift shop (with several lovely pieces of waterford), and a golf course. the staff are sooo friendly and no request is too much. i'm glad we decided to splurge for our last two nights and enjoy all that dromoland has to offer.

ireland - day 6

after a good night's sleep, we had breakfast at the blue haven before checking out. for breakfast, both my husband and i ordered pancakes (him, banana - me, blueberry) to accompany the continental selections. i definitely missed the breakfast from glencairn, but we soon full and ready to head out again.


our first stop outside of kinsale was the drombeg stone circle, a mini irish stone henge if you will. as a former archaeology student, this was just the type of site i loved. again, as we arrived there was a small family leaving and we had the site to ourselves for a good 20 minutes before another couple arrived. there were some lovely views in the area out over the mountains and coast.

next we began our scenic drive out to mizen head, ireland's most south-westernly point. after a few close calls on the ever narrowing roads, we made it out to the signal station at mizen head and crossed the bridge out to the overlook. there are tremendous views of the coastline here. and thankfully you can't see through the bottom of the bridge, so i was able to cross without having my eyes closed. :)


after some worrying about the safety of a small child whose parents insisted on making him climb the barriers to get better photographs (some people...), we headed on to kenmare. we really only stopped in kenmare to see the stone circle there (which is like another mini-irish stone henge, and is perhaps overpriced at 2 euros per person) but we ended up spending a little time walking around the town and i would LOVE to return here on another trip. i seriously loved this little town. we did some shopping and enjoyed hearing all the cheers coming from the pubs as we passed-- it was the day of the big cork v. kerry game. i really can't say enough about how much i enjoyed the short amount of time we spent in kenmare.


once we were ready to leave kenmare, we continued on to tralee where we checked in to our hotel, ballyseede castle. i was initially concerned about our stay here as it has some mixed reviews on tripadvisor, but it exceeded all of my expectations. i will say that aside from ballyseede, tralee is not really a touristy town so don't expect to spend too much time downtown (we looked around briefly before deciding to head back to the castle for dinner). ballyseede is insanely beautiful. the common rooms are decorated finely and bedrooms are spacious and lovely. i loved our comfy room and even the knight at the end of the hallway. there was a small problem with the water supply on the evening we were here, but the staff handled it very professionally and even brought around bottled water for all of the rooms.


for dinner, we decided to eat in the castle bar. the food was great, we both ended up having the beef and guinness stew with some desserts as well. i will say however, that if you want to eat in the bar, be there early. it filled up very quickly and we saw several people who left as there was nowhere left to sit in the small area. after dinner, we headed back to the room to pretty much pass out after a busy day on the road! but what a fun day it was.

ireland - day 5

day 5 started with one of the best breakfasts we had on our trip. fiona and stephane really outdid themselves with the homemade croissants, fresh fruit cups, cereals, fresh squeezed orange juice, smoked salmon, bacon, and eggs. everything was outstanding and the crackling fire in the background was the perfect added touch. the rooms are so quaint and lovely - i highly recommend a stay at the glencairn inn if you have the chance!

after our wonderful breakfast, we headed out of lismore to continue our trip west. our first stop on the somewhat overcast morning was at blarney castle. it was sprinkling during our visit (one of the two times we had a little rain during our trip) but we still enjoyed climbing through the castle and exploring the grounds. of course we both kissed the blarney stone and i was amazed that there was no line whatsoever for us to do so! there were two people ahead of us who were done by the time we had walked across the walkway over to where the two men stood.


after blarney, we drove on to cork city so that my husband could visit st. anne's church. st. anne's is home to the shandon bells which, for a small fee, tourists cans ring. my husband was very excited about his chance to play church bells and enjoyed playing a couple of songs while we were there (they provide some sheet music in the tower). you also climb the tower and can see the bells as they are rung if someone comes in behind you. the views over cork from the top are lovely.


after our brief stop in cork, we continued on to kinsale where we planned to spend the night. kinsale is one of those towns that gets highly recommended on many tourist sites and in many tourist guides, but honestly, i'm not sure why. it's a cute town, but i don't necessarily feel that it's worth a trip unless you have a very specific reason for going. but anyway-- we arrived in kinsale in the early afternoon, and had quite a time finding a place to park. we ended up in the free park just outside of the main town which is not a far walk, but it's a little cumbersome with luggage. we checked in to our hotel, the blue haven, and headed out to explore the town. it doesn't take a terribly long time to walk through the streets and around the harbor. we enjoyed visiting several shops including the silver shop and kinsale crystal. eventually we decided on dinner at ned kelly's. it's a nice pub, frequented by lots of colorful locals. after dinner, we crossed to street to have a nice ice cream dessert at sundays. i will say this- kinsale has its fair share of ice cream shops, you have to love that! if you do make it by sundays, i highly recommend the chocolate sundae with brownies, fudge sauce, chocolate covered honeycomb, and malt ball sprinkles. i'm still dreaming of this treat, ha!


after dinner we headed back to the hotel and went to bed. we stayed in room 1 at the blue haven, where the hallways are a litle worn but the rooms are spacious and clean. i loved our room at blue haven, including the window seat overlooking the main street. it was a great place to sit and enjoy the sights and sounds of kinsale in the evening. the bathroom was a nice size and the beds were very comfy. i would certainly stay here again if i were back in kinsale.