Charleston, Round 2

I had every intention of using my nifty Blogger app to update on our Spring Break adventure, mostly to save me from having to try to sum it all up in one blog post. But alas, we were having too much fun to worry about blogging, so here I am, trying to condense it all meaningfully but concisely.

I'll forgo the play-by-play analysis and hit the highlights.

First, since I don't think I mentioned it before, my travel partners and my closest friends in Nashville. All three are my coworkers, and also part of the Wednesday happy hour crew, which has turned into Friday and Saturday night hang-out crew and Sunday night dinner crew. Ashley has been an incredible friend since before we even officially began working at Liberty. We met up for a movie in the park when I was here in June getting hours in before my trip to Europe, and we have been close ever since. Annie is the 6th grade reading teacher whom I have learned so incredibly much from both as a teacher and as a friend. She is quirky, imaginative, and hilarious. Erin is a first-year corps member and teacher, one of two special education teachers at our school. She works with a small group of our sixth grade students and is also a homeroom teacher in sixth grade. Easily one of the funniest, wittiest people I've ever met - her comedic timing is golden and you cannot help but laugh at almost everything she says (she aspires to write for television one day, and she'd be dern good at it). Now back to the trip.

The weather was chilly but beautiful. I've been to Charleston before, and walking the familiar streets reminded me just how much I love returning to a city I've previously visited. There's something about the sense of comfort and familiarity that is satisfying, and it makes me eager to return to other cities I love (Paris, anyone?). We spent the first night indulging in a delicious southern meal and my new favorite beverage - Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka + lemonade - at Hominy's, a restaurant that had popped up in all of my guide books. Yes, even though we were all equipped with smart phones, nothing beats the consolidated and organized information in a good ol' fashioned book.

Possibly one of my favorite things about this trip was our unspoken agreement that we were on vacation. As much as we were excited to see the sights and explore the cities, we were equally as excited to slow down and relax. This meant sleeping in later and midday naps/chick flicks back at our hotel before venturing out for dinner and drinks. In reflecting on our trip on the car ride home, the four of us all pointed out that we didn't do anything spectacularly different than what we do in Nashville, we just did it (a) during the week, (b) with a few more drinks, and (c) in two new cities. And we had an absolute blast. Moral of the story: who you're with is way more important than where you are going.

A lesiurely walk around the city, a 2:00 pm happy hour with the best margaritas I've ever had at the famous Hyman's Seafood bar, and a late-night drink and twice-baked potato were the highlights of Charleston. See? I told you! Nothing fantastic or over the top. But we still managed to laugh more than I've laughed in ages. Some pictures of the first leg of our trip:

Up next: Beaufort, South Carolina.