3rd Wedding Anniversary, Days 3 & 4: Folly Beach and Beaufort, SC

On the third day of our trip, we checked out of the Notso Hostel and made the 20 minute drive to Folly Beach. It is a very cute little beach town with an amazing fishing pier, several restaurants and a few shops. There is a gift shop on the pier where you can pay to fish or you can just walk the pier, like we did, and enjoy the view.  

We had breakfast at Black Magic Cafe and after a short walk on the main street, we decided that we had seen all that Folly Beach had to offer! It would be great on a warm day to visit the beach and the bars in the area, but it was pretty cold and windy that day so we decided to make the 2 hour drive to our B&B in Beaufort.

I have always wanted to stay in a bed and breakfast and so, for this trip, we decided to spend one night at the Rhett House Inn in Beaufort. We were greeted with lemonade, iced tea and cookies before being shown to our room. After we had settled, they had complimentary champagne to enjoy on the expansive front porch. The view is slightly marred by a parking lot and Best Western directly in front of the Inn, but it was nice to relax anyway. 

After our relaxation, we used the bicycles provided by the Rhett House (AWESOME perk for us) to see all the beautiful old houses and views of the water. Our bike rides always seem to end in a drink or snack somewhere and this one was no exception! In no time we found ourselves at a free barbecue put on by Hemingway's Bistro. They offer the grill to drinking customers on Sundays so we helped ourselves to some food while we sipped white wine spritzers (I can't help myself) and Jameson's on the rocks (definitely Ryan) and played a little bit of cornhole (Ryan won!).

(View from our table at Hemingways)

(Biking in Beaufort)

While it was nice to be in such a slow moving, relaxing place after the hustle of Charleston, I have to warn you that Beaufort is not for adventure seekers! After biking around for about an hour, we had pretty much seen everything, including a neat old church and cemetery, The Parish Church of St. Helena.

The Rhett House provides appetizers (several cheeses, olives and crackers) and desserts (pecan pie, chocolate cake, key lime cake) in the evening, which was delicious, but by the time we were ready to head out to find dinner, it was 8:30 pm and the sleepy town of Beaufort had fallen asleep.

Handy tip: DRIVE in Beaufort at night. There is no shortage of parking! If you walk, you may find yourself rushing to make it to a Thai restaurant before they close at 9, you'll order your food to go because you feel badly that they close in 10 minutes and the restaurant is deserted. Then you'll end up eating your last romantic dinner of your trip on the bed in your room. 

 The next morning, we really were looking forward to the 2nd B of our B&B, but we were sadly disappointed by the lackluster breakfast offered at the Rhett House Inn. Maybe our expectations were too high but it was a let down to be offered something as boring as eggs, french toast or raisin bran. Maybe I could give their kitchen some handy tips like: provide fruit or add some creativity to your menu ;)

All in all, our stay in Beaufort was a lovely experience and I would highly recommend a short trip there to anyone looking for a short getaway from Jacksonville or anywhere else. Where should we go next year for our Anniversary Trip? The only rule is that is has to be somewhere we've never been before....

3rd Wedding Anniversary Trip Days 1 and 2: Charleston, SC

(Sign in a cemetery frequented by ghost tours..hilarious)

This past weekend Ryan and I drove the 4 hours from Jacksonville to Charleston, SC to begin our celebration of 3 years of marriage.  Our trip was to be 2/3 adventure and 1/3 luxury and relaxation. It was a beautiful and peaceful drive and we arrived at Charleston’s Notso Hostel ready for a weekend of history, good food and live music.

We stayed for 2 nights in the Hemingway room of the Notso Hostel’s annex building just a few blocks away from their main building. Having stayed at The Beehive’s annex building in Rome, we remembered that this was the best way to take advantage of the price of a hostel without having to put up with the sometimes frat house atmosphere J Both the hostel and the annex were beautiful old Southern houses in an eclectic neighborhood near King Street and they were clean and decorated with modern touches. Our room was on the small side (room only for a bed, bookshelf and closet) but this turned out to be a blessing as it kept us out of our bedroom and out and about in the city. I would recommend this hostel to anyone looking to spend about ¼ of what you’d spend on a hotel this close to the main downtown area. (Tip: You can feel the springs through the thin mattress but if you put the down comforter under the fitted sheet, it is perfectly comfortable for a few nights if you’re not too particular. We meant to bring our own pillows and forgot…you may want to remember as their pillows are quite flat…but for $70/night, who’s complaining?)

There are two people who live at the annex and care for it, both were extremely hospitable and kind and their little dog, Saatchi, was the sweetest, most friendly dog! She greeted us at the door like the little ambassador of the Notso Hostel and showed us to our room to make sure we were comfortable. The other guests of the hostel were considerate and quiet…I have yet to have a bad hostel experience and part of this might be research but mostly I think that hostel people are generally good people.

(Closed for Business by the "fireplace")

After changing clothes, we made our way over to King Street to explore Charleston. There are several very expensive restaurants catering to a wealthy clientele, but if you’re looking to make your vacation budget stretch, there are several options for that as well. We started at Closed for Business restaurant/bar for a drink and some fried potato skins. It has a quirky atmosphere similar to The Lodge in downtown Orlando and filled to the brim with hipsters. Ryan tried a new gluten-free beer called “Omission” that he loved and I had a Crispin cider on the rocks…never tried it on ice before but that’s how they served it and it was very refreshing.

(Salut!)

We then wandered all the way down King Street and over to Market Street for dinner and drinks at the bar of Mad River Bar and Grille. They had live music and while the food wasn’t amazing, it was decent and inexpensive for the area. The bartenders were friendly and one in particular befriended us and made a number of tasty shots for us in honor of our anniversary. I wasn’t appreciating those shots the next day but at the time it made our night special.

(Biking in Charleston)

The next day we rented bikes from the Notso Hostel for $15/bike/day plus a $5/bike deposit for the bike lock. If you rent a bike from Notso, don’t be turned off by the rust and general un-prettiness of these bikes…they work just fine and for $15/day, right by your lodging….it is a pretty good deal! There are other options for bicycle rental in Charleston if you’d rather but these ones worked just fine.

On our bikes we were able to visit the Saturday Farmer’s Market, which is HUGE and has vendors selling everything from local produce to gluten free gnocchi to local brie and handcrafted items. From there it was a short bike ride to the Historic City Market, which is filled with vendors selling benne wafers and sweetgrass baskets in addition to the usual artsy items. Since we weren’t interested in paying $50-500 for a sweetgrass basket, it wasn’t long before we made our way through the City Market and on to The Battery, a seawall and walking area that overlooks the Charleston harbor and is bordered by “stately antebellum homes” (according to Wikipedia).

 (Stately antebellum home)

Adjacent to The Battery is Waterfront Park, which has a lovely pier and several benches and gardens that provide the perfect background for a picnic or some gelato from Belgian Gelato. Try the pistachio!

(Sugar+Brandy= JOY)

If you have rented bikes from the main house of the Notso Hostel, on the walk back to the Annex, there is a really cool restaurant with a courtyard area, live music and delicious food called Fuel. The musician they had while we were there sounded like the guy from Blues Traveler and the service was great.

If you bring a bottle of champagne (our tradition is a bottle of Veuve Cliquot, since that is what Ryan brought when he proposed to me on the beach), you can enjoy a glass of it on the front porch swing of the Annex and enjoy people watching as you watch college students, families and couples strolling by on their way to the busy King Street.

Later on, if you’re looking for live music, it’s a pleasant walk to The Brick, which usually has live music starting at 10:30 pm. We saw the Swingin Richards and were singing along with them as they covered everything from Adele to Johnny Cash.

The next day, we enjoyed a cup of coffee in the living room before checking out and hitting the road…..that will be in the next post! 

Raise $280 for Brandy's 28th Birthday

Hello fellow adventurers! For my 28th birthday, I have set a goal to raise $280 for water.org to provide safe drinking water for life for 11 people. Will you help me change the lives of 11 people?
www.give.water.org/f/brandy28