Girls' Weekend. Part One.

This time last week I was on an island in South Carolina with three very fun and special ladies. One flew from NY to be with us (Marti). One lives in VA albeit close to the border of TN (Patty) and one lives maybe 25 minutes away even though I rarely see her (Kristy).

When I go to Charleston with my family a few times a year I often do not get to do things I would like to do with a husband and two kids. Like shopping. And walking around downtown for hours. And visiting plantations. And watching chick flicks or staying up past midnight laughing. All that was done last weekend.

Friday night we ate at Yamato, a Japanese steakhouse in Mount Pleasant. It's one of those where they cook the food in front of you. One where you have to try to catch a piece of flying shrimp in your mouth in front of four to six other strangers. I don't do flying shrimp. But we had fun. One thing one of us noticed was that at a neighboring table there was a family of 5 and every single one of them was on their phone. Wow. Talking about the need for family time. LOL

We visited the Piggly Wiggly afterwards for groceries for our long weekend visit. My purchase? Three packs of Lifesaver Gummies, a box of Town House crackers, a four-pack of yogurt, and a can of soup. I kid you not. Most of the gummies were ate as well as half of the yogurt before leaving. Nothing else was touched. We ate out too much.

Saturday morning we decided to hit a plantation as the weather forecast was sketchy and we didn't know if we would have any more non-rainy days. We went to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. I have been here but I do believe it was when I was pregnant with Andrew and Elizabeth was not even a year and a half old yet. Therefore it probably wasn't quite enjoyed as we did this day.


After a delicious pancake breakfast AND a spinach smoothie prepared by Kristy, (yep, she's coming back next year) we headed to Charleston (after a slight drive toward Mount Pleasant in which we had to call upon Siri to get us headed the right way). We chose the house tour and Audobon Swamp to add on to our basic admission. That was one of the moments when I remembered why we don't do these with the kids that often.

Even with it being late February there were some things in bloom in the gardens - the camellias, some sort of rose, and some flowers. The four of us had fun traipsing on the grounds and enjoyed the house tour too.

Kristy doesn't do swamps. Correction. Kristy doesn't do frogs. So she doesn't do swamps. We had a lot of froggy fun on Saturday. I was afraid she may kill me the second time I pulled a jumping frog prank on her. We were walking along one of the garden paths when I had picked up an acorn and threw it over to the side of where she was walking. I was going for that jumping frog look. It worked. I still cannot believe she didn't strangle me because I could tell in her eyes it crossed her mind.

Patty and I split a hotdog to hold us over through our next adventure at the swamp. After we bought it we found a pretty, little peacock following us. Yikes! He wanted some hotdog. It was hard getting a photo of him with one hand. I kept hoping he would display his beautiful feathers for us. No luck.

The three of us found the Audobon Swamp quite the learning experience.

We saw two marsh rabbits.

We saw some alligators trying to get warm.

There were some egrets nesting and some herons in the water too.

This was the only frog we saw. :)

Pictures of us from the day . . .
 

Which way now? LOL

We had left the house about 10:30 am and left the plantation around 3:30 pm. Our breakfast was wearing off and we headed toward downtown Charleston in search of crab legs for Marti.

Our search found us at Hank's Seafood Restaurant. My, I wasn't sure I was dressed appropriately but this is Charleston. A beach town. The South. Denim can be dressy there. Seriously, most patrons in nice restaurants downtown in the summer are wearing jeans or shorts.

Unfortunately, they did not have crab legs but they had delicious seafood. I chose roasted salmon with roasted fingerling potatoes, asparagus and grape tomatoes with a grain mustard horseradish vinaigrette. Marti got the special which was triggerfish, Patty ordered the fried crab cake and shrimp dish, and Kristy picked the curried shrimp which was a sweet curry dish. I had to take her word for it as my lips would have swollen up like fat sausages if I had tried it.

After dinner we went back to the house and watched some chick flicks. We stayed up past midnight which is a big deal for me since I go to bed around 9:30 most nights (because of my dear husband). I say it was a good day.