Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Charleston Recap

I finally have some pictures so I thought I'd post them!

Monument by the water
I went to Charleston with my parents last week for spring break. I think it was originally suppose to be a romantic getaway for my parents, but I insisted on tagging along :) No way was I going to let them go to the beach for during my spring break without me!

Downtown Charleston was GORGEOUS! It's one of the nation's oldest cities and was full of historical homes and elaborate gardens. 
Home in downtown Charleston


We rented a house on Folly Beach, a funky little beach town about 15 minutes away from downtown Charleston. Our house was RIGHT on the beach, as in you could just leave my towel when you went inside to pee (it's the little things, right?)

View from our porch
I was a little sad about leaving the gym for 5 days, but I figured that Charleston would be a great place to run and I was not disappointed! The weather was perfect, the roads were flat, and I got to watch the sun rise (on the one day I actually woke up early enough!) I ran (approximately) 5 miles on Tuesday, 3 on Wednesday, and 6 on Thursday.


There is just something about running by the water that makes the whole experience 10x better. I have to have warm weather (as in above 60 degrees) and a aesthetically pleasing environment (ie not a treadmill) to get motivated run, so it doesn't happen very often. But if I lived at the beach I swear I'd be a marathoner.


I also got in a nice arm workout on a kayaking trip. We kayaked for 3.8 miles.

Me and the 'rents

On the last day of our vacation we visited Magnolia Gardens. It was gorgeous!





Old plantation at Magnolia Gardens

The one thing I failed on was taking pictures of my meals :( I was a little intimidated to whip out my camera at the restaurants. I wish I had though, because we had some amazing meals! 

We ate fish every day, including: shrimp, oysters, scallops, crab cakes, calamari, tuna, salmon, tilapia, and swordfish. Whew!  I don't eat starches so I always roll with a salad or double veggies as a side. Some of the veggies I enjoyed were zucchini, broccolini (it's a cross between broccoli and asparagus), corn on the cob, and grilled asparagus. 

My family doesn't usually order desserts at restaurants but this trip I really wanted some desserts. I'm blaming all the dessert pics I see on food blogs! Fortunately my dad has a big sweet tooth too so we overruled my mom who is not big on sweets. Desserts included key lime pie, key lime cheesecake, chocolate cake, and leftover cookies from a waiter's wedding (yes really!)

I will try to put together a better posts on restaurants later because there were so many good ones! But overall I loved Charleston--I am dying to go back and I think we are going to return the following May when my sister will be able to come too (her spring break fell earlier this year but don't feel too sorry for her because she went to Belize). By then I will be a college graduate--crazy!

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