Fun for the Boys

The first "First Baptist Church"

Beautiful beach

We had a leisurely morning.  We took full advantage of being without kids by sleeping in.  I was in bed longer than I have been in months. I found one of those cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies on TV and ended up watching the whole thing!  Paul even brought me coffee in bed.  If anyone knows Paul they know he does not like the taste of coffee, much less the smell of it!  He had never made it, but he did a great job!  He also cooked breakfast for everyone -- breakfast casserole.  He's a keeper!  We headed out after that to go to Wild Dunes.  The Troutts vacationed here almost every year when the boys were growing up.  They went with the same 3 families each time.  We were able to get a visitor's pass to explore the resort area.  We drove around and around looking for the house the rented on more than one occasion. They finally found what they thought was it.  We got out and checked out the beach.  It is a gorgeous day here - sunny and in the 60's!  We ran into another family so we were able to get a couple of group pictures made.

When we left there we went back into Charleston.  We toured the Calhoun Mansion which was quite overwhelming.  A family actually lives there, but it was more like a museum -- lots of very expensive antiques and artifacts. Definitely not my cup of tea.  We did a lot more exploring on foot after that.  I love the old homes here and everything that the city does to preserve the past. Anything that has been in place longer than 75 years has to remain in place, including stone "stoops" on the sidewalks that allowed ladies to step up into horse drawn carriages.  I also loved how everything was decorated for Christmas --- lots of real greenery, magnolia and fruit.  We saw very little artificial decorations.  Everything was simple and classic -- just what I like!

We grabbed lunch at A.W. Shucks. It has been there forever.  They boys remember eating there when they were on vacation.  Everyone got to feed their seafood craving.  Jon and Kristen had fresh oysters, I had fish tacos and Paul had a mahi sandwich.  It was all so good!  We went back to The Market and did some other window shopping.  We went to King Street which is the upscale shopping district. It was way out of our price range, but it was fun to look.  We enjoyed sampling nuts and taffy as well.

Our dinner reservations were even later tonight -- 8:30 so we went home late afternoon.  I took a long nap which was awesome!  We got all dressed up for our night out.  We ate at an amazing restaurant -- SNOB (Slightly North of Broad).  It was phenomenal!  I branched out and ordered the duck with blue cheese bread pudding and braised brussel sprouts.  Kristen and I ordered a pear cider sangria that was wonderful.  I could go on and on about the food, but I won't.  It was a very warm, cozy atmosphere.  We were definitely pleased with our selection.  We found a cool jazz club for an after dinner drink, unfortunately the band was wrapping up when we got settled but we still enjoyed the atmosphere.