Day: August 8, 2013

Day #1

Day #2

Day #3

Day #4

When Foodie Pen Pals Meet

I got up early on Tuesday and took a walk. The sunrise was absolutely gorgeous! So totally worth getting up early to see it.

We had decided to go as a family to see the Battery and take our traditional pictures of the cannon. I almost missed it all because of having to go to the bathroom. I knew I shouldn’t have drunk the second cup of coffee, but it was so good. There is nowhere on the Battery to go to the bathroom. Let me repeat, there are no public restrooms. Argh! A lady and her husband heard my plight and decided to help me find a bathroom. She and I walked over to an inn and asked them for some southern hospitality. Fortunately, the lady did allow me to use their bathroom.

I missed all the kids alone on the cannon but got pictures of all 4 grandkids with the grandparents. (I will not post those pics out of respect for my sister and brother-in-law.)  I also used my tripod to get pictures of the whole family and me. The problem I had was I couldn’t get onto the cannon without crawling onto it. (I was wearing a dress.)  After picture taking was done, everyone went their separate ways. We walked a little down Rainbow Row and ended up in the Edmonston-Alston house. Hubby and I enjoyed that. The Wee One did not enjoy it as much.

We then went to my favorite restaurant in Charleston – Hominy Grill. The boys were not so thrilled with the food. I’ll take that back; they liked the French fries but not the mac and cheese because it had pepper on it and the applesauce because it was lumpy. Hubby and I ate until we were stuffed. I had a Dirty Biscuit, a southern-style biscuit, a fried chicken breast, and sausage gravy. I had it with okra and tomatoes and marinated cucumbers and onions. For dessert, I had a slice of upside-down peach cake.

After returning to the condo, we laid down for a while and took a satisfied belly nap. Everyone else in the house was gone, so it was quiet.

After everyone returned, it was back to the beach for the children. They had fun jumping around in the waves.

Hubby, my father-in-law, my niece and nephew, and the boys went to a minor league baseball game – Riverdogs – that evening, and my sister and brother-in-law went out. So it was only my mother-in-law, and I went to Cory’s Grilled Cheese for dinner. I had Cory’s Famous cinnamon raisin bread, provolone cheese, bacon, and honey mustard. So delicious! I also had their summer slaw, Asian slaw with ramen noodles.

After returning to the condo, my mother-in-law and I walked along the beach. It was nice to talk with her. She is such a giving person. Soon after we returned to the condo, the kids, Hubby, and my father-in-law, came back from the game. Somehow the Imaginative One got a foul ball and gave it to the Wee One. Hubby is still unsure how it happened because all the Imaginative One was supposed to do was get some water.

Then it was off to bed. More adventures later.

Click on the mason jar pic for more pictures of the day.

Day #1

Day #2

Day #3

When Foodie Pen Pals Meet

Monday started with a walk on the beach with Hubby.  I looked like a tacky tourist, as the Wee One would say.  I had on my bathing suit, a cover-up, a thin fabric cardigan, and my photography backpack, and I was carrying around my lens cap insulated coffee cup.  We walked up and down the beach, enjoying the sunrise.

After our walk, we ate breakfast as other people woke up.  Eating on the balcony while watching the ocean waves come in and out and listening to the waves crashing against the beach was a real treat.  Paradise.

My nephew and the Imaginative One ended up getting up and wanting to take a walk, so I took them out for a little while.  The Imaginative One kept wanting to see sea life, so he looked around in the tide pools.  He didn’t find anything too exciting for them.

Once we got back upstairs, almost everyone was stirring, so they got ready to go out to the beach.  I hung around the condo for a while since I had already been on the beach twice that morning.  I ended up going down and staying there for almost an hour.  During that time, the Imaginative One wanted another walk, so we walked past the pier and saw seagulls and terns attacking a bag of chips.  We discovered the chips were not even opened when they started eating them.

My mother-in-law’s cousin and her grandson visited us on the beach.  N. is the same age as my niece and the Imaginative One but got along great with my nephew.  It was great seeing my mother-in-law’s cousin – she is a true southern accent and all.

We were told about this great little hole-in-the-wall grilled cheese restaurant, Cory’s Grilled Cheese, located near the Piggly Wiggly.  We needed a few more things, so it was a good excuse to leave the beach for an hour or so.  We could not find that restaurant what’s so ever.  The restaurant was not located near the Folly Beach Piggly Wiggly.  It was located near the James Island Piggly Wiggly, a big 7-mile difference.  We ended up at Jack’s Cosmic Dogs.  Oh, my goodness.  The food was out of this world good.  I had a Galactic Dog with chili, slaw, and cheese on it and drank Tang with it.  Yum!  Hubby got a grilled brat with bacon, cheese, and spicy ranch to dip the fries in.  The boys and I devoured a whole basket of plain fries.  They were that good.

It was back to the condo for a while.  We visited with my mother-in-law’s cousin for a little while and then played on the beach/in the ocean for a little while.

I had a second cooking class that evening, so Hubby drove me to that.  This time I was actually going to be cooking.  We were going to make cheese straws with caramelized onion dip, pork wraps, baby bok choy, shitake mushroom stir fry, potato salad, and pecan crumble over vanilla ice cream.  Yum!  Since we got downtown half an hour before the class, I asked him to drop me off so I could take pictures as I walked to the class.  That was fun.

I stopped in a local café, bakery, and coffeehouse (Bakehouse) for a cup of Joe before the class.  While waiting for my cinnamon roll latte (which was the bomb), I spoke to the cashier.  It seems that a lot of Ohioans came down to Charleston because whenever she spoke to a tourist, the majority of them were from Ohio.  LOL!

As I walked, it was lightning and thundering in the distance, so it was cool to watch.  I did not take any pics because it is extremely hard to take pics of lightning without a tripod, and there were buildings in the way.

The cooking class was fun and relaxed.  We all had different stations, so I helped make the potato salad.  After we all cooked, we sat down and enjoyed the fruits of our labor.  The lady next to me was a social worker for the D.C. school district, so it was interesting to talk shop with her.

Hubby picked me up and took me back to the condo.  By that time, it was bedtime.  More on our adventures later.

Click on my picture to see pictures from our Super Trip Day 4.