ah, charleston...

in the hotel garden...

charleston is one of my and the hippie's favorite places to go for a long weekend. in fact, it's the first place we ever went away together, come to think of it. it's just a peaceful and relaxed place filled with beautiful homes and gardens and glorious food!!! last weekend, we dragged the pseudo-in-laws down there so they could experience it, too. a week ago today, we were poking through the shops on king street, taking a little wine break in the garden owned by our hotel, and getting ready to go to a wonderful dinner at magnolia's, one of our favorite restaurants of all time. after dinner, we went on one of charleston's famous ghostwalks, a walking tour where they take you to a few haunted places and regale you with ghost stories local to the area. totally fun, even though there is definitely a cheese factor to it. we finally ended up out at a local cigar bar where the boys lit up and sipped whiskey while denise and i indulged in a spot of champagne. definitely a good evening.

deep sea tank


sailboat on the cooper river

sunday as GORGEOUS!!! we went to brunch at the hominy grill, my absolute favorite restaurant in charleston. we got lost of course, as we always do since i always forget the name of the cross street it's on--my bad! after a FABULOUS meal, we went to the south carolina aquarium, the best small aquarium i have ever seen--it's just the right size for an afternoon and really well-done. of course, i took most of my weekend pictures there, as i always do. denise was in love with the sea turtles--she's so cute--she gets as excited as a kid over things. then the hippie was just as excited over the sailboats out on the cooper river. we sat and watched this one boat for the longest time as it was practicing for a race, running through a series of exercises over and over, both with and without it's spinnaker. just a beautiful day to linger ourside. dinner was a boatload of memphis style ribs at sticky fingers, followed by a long walk on the waterfront to work them off. we finally ended up at tommy condon's, this irish pub where we generally have at least one beer at some point every time we go to charleston. there was even some live "irish" music, played by a couple of down-home boys, one from charleston and one from new jersey. i'm not sure that really counts as "irish", but it was fun none the less.

monday, we grabbed some starbucks and walked the battery again in daylight so dan and denise could experience it both ways. then after a quick drink, we hit the market for the touristy stuff, went into one of a kind art & fine craft gallery (which still has a couple of my wire things for sale in it), and walked over to hyman's for a big fried-seafood lunch. that place is such a charleston institution--you almost HAVE to go there. late lunch over, we grabbed some more coffee and headed out. we set the "kids" up in the back seat with the hipie's laptop and a dvd of the incredibles, so they were happy. all in all--a really good trip. i think the pseudo-in-laws had a good time--i know we sure did. :)

check out the rest of the pictures if you like.

note: you can also check out my pseudo-m-i-l's post about this weekend--she's bloggin' these days.