Charleston Getaway

As I mentioned last week, Wyatt took me on another trip for my birthday (last year's here).  He told me at Christmas that I needed to take off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of my birthday week because he was taking me somewhere.  He would not budge on telling me, nor would he really give me hints.  I did get some weather related hints but ironically the weather at home ended up being rather close to the weather in our destination.  We left after work on Valentine's Day and traveled to Louisville for a romantic Valentine's Day dinner at Proof on Main.  It was such a cute restaurant and the food was excellent!  We shared the cheddar grits.  I got the Nashville hot porchetta.  I definitely recommend this dish if you like pork! It was amazing.  Wyatt ordered the pork fat roasted striped bass and we split the grapefruit panna cotta.  After dinner we traveled down the road for a few more hours.  At that point, I was pretty sure I knew where we were going but Wyatt still would not relent.

The next morning we got up and hit the road.  The longer we were on the road, the more I was confirming my theories on where we were going.  Lucky for me I was correct.  Wyatt surprised me with a trip to my favorite place in the world, Charleston!  He booked us a room downtown at the Mills House Wyndham Grand Hotel.  It was my first time in all my trips there to stay right in the heart of downtown.  It's definitely a must at least once.  We had a fantastic dinner at Husk the night we arrived.  Husk was just across the street from our hotel. We ordered the Broadbent Country Ham, Buttermilk Biscuits, Dijonnaise, House Made Pickles to start our night.  It was so good!  I definitely recommend it as a great way to start your meal.  For my entree I ordered the NC chicken with roasted root vegetables, ricotta dumplings, ember grilled arugula, and peppered sage gravy.  Wyatt ordered the confit duck leg with grits, pan roasted sweet potatoes, pecans, red Russian kale, and sweet potato jus.  Mine was delicious but I must say that Wyatt made the best choice.  I tried some of his and it was amazing!

View from our room

On our first full day in the city (and my birthday!), we first set out for breakfast.  We had a quick breakfast just down the street from the hotel at Eli's Table.  Wyatt told me that since it was my birthday I could pick what we did.  I decided to start the day off with a stroll through the historic district.  We meandered our way through the streets and back over to King Street to do some shopping.  We hit up a few stores, including my favorite Lilly Pulitzer, and then we walked over to FUEL.  We had walked or driven by this a couple of times in our most recent trips and decided we just had to try it this time.  It serves Caribbean inspired dishes and is in an old gas station.  Wyatt started off with the Black Bean Soup.  I ordered the bbq buffalo burger and fries - a bison burger with red slaw, mango ketchup, and a tangy barbecue sauce. Wyatt got the grilled jerk chicken sandwich with rice.  I had to try the sweet plantain fritters.  They were my favorite part of the place! If you like plantains, that is a must get!  We were just a couple blocks away from Sugar Bakeshop so we stopped in to get birthday cupcakes!  We both got a cupcake with lime curd and coconut.  Oh my gosh, so good!  That night we went to Minero for my birthday dinner.  We grabbed drinks at the bar while we waited on a table.  Wyatt even got me to do a tequila shot!  Once we had a table, we ordered queso fundido and a chopped salad with steak to share.  Then we each got a taco, al pastor for me and steak for Wyatt.  After dinner we went over to see the Pineapple Fountain at night! Y'all I'm so happy I made him go check this out at night.  It's so pretty at night and downtown is almost deserted at night so it was quite peaceful!

I grabbed these cute new earrings on our shopping expedition on King Street

On Friday we grabbed a quick breakfast from the Harris Teeter.  We went and parked over by the battery and walked along the battery and in White Point Gardens.  The weather gods blessed us with yet another gorgeous day complete with sunshine and blue, blue skies!  After a little walking around, we drove over to have an early lunch at Lewis Barbecue.  The pulled pork and brisket were amazing! And if you go, you HAVE to try the green chile corn pudding. We dined inside but they had the cutest outdoor seating area. We definitely recommend trying this place if you like BBQ. After lunch we drove out to Isle of Palms to walk on the beach.  It was SO windy but so worth it for a stroll on the beach. When we had braved the wind all we could handle, we drove back to Charleston and had dessert at Kaminsky's.  I decided to splurge.  I got a butterfinger shake and the almond cake.  Wyatt got an Irish coffee and shared some of my cake.  We relaxed for a while after dessert in the comfort of our hotel.  That night we drove out to Folly Beach for dinner at our favorite out there, Surf Bar.  It was the perfect end to our little getaway.  We got up early and hit the road on Saturday to head home.  We made it home early evening and were more than happy to relax all day on Sunday.