Charleston Babymoon

I’m getting this post up later than I’d planned, but the past few weeks have been so busy – I’m not sure where the time has gone! Jimmy and I took a little trip to South Carolina to visit his family in Kiawah Island for Thanksgiving, and decided to extend our stay and spend a couple days in Charleston for a little babymoon. We wanted to get away for a weekend and enjoy some one-on-one time together before the baby comes because we know that’s going to be hard to come by for the first few months, but free weekends were pretty sparse for the rest of the year, and Lord knows I’m not going to want to do much of anything in my final weeks of pregnancy. Jimmy’s aunt and family invited us to spend Thanksgiving with them in Kiawah Island, so we thought it would be the perfect long weekend to get away.

We enjoyed three nights with them, full of delicious food (of course I had to bake a pecan pie and take some of the most beautiful cookies from our local bakery, Cinotti’s), a concert in the park the park featuring Darius Rucker, and some much-needed R&R. Saturday morning we packed up and made the 20-minute drive to downtown Charleston. On the way, we stopped by the beautiful Angel Oak Tree, then checked in to our hotel right in the center of downtown.

I hadn’t been to Charleston since early high school, and Jimmy hadn’t been in nearly ten years, so we were super excited to check out the city and soak in the views. We made our way to King Street where we spent several hours shopping, popping in little bars and coffee shops, and struggling hard in our decision about where we wanted to go for dinner. After much deliberation (and about 4 miles of walking), we stumbled in The Rarebit and had an incredible meal. After dinner, we popped over to Proof, where Jimmy had a fancy hand-crafted cocktail, I had a tasty mocktail, and we split a homemade Nutella Banana Pop Tart. OH. MY. GOSH. If you ever go there, get one. As we were walking back to the hotel, we stumbled upon a homemade ice cream shop, so of course we had to stop in and split a cone, which was shortly followed by accidentally walking into Glazed donut shop (which was surprisingly open late – score!), and leaving with half a dozen incredible homemade donuts. Blame the pregnancy cravings. We swung by CVS on the walk back to the hotel to grab some water and milk, and decided to call it a night around 9 p.m. Donuts in bed and Hallmark Christmas movies in a comfy hotel bed for the win! Sunday morning we woke up early and walked to find breakfast, and ended up at Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit. Holy deliciousness – I need to make a trip back JUST for these! After checking out of the hotel, we spent the rest of the day walking around downtown, exploring the historic district, and stopping in any restaurant, shop or bar that caught our eye. Some of the places we stopped were The Griffon, Blind Tiger, Charleston City Market, Savannah Sweets (I have to stop there for a praline every time I see one – it’s like a piece of home), and the Gin Joint, which had been transformed into Miracle, a pop-up Christmas bar. It was the coolest thing and we had so much fun – definitely one of the highlights of our visit. We got there right when it opened, so we were able to snag a seat at the bar. Jimmy tried several of their holiday-themed cocktails, I sipped on the most delicious mocktail ever, and we made friends with a few locals sitting next to us (including Liz of Charleston Weekender – be sure to stop by her blog and say hi!) After eating and drinking our way through town, it was time to head back to Savannah for the night. It was a short trip, but we had the most amazing time. Charleston is absolutely beautiful, and we loved stumbling across the local dives and shops (which is our favorite thing to do any time we travel). The scenery, the houses, the alleys, the weather … we didn’t want to leave, and now Jimmy wants to move there. We are already looking forward to another visit very soon! It was so nice getting away and enjoying some time together, which I am cherishing every second of until baby arrives in seven short weeks. Thanks for a great time, Charleston. We’ll see you again soon!