Wedding Weekend

September 4, 2007 at 7:40 pm Leave a comment

Charleston is a lovely city. How it has been that I’ve only just visited is beyond my comprehension. I spent this holiday weekend celebrating with my friends and approving of their matrimony 😉 in a truly wonderful city.

The drive is a bit long, but has inspired me to do more weekend trips throughout the fall – outside of my requisite quarterly trip to Ohio and Las Vegas. Man, another Vegas trip is looming in the very near future. Have I mentioned that I am kinda over Las Vegas?

Driving through the Tennessee / North Carolina Smokey Mountains was beautiful and I am planning a trip to Ashville, North Carolina for October to enjoy the fall foliage. However, this weekend the mountains were green and lush and Smokey! And by that I mean foggy and misty. Traversing South Carolina isn’t as picturesque until you get closer to the coast. Palm trees and pine trees co-mingle along the highway. The wedding took place in a suburb of Charleston, Mt. Pleasant – closer to the beach near Ilse of Palms. Very golf-y and vacation-y. But Charleston proper seemed like a British version of New Orleans (who’s French and Spanish heritage is heavily evident).

Some highlights:

Old South Carriage Company buggy tours. Did this on Saturday, before the evening wedding. We had an awesome tour guide, Becky, who had lots of interesting stories – see my flickr for deets. One of my favorite stories revolved around the Old City jail and how haunted it is. I also like the explanation for the porch ceilings that are painted blue: keeps ghosts away (because it looks like daylight blue skies) and keeps wasps from building nests (don’t know why), but I’ll be damned, every dang porch has a blue ceiling.

Magnolia’s Restaurant.
Ate here for lunch on Saturday. I should have gotten the shrimp and grits, if for no other reason to compare it to my own, but instead I got the Low-country Bouillabaisse. YUMMO! The crab bisque I tasted was good, but more like a crab chowder. Hey! I am NOT complaining. The Parmesan crusted flounder was also quite delicious. Go here if you get a chance. The atmosphere is great and East Bay Street is lined with the cutest shops and restaurants. I could have spent a lot more time strolling in this neighborhood. I’ll go back to Magnolias!

Palmetto Cafe in the Charleston Place hotel. Lovely hotel restaurant. Not as nice as the Charleston Grill, which is also at this hotel, but nice just the same. The brunch menu is killer. I ate there twice! Once had she crab soup and crab cakes, both amazing, and a egg white / lobster / crab omlette another day. HEAVENLY!

Charleston Black Cab Company. They are based at the Charleston Place hotel and while pricey, they are a very stylish way to get around town. Imported London cabs (minus the charming cabbies) look very cool on the old fashioned streets of downtown Charleston. Used CBCC to go to dinner and back – super timely and just so roomy! Loved them.

Coast. I don’t know what I was expecting, maybe high-end Micheal Mina type seafood, but what I got was a delicious crab shack. Clearly, I over dressed. This place was super duper casual. They specialize in seafood and low country fare, as well as rum drinks. Charleston after all WAS a pirate port, similar to Savannah and New Orleans. I tried a “Dark and Stormy” – which was dark rum, ginger beer, lemon and lime. Yum – glad I only had one. Started with crab dip – very thick and rich, served with sour dough bread…not awesome – the crab was shelly and I think water crackers or something besides heavy bread would have been a better accoutrement. Then had fried green tomatoes, a favorite of mine, but these were slightly disappointing. The batter wasn’t a cornmeal dusting that I prefer, but rather a thicker, flakier batter. So, there must be two schools of thought when frying green tomatoes: cornmeal vs flour for the batter. Which is to say, someone else might really prefer fried green tomatoes THIS way. The tomatoes themselves where perfectly green and tart. YUM. Then had a delicious lobster ceviche. Delicious. Really. But not what I should have ordered. I ought to have gone whole hog and got some large ridonkulous fish dish. Don’t bother watching what you eat there – you’ll be disappointed and end up wishing you ordered what your friends did.