Girls' Weekend. Part Two.

Sunday we ate brunch around 10:30 at one of my favorite restaurants in Mount Pleasant, Mosaic Cafe. Afterwards, we headed into Charleston where we ended up spending the entire day. Seriously, my legs were soooo tired when we finally got back to the house a little after seven.

Downtown . . . .

My eyes look half closed here. See outtakes below for my disclaimer.

Marti finally got her crab legs. We had to go to Charleston Crab House for her as we did year before last so she could get her fix. Patty was able to get her shrimp and grits fix. I ordered a HUGE BLT and Kristy didn't order anything (but managed to eat 6 hushpuppies).

The girls had wanted to take pictures of the many ornate iron gates and fences to spell out our last names. (By the way, I found this site with LOTS of pictures of letters already that are free to use but hard to choose because of the selection. Here's a link for numbers.) Here are examples of what you can make taken from Full of Great Ideas.

We walked throughout a cemetery that provided several good letters although one or two of them were a little edgy on using letters from a graveyard. ??? LOL As we were walking back to Kristy's car van, we found a gate with some beautiful script letters that I tried to get some pictures. The sun had set and it was pretty dark so they didn't turn out the greatest.
  

Here are a few other "letters" we found (unedited).
  

  

Two things I took pictures of during the day in Charleston but have no words to describe. Wrong or weird or whatever, you decide. LOL

Patty wanted to visit Waterfront Park so we did. Crazily enough in all our visits to Charleston, my family has NEVER visited this park. We will have to this summer as I know the kiddos will love the fountains. I wish one of us had been wearing a pedometer to see how many miles we walked on this day.

We were able to finally get a picture of the four of us while here. It's not the greatest but hey, it's the memory. I wish we had asked more strangers to take the camera and get more of us. AND I realized I did not get a picture on my camera of Kristy and me together. :(

Patty is a Chucktown Chick. When you get four girls together for a weekend, foolishness, strangeness and a bunch of mayhem develops. Just sayin'. And that's all I'll say about that subject. What happens in Chucktown, stays in Chucktown.

Outtakes from the weekend that may or may not prove the aforementioned topic:

Marti got her crab legs. Yippee!

Happy friends. LOL

Acting like a model. Strike a pose.

Kristy was really thirsty.

Are you taking my picture again?

This caption is one of those inside jokes and for only us four to remember.

This is how I feel most pictures of me turn out.
I always have some funny look or am looking off or something weird.
I think I was saying something here too. LOL

Monday was pretty low-key. We hung around the house most of the day and played Scramble against each other. Around 2 we finally slowly changed out of our pajamas and went to eat at On the Border before going to see a movie. I had to make a run to Walmart to pick up cleaning supplies for the cleaning lady. Even though we knew we had to get up early the next day we still stayed up until midnight. We couldn't help it.

We left around 8:30 Tuesday morning and dropped Marti off at the airport. We were home by 2:45 and I left at 3:00 to pick the kids up from school then to drive 30 minutes to take them to piano lessons. Needless to say, I was pooped by bedtime.

It was good to be home. It's a good thing when you don't want your fun with friends to end yet you are so happy to be back home with your kids and husband. I missed them. But of course I'm already looking forward to next year.

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.

Beach Vacation 2011. August Edition.

Notice a similarity to my title? :)

This last minute vacation - and I say "last minute" because school is about to start not because it was spontaneous, it's been planned since last year - was a nice time to spend together as a family before all the schedules get back in full force. School, football practice, homework, piano practice, piano lessons, voice lessons, football games, etc. I love life being on schedule but after typing that list, I'm dreading it a bit.

Saturday, August 6
But because of our busy schedule our last vacation got shortened - one day on the front end and one day on the back end - because of football. I wasn't too happy about that but Andrew would have missed three days of practice and by going on Saturday (instead of Friday) and coming home Thursday (instead of Friday), he missed only one practice. Wade assured me he needed to be there because the coaches are scouting the positions right now. So I smiled and said it was okay. So I didn't appreciate the fact we all had to lose two days of fun in the sun. So I accepted the fact that "daddy knew best" and went with it after a mild temper tantrum.

On the way we stopped at Zaxby's for lunch. Wade convinced me we should get a strawberry cheesecake milkshake. We ordered kids meals to make up for the calories of the shake. Or at least we thought that would help. Well, I did a search to find out *how many* calories were in that shake. Ready?

Seven hundred and fifty-five.
Seven hundred and 55.
700 and fifty-five.

How ever you say it, it's not good. Not to mention the 19 grams of saturated fat. Remember, this was without the whip cream. Add that and add another 25 calories.

I have recently joined Spark People to log in my nutrition each day and my weight goal. Well, this was half of my caloric intake for the day. Needless to say, when we bought groceries that evening, I chose spinach for my supper. And water. (Yes, I did allow myself a few toppings - feta, cashews, little bit of ham and two tablespoons of dressing.)

If you join Spark People, use my username (LeslieinTN) as a referral. ;) It's completely free and completely eye-opening to realize how much you are eating. At least it was for me. Trying to make a life change here and eat healthy. My friend, Brandy, has helped too. Go check out her new health blog!

Traffic was backed up for miles right after Columbia so we had to find an alternate route, taking a state route that connected to I-95 and then getting back on I-26 later. I never could find what had happened. We arrived at the beach house around 6:30 - the latest we've got there in quite a while.

After we unpacked at the house we went back out for groceries to make dinner (remember by spinach salad? LOL) for Wade and me and drove by Chick-fil-a for the kids.

Sunday, August 7
One place we have never visited while here (well, there are a LOT) is Charles Towne Landing. I've read good things about it - especially for kids. It's hard to decide whether to visit places like this though when it's August in Charleston. It can mean sheer torture walking in the 95 degree heat and 50% humidity or you can practice mind-over-matter and still enjoy life. We try to prepare the kids by telling them it will be hot and bring bottled water and take breaks going back inside to cool off. Plus, we don't overdo it. We don't think we have to see it all.


Charles Towne Landing has 22 acres set aside for animals that lived in the area when the settlers arrive in 1670. Since it was so hot we only saw a few (which I thought might be the case with visits to zoos in the past so again, I had prepared the kids). The ones we saw were: great blue heron, brown pelican, great egret, wild turkey, turkey vulture, white-tailed deer, bison, and river otters.


Green Anole lizard we saw along the way.


They also have a replica of a coastal trading ship from the 17th century called the Adventure.


Hull of the ship:


This carved American Indian reminded me of one we have back home.


Andrew used my point-and-shoot camera while there and took pictures of things he enjoyed. Here is one thing he liked that was inside the museum at Charles Towne:


By the time we left Charles Towne, it was well after lunch time. We thought we would stop somewhere for lunch but ended up driving all the way back to the house and made a late lunch.

After we got cleaned up and rested we went back out to take advantage of tax free weekend in South Carolina (which was also going on back home) by buying the kids' school supplies. I had a coupon for $15 off $75 at Office Depot so I wanted to go there. Honestly, I think I would had saved more than that if we had just shopped at Wal-Mart. It was aggravating to pay $3 for a pack of markers that I knew sold for $1 at Wal-Mart but Wade kept saying the coupon would even it out. I wasn't so sure. At one point I wanted to leave our shopping cart and head on over to start over at Wal-Mart. LOL We got the rest of the supplies at Wal-Mart the following day.

Andrew's photographing continued when he decided to take a series of photos of his Lego guy in precarious and funny positions. His take on the "a LEGO a day" blog. ;)


That evening we went to Sea Island Grill in the Boardwalk Inn in our resort. It was a nice restaurant although once again, we had to have a lady diner sitting nearby that was obnoxious. I wondered if she had drank too much? I know a couple sitting at a table beside them were not happy either. Thankfully, they had just ordered dessert when we were seated so they weren't there much longer.

Our food was really good. Elizabeth and I shared a delicious beef tenderloin. I think I said my steak on our last vacation was the best I had in a while. Well, I think this tops it. I also had a really good spinach salad. Andrew had a really good cheeseburger. Wade ordered crab cake on fried green tomatoes. This is the type of restaurant where you get treats brought out to you beforehand that you don't pay for but really, you're paying for it. LOL Wade and I was given a sampler of cucumber and tomato gazpacho and the kids were given a bowl of fruit. For dessert (and I had wanted to skip but again, my dear husband persuaded me - he's bad!!!) we shared a smash cake which was very good. The kids received a scoop of ice cream and chocolate chip cookie.

Monday, August 8
This day was our designated "lay around the house" day. I finished a book I had started a month ago. (In my defense, it was long and I rarely get to read in the evenings.) The ONE THING we HAD to do on this day was go to the pool.

Our other plan for the day was to hit the movie theaters. Our choice? The Smurfs. It was okay. That's about all I can say about it. I liked the cartoon I grew up watching much better. LOL

Since we had spent as much on our meal the night before as we had on groceries for the week, Wade and I decided to eat food we had bought at the grocery store for dinner and took the kids to McDonald's for their food. [We are trying to get at least 1600 calories a day in Elizabeth as part of a growth problem she's had and it's been hard.]

Tuesday, August 9
The South Carolina Aquarium is at the edge of the historic district in Charleston. It's been a few years since we have gone. With temps reaching 105 but hovering around 98 most of the day we needed a COOL destination.


Picture compliments of Elizabeth.


There was a Bald Eagle in the opening for everyone to view up close.

Our favorites:

Wade - He couldn't decide if it was the "fake" albino alligator, the air conditioning (ha ha!), or the South Carolina fish exhibits. He decided it was learning about the fish native to South Carolina though. He and Andrew also had fun at the exhibit where they tried to see if they could hold their breath as long as a dolphin or sea turtle.


Leslie - This is a toss-up. I still enjoy goggling (not be confused with "Google-ing" LOL) at all the weird species of fish and aquatic life, but I think my favorite part of the aquarium was watching the kids. Especially Elizabeth who was like a four-year-old. It's refreshing to see an eleven-year-old who is still fascinated and gets excited about something especially God's creatures. She kept oohing and ahhing and saying, "look at this one!".


Looking back at my pictures, I was fascinated with the small jellyfish and their movement that looks like a graceful dance.


Elizabeth - The trading post or the albino alligator, Alabaster, was Elizabeth's choice. The trading post is an ingenious idea of actually letting patrons bring in items from nature (shells, snake skins, shark teeth, sand from all over the world, cocoons, etc) and trade them in for points (they have a sheet with what everything is valued). Kids can save up their points if they are wanting something of particular value. They had a few really nice sets of antlers. The lady who worked at the trading post while we were there started talking to us and we found she used to live in Kingsport and teach at ETSU. In fact she was coming back to visit for a few weeks next month and is a paleontologist who digs at the Gray fossil site. Small world.


Andrew - When I asked Andrew his favorite part, he gave me a vague answer like Wade did at first, "I liked it all." And then, "I don't know." "The fish." Finally, I coaxed out of him he liked when we saw the divers in the 18 inch thick acrylic tank feeding the fish and sharks and the huge turtle that we were sure was dead that surprised us by swimming around.


The touch tank is always popular with kids and adults too! :)


The view of the Arthur Ravenal Bridge from the covered deck on the outside of the aquarium.


Getting Dippin' Dots as we left made the hot walk back to the parking garage easier. ;) (For the kids, that is!)


After we left the aquarium we drove to Battery Park. Andrew had been reading a book at the beach house about Charleston and mentioned he didn't remember us ever visiting there. Well, we had to go! :) He enjoyed climbing around on the cannons and cannon balls.

Wednesday, August 10
This day started out like our Monday - laying around. I was trying to finish up another book I had started and was a page-turner, After the Leaves Fall, by Nicole Baart. It was about 11 a.m. when Wade and I were talking about our busy following day with driving home, picking up the lizard and frog from a friend's house, taking the kids to piano, voice and football, etc when he said, "Maybe we should just go home today." I agreed. So we made a goal to leave by 2 p.m. and started getting ready. LOL

I admit that I sometimes think it's strange we don't want to stay a full week at the beach and want to come home early. We've done it in the past. BUT with this vacation being at a busy time (right before school) and the fact we've already been on vacation (two for Wade and me), we were okay with cutting it short. Plus, that meant less money we spent.

Our painter had been at the house for the past two weeks working hard on making our cruddy old deck look like new and was about to finish up which we were excited to see too. (I'll have to share more on that later.) We got home around 8 that night, maybe a bit earlier, and as always, it was good to be home. ;) The next day, Thursday, went much smoother than we had anticipated with the absence of having to drive six hours that day plus football practice got moved to Friday.

We had another great vacation even though this one was shorter and had a little less going on than our last trip to IOP.