Spring Break 2011...part 1...Charelston, SC

This is the first time EVER, that Grant and I have gotten to take a Spring Break trip together. In undergrad, we didn't have Spring Break (thanks to no breaks in all of winter semester at BYU) and last year, we had Spring break 2 weeks apart. So...we decided to make the most of this one and take a little trip east. I have always thought that Charleston seemed like a perfect little city and wanted to go see it for myself, so we spent a few days there and had a wonderful time!

I truly believe that one of the best ways to see a city is by running through it. We ran a total of about 11 miles (in 2 days) and saw amazing houses, beautiful waterfront and helped us decide which areas of the city we wanted to spend time in later in the day. You can run the wrong way down one way streets, are going slow enough to see the details of houses and landscape, but fast enough that you can cover some good mileage and a fairly short amount of time. The fact that the temperature was in the mid 70s the entire time we were there was a huge added bonus!

(Running on East Battery)

(A park downtown)

(Waterfront Park-pineapple fountain)
One of my favorite parts about the city, was all the delicious seafood, especially the open air seating. So many of the restaurants opened up to the streets and we were able to enjoy the beautiful weather.
(Noisy Oyster)
(Hyman's Seafood-this place was AWESOME)- There were plaques on the tables of famous people who had eaten at certain tables...Sandra Bullock and John McCain had eaten at our table-I'm assuming not at the same time ;)
We got a crazy amount of food, but wanted to try it all. I had seen shrimp and grits on the menu at every restaurant we had been to all week so I decided to just try it. I wasn't a fan but that is the only part of this meal I wasn't 100% excited about. Everything else was delicious! We had 6 different kinds of shrimp, sweet potatoes, swordfish steak, crab cake, mac n cheese, and hush puppies (which I usually don't really care for, but these were SO good).
And in case it looks like all we did was eat...here's some more yummy treats we enjoyed ;)
(Charleston Candy Kitchen-those free praline samples were SO good...)-check out Grant in the reflection (we do what we can to get pics together when traveling alone :)
Gelato-mango and pineapple...

And we enjoyed it while sitting in the park looking at the ocean!

One of my favorite parts of the city was the shopping and market. This city market is open everyday, all year long, and has vendors with some fun stuff...it was a great place to walk around.

There were several women outside and inside the market weaving these beautiful baskets. Unfortunately they were a little out of my price range, but they were remarkable. Maybe next time I visit Charleston I can pick one up...

Charleston in a lot of ways felt like a fairly small city, but I loved that they had the big city outdoor shopping. King St. was like a warm and sunny New York City Street, wonderful!

Palm trees and J. Crew...this left me smiling :)

And of course...one of the best parts of any city on the coast...the BEACH! We felt very fortunate to have such good weather, considering it was still technically winter.

Next time I go, I want to rent a bike to ride out on the sand. There were lots of people out on bikes and it looked so fun. This was on Kiawah island, we went out to "The Sanctuary" for the day, it was beautiful!

We found some cool shells, starfish, urchines, etc. This is a huge crab shell Grant found.

We went at low tide so we could do some beach combing...the beach was enormous and went on for milesIn addition to Kiawah Island, we spent a lot of time at Folly Beach. There were tons of people out surfing, but we opted for more sand than water this trip.

On the last day before heading out. we drove over the bridge Grant had been eying the whole time we'd been there, and went to check out USS Yorktown (but it ended up costing a ton, even with the military discount, so we just took some pics instead of doing the tour).
All in all, the Charleston portion of our Spring Break was awesome! Other highlights (not pictured), enjoying lunch and an evening with our friends Liz and Brian (and James and Abby :) who moved to Charleston from Lexington last summer. I also thoroughly enjoyed the houses, as beach-style houses are definitely my style, our hotel's waffles in the morning, palm trees everywhere, and the base tan I started :) ... and it was so nice to have a break from the monotony of normal life!