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Day 1
We started our trip by making our way to BWI, the first time for me in over a year. This is my third flight since the pandemic. We get through security with no issues and are excited to try out the new Ms. Shirley’s next to our gate. We were disappointed to find out it closed at 5pm. Which, like, really? You’re an airport restaurant and it’s a Friday night. We instead went to R&R Bar, where I had some Blue Moon and a BBQ chicken pizza that I burned the roof of my mouth on. I had one of the worst crab dips I’ve ever had, so… walk to the food court if you find that to be your only Terminal A option..
We make our way to our gate and find out that we’re delayed an hour because there are storms in New York, where our plane is coming from. On the flight I watched James Acaster’s comedy special “Cold Lasagna 1999 I Hate Myself.” Recommend highly. I watched Bo Burnham’s “Inside,” which I also recommend. Also worth noting, we got an empty middle seat on a mostly full flight! We did what my dad calls “sitting big” and I think it also helped that we were in like the second row. In my experience, the front middle seats have a better chance of staying open because people need overhead space for their bags.
We arrive in Charleston close to 10pm. We get a Lyft and simultaneously order a pizza. We checked into the Church Street Inn, which is right next to the Market. I looked at hotel options on TripAdvisor, compared points and pricing on Chase and Southwest Rapid Rewards, and it was ultimately the best deal booking with the hotel directly! When we get to our room (which is amazing- like a small condo!), we get settled, pizza arrives, we eat, then go for a long summer’s night.
Day 2
I arise from bed around 8am and decide to hit up Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit, which is very close to our hotel. It’s highly recommended on many travel sites and by Stacey. It did not disappoint, I had a sausage, egg, and pimento cheese biscuit and got Cori a biscuit with jam. I slept a little longer, but we had to be up early today because we were meeting our friends Kat and Emily for a walking tour at 9:45am!
We got dressed and settled and made our way over to the starting point for a walking tour that we signed up for. Our tour guide’s name was Fin, he is a retired school teacher and principal and was very knowledgeable of the history of the city, its architecture, from the colonial times to now. Fin was a rockstar. His family were indentured servants in early Charleston, he was excited to hear we were from Baltimore, it’s on his list of cities to visit. Highly recommend Charleston Sole, who ran our tour. (let’s keep count of how many times Keith says “we get settled,” so far it’s 2)
Things we learned:
Charleston used to be a walled city, the peninsula has grown over time as they have filled in more land
Charleston was one of the first cities in the US to enact architectural preservation and that’s why you see so many historically accurate buildings now
Learned about the naval defense of the city during the Revolutionary War as well as facts about Fort Sumter
The intersection of Meeting and Broad St. was coined the “Four Corners of Law” by Robert Ripley – of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! It houses a church, city hall, the county courthouse, and US Post Office and Federal Courthouse.
It’s been said that it’s the only intersection where you can: get married, get your mail, pay your taxes, and get sent to jail.
Sounds like people in Charleston have been terrified of fire for a long time- and they have reason.
We then made our way to “Virginia on King” to have brunch. We had a starter of a lot of ice water and fried green tomatoes, then I had a country fried steak biscuit. To drink I had a Bud Light Lemonade Seltzer to cool down, then a Palmetto Lager. OK if we’re doing this, I had a salad with berries and a biscuit with gravy.
Cori and I then hit up Harris Teeter to get some staples and to put in the fridge in our hotel/condo. Oh yeah, we have a full kitchen and 1 and a half baths. Keith wasn’t kidding about this basically being a condo. We then made our way back to the hotel, showered, and took a nap. It was a good nap. Like we didn’t set an alarm and wake up drowsy, SOLID nap. After the nap, we decided we were done for the night, ordered delivery from Moe’s (obvi) and watched Adam Sandler movies. At one point, I went to the General Store for Benadryl and hydrocortisone- the mosquitos here are no joke, and you know I’m allergic to everything. No need to rush, we’re here for a week. Exactly.
“Oh put in there that we’re now watching “The Chase” but it’s not as good as the British version we saw in Ireland!”
Day 3
I arose around 8am again today and decided to get Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits again for breakfast, which may become a trend for this trip. I had a fiery pimento cheese biscuit and got Cori a biscuit with cinnamon butter because she was asleep. Just chilled in the hotel until Cori arose, and we decided to make our way over to an arts festival. The Piccolo Spoleto Festival is a Charleston tradition founded in 1977. We went to the craft show portion, which was only paintings that were in the thousands of dollars range, so we weren’t there long.
It was nice, but smaller than we thought it would be. On the way there, we saw a rooftop bar called Élevé that Cori had heard was good, so on the way back we stopped in for late-morning drinks because it’s 5 o’clock somewhere. I had a couple of local hefeweizens and had the bartender make some Spagett beer cocktails for me. Scott the bartender hooked me up with a fun berry/ginger beer mocktail. The bartender was really cool, he gave us a lot of great tips of what to see in Charleston and we also nerded out about sci-fi fantasy books. He was disappointed that I haven’t read “The Wheel of Time.” They nerded out for some time.
After that, we made our way to the Charleston City Market, which was full of fun, you know, trinkets, odds and ends, and touristy things. We grabbed lunch from a deli where I had a sub-par Cuban sandwich and I had a sub-par tuna melt. Then we settled in for a long winter’s nap.
We awoke in time to make our reservation at The Black Fedora for a comedy mystery show called “Sherlock Holmes’ Other Brother from a Southern Mother.” It was very funny and surprisingly was conveniently located across the street from our hotel (that was not planned, just a delightful surprise). I had a Yoo-hoo, a Fresca, wings, and an ice cream sundae - a.k.a. A Full English Breakfast. Cori volunteered for a part in the play and did amazing. After the show, we went back to our hotel and I put on “Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2” and we then began to type up this story. See you tomorrow.
Day 4
I was finally able to sleep in a little bit today, I woke up around 9am- which was a little late to beat the rush to Callie’s. Luckily, Cori woke up right after me and we traveled to Poogan’s Porch, which was another highly recommended restaurant to visit from our friend Stacey. Keith is not a quiet morning person, so most times once he wakes up I am also blessed with being awake.
I had the pimento cheese fritters with bacon jam and their biscuits and gravy. I washed it all down with Zoe’s Iced Coffee. The fritters were delicious, the biscuits melted in your mouth, and the coffee packed a punch with espresso vodka, Bailey’s, and Kahlua. Cori had huevos rancheros, which she also took great delight in. I did. The coffee was shudder-inducing for Keith it was so strong.
Cut to a walk to the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon. This was recommended to us by Fin during our walking tour the other day and was a very interesting building preserved by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The site was where import/export business was done, as well as a prison during the war with British occupation, and was where South Carolina ratified the Constitution. They like to state that South Carolina was one of the wealthiest colonies during the time of the Revolution, but they are quick to throw in the caveat that it was built on the backs of slaves. We started with a guided tour in the dungeon and then checked out the rest of the building on our own. I think one of the coolest things about this building was that it was built as a waterfront property where trade items came in and went out, but over time they filled in more land and now it's a few blocks away from the waterfront. You can really see this demonstrated in the basement area.
From there, Cori and I walked back through the Market and picked up a thing or two along the way. We then made our way back to our hotel room where we showered and chillaxed until it was time to meet Cori’s cousin Nic for dinner. Nic is in Charleston for Navy training.
And it came to pass that it was dinner time. We bounded our way to Coast Bar & Grill, where we met Nic. We started with hushpuppies and their version of crab dip, which had horseradish in it. I kind of liked it but it was not enough. I had an Appalachian Bird cocktail, which had rye whiskey and tasted like juice. Nic and I both had the cheeseburger special for our main course, which was delicious. Cori had the scallops (because I'm bougie). For dessert, I had some key lime pie and Nic had carrot cake which he couldn't stop saying was better than his mother's (just kidding, Aunt Jenn!). Please remember that all non-italicized text is ALL Keith, Nic never said that, it's impossible.
After our meal we walked down King Street, which is the shopping street to be on. We stopped in a bookstore (Blue Bicycle Books) where I bought "Throne of Glass" by Sarah Maas, which I've been meaning to read for a while. A lot of stores had closed or were closing, but Nic pointed out some cool shops- we might have to go back during the day! We continued walking, turning onto Market Street, stopping in a cookie store for samples, and on to the waterfront. Nic directed us to the Pineapple Fountain, then we sat near the water and chitchatted until about 8:30pm. The waterfront was very nice and we could see the aircraft carrier over at Patriot's Point, which we hope to visit this week. Then we said our goodbyes and retired back to our hotel room.
Tomorrow we've planned to have a very lazy day, so don't expect much.
Day 5
Today was a day like no other. Before I tell you about what we did today, remember- this is vacation, we get to do whatever we want.
We decided that today would be a day where we did absolutely nothing and didn't leave the hotel once. We caught up on sleep, tv shows (obviously for Keith this meant more "Taskmaster"), and rested from the busy days that have preceded this one.
Our Harris Teeter groceries sustained us today... poptarts, uncrustables, taquitos- oh my! For the first time in years, I sat and listened to a music album with no distractions. It was refreshing!
Tonight we kept our weekly D&D game tradition going by playing with our group over Zoom. Much merriment was enjoyed, thanks to our wonderful DM, Adam. Tomorrow we actually have some plans, so we hope you rest too so that you can keep up with us!
Day 6
Into the thick of it! Callie's Hot Little Biscuits for breakfast once again. Today I had their sausage gravy and biscuit and got Cori a biscuit with peach jam. After breakfast, we walked around the market a little bit and ultimately made it to our pedicure appointments at earthling. Such is the life of trail blazers.
After our pampering, we walked our way over to our lunch reservation at 82 Queen, which we had heard good things about. I had the She Crab soup (cream of crab is better) and a ham and fried green tomato sandwich, which was good but very filling. Cori had a chicken salad wrap. 8 out of 10. If you ever consider going here, make a reservation! Walk ups at lunch time had to wait an hour and a half and dinner books up a week or so ahead.
We continued our wandering and made our way back over to the river, where we thought we'd take a water taxi to Patriot's Point. That was not in the cards, and I will not tell you why. I'll tell you why, the She Crab soup caught up with me. Luckily, we found a bar called The Griffon and I had my first Guinness of the trip. We caught a Lyft over to Patriot's Point instead of waiting another hour for the next water taxi.
The main attraction at Patriot's Point is being able to tour the USS Yorktown, a decommissioned US air craft carrier that now serves as a museum. We got to walk through most of the ship and when the weather cleared up a bit we were able to go up to the flight deck. Highly recommend checking this out if you're in the area. We were able to see a lot of different aircraft, the living quarters, engine room, galley, etc- very cool! Unfortunately, I think all of the doorways were 6 feet, so I did hit my head twice.
We absconded back to the hotel, where we cleaned the day off of ourselves and ordered in some BBQ from Queology for dinner. We had a sampling of things: buffalo chicken dip, BBQ chicken tacos, pork slider, half rack of ribs, and peach cobbler. This is an honest commentary: the only thing that we considered good out of the lot was the buffalo chicken dip, mainly because they used chunks of their smoked chicken. Everything else, we did not finish. I felt like the restaurant reviewer from Ratatouille. Maybe it's me/us, but peach cobbler does not need a smokey taste too.
To right this wrong that I brought upon us, Cori suggested we get ice cream from Kilwins just down the block from our hotel. That was a pretty great call. They were making waffle cones earlier when we walked by, and my ice cream maker past came back and beckoned me in.
Early night in, tomorrow is our last full day here.
Day 7
We broke our fast at a restaurant called Another Broken Egg Cafe, I had the Baquezo Omelette and Cori had a Country Fried Steak Benedict. I would describe this place to our Maryland friends as a carbon copy of Ms. Shirley's. They offered a ton of speciality breakfast items: stuffed french toast, many omelettes, a gluten free and vegetarian menu, and some nice cocktails!
Next on our list for our last day in Charleston was to go shopping. We had been through the Market a few times and returned for some things that we had our eye on. I may have picked up some biscuit mix from Callie's. We deposited our wares at our hotel room and then made our way to the Old Slave Mart Museum.
The Museum was an interesting place, it was the site of an old indoor slave auction site- which was something that they did in Charleston when they decided that open outdoor slave trade was being used as propaganda for abolitionists. The experience was a good refresher of our history classes. It's been a museum since the 1930s, and as Keith reminded me- while we felt that we had learned a lot of the content already, many in the south learn that history a little "differently."
After the museum, in an attempt to hide from the sun, we found solace in a place called Mac's Place. It is a Chicago-themed Irish bar where the Champagne of Beers was on tap. We enjoyed a few hours and beers (and a shot, and maybe a frozen Red Bull vodka) here. It was a fun time. It was an especially fun time for the bachelorette party of twelve that sat behind us and announced "drink if you're wearing pink!" at least three times (which, of course, they were all wearing because they matched).
From there, we made our way to our dinner reservation at 5 Church. I know you think we're really cool people, but this restaurant was far cooler than we could ever even try to be. It was a very interesting place to say the least. It's a restaurant in an old church, they repainted the ceiling with all of the words of Sun Tzu's "The Art of War." Their whole premise is focused on the joint "we," their tips are all split and everyone lends a hand. This is also the first restaurant I've ever been to that has a separate line for tipping the kitchen staff- yay!
We started our culinary excursion with a watermelon panzanella, because who doesn't like salad with big hunks of sourdough in it? Cori had the braided ravioli, she was disappointed that it was not actually in a braid. I had the fried chicken dinner, which was a four-piece dinner topped with a chipotle honey. It was good, but it was filling. We carried out desserts, I had the Tira Twix bar and Cori's went to waste so it doesn't matter what it was. Real talk? It was kind of overpriced and overrated to me...
That led to the end of the evening, as the afternoon drinks and full tummies of food finally caught up with us. We took a late evening nap, awake briefly to pack some things, then returned to slumber.
Day 8
We pre-scheduled our Lyft to the airport, our morning travel home was pretty uneventful until we arrived at BWI. My bougie ways finally led us astray. When we arrived here a week ago, we had the option of parking in the Long Term lot or the Daily Garage for a bit more money. Guess which we went with... As we approached the bus pickup area, we were addressed by an airport staff member that let us know there was "activity" in the garage and that we were not allowed to go get our car. "It could be anywhere from five minutes to two hours," we were told.
Cue the first time I've ever been disappointed that the DuClaw airport restaurant closed. After a brief sit-and-think, we decided we'd try to find somewhere in the airport to get lunch. Unfortunately, we had already left the terminals so we couldn't go back to the food court. After some quick research, we found a restaurant called Sir Veza's outside of C Security and stopped for a beer and some tacos.
As of this writing, we've been waiting over an hour and a half for the garage to open and the rumor on the Twitter is that the police are searching for a wanted person in the garage. Update @ 7pm: after three hours, we eventually left the car behind and took a hour-long Lyft home. News sources have finally confirmed there's a standoff in the garage, so there's an exciting way to end this!
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