Charleston, South Carolina
I took a quick weekend getaway to Charleston, South Carolina for a weekend as a Southern Belle. I will fully admit I had preconceived notions of what Charleston would look like, a charming, cute, historic beach town with lots of handsome southern gentlemen, and a more built up city.
I may offend Charleston lovers, but I didn’t fall in love with the city. To me is was very run-down and that’s just not my style. It was also a different feeling there, you definitely felt like you were in the south with all the “Yes Ma’am” and “Sir” that you hear.
While there, I took pregnancy shots for Aline. We went to several different locations, so I just posted some of the best shots that I edited.
Click on the picture to see the rest of the photo shoot.
Tourist Attractions:
Downtown Charleston
The main streets in the city were cute, but outside of the area was very run down. The streets were filled with a lot of bars, restaurants, and small shops.
Hurricane Proof House
Since it does flood, a lot of homes are raised and don’t have basements in order to avoid damage. This builder took it to the next level, he build an oddly shaped, hurricane proof house that looks like spaceship.
To read more on it, click here.
Newest Bridge
Boone Hall Plantation
This is one of the more popular plantations. The road to the plantation is gorgeous. It’s $20 to get in and it was just interesting to see a little piece of history.
For information, click here
Angel Tree
This tree is more than 1500 years old. It is gigantic! Aline thinks it is ridiculous how much I wanted to see the tree, but it’s HUGE! The roots are growing out of the ground. It’s free to go see.
FYI- The tree was closed by the time we got there, so I only got to enjoy it from afar and took pictures through the fence.
For the location, click here.
Restaurants:
Saveurs Du Monde Café
This is a cute little French café. It is very cute and the food is delicious. I had breakfast here. The atmosphere was nice, the staff was very friendly, and the food portions were very large for the price. When I got a crepe, I expected a something small and folded, oh no, I got something so large, I could only finish half. I got the East Coast crepe, very fitting right?
Here is Aline’s dad being very French with his cappuccino and baguette.
Here is the menu.
Prohibition
The restaurant made you feel like you stepped back in time. There was a swing teacher and it was fun to watch the students and the host was in a simple flapper outfit. The downfall was the selection of food on the menu. It was very limited and most of the foods were fried, which you know is not my cup of tea. A+ on atmosphere, but C on the food selection.
Here is the menu. Below is the crab roll. It was very tasty, but again, very fatty.
Sol
This is a very cute place with a great selection of food. I got the Sol Salad and it was delicious. The ambiance was nice and the price was very reasonable.
Here is the menu.
Memorable Moments:
- I wanted a new profile picture for the header of my blog and when I saw Aline’s white bed, I got the idea to do it there. I wanted something light, fun, bright, and happy similar to my personality. So I staged the place and had Aline take the pictures. She is a very good photographer and it was fun to be the model for once. Here are some of the pictures.
- Alvaro, the grandpa happened to be in town at the same time as me. He is such a wonderful and kind man and I am always happy to see him. Unfortunately, he doesn’t speak a lot of English and I hardly speak any Portuguese. Actually, I tend to combine a little Portuguese and Spanish when I speak. So how did we talk the whole weekend? Thank heaven for Google Translate! Aline laughed because it would be dead silent as we wrote back and forth to each other.
- Ramin surprised Aline with an actual baby shower while I was there. Our MBA class had a virtual baby shower for her before, but he communicated mostly through Alvaro, which caused a slight confusion. We got Aline out of the house to go out shopping and to see the gym. Ramin meant the clubhouse gym, but Aline thought her gym and even said why does my dad want to see it so badly? Oh well. The surprise turned out great and I happen to be the only one who attended both the virtual baby shower and the actual baby shower!
Virtual Baby Shower
Live Baby Shower
- One the photo shoot, we saw turtles on a dead fish. Ramin took like 5 million pictures of them. We make fun of him because he loves nature shots, he hates people shots. He’s a very good photographer and very serious. While I use two lenses, look how many he owns. This is a legit photographer.
- Alvaro made us fish. We actually got the fish fresh from the fish market. While cooking, he had a slight accident, but he’s still happy!
Other Items for Discussion:
Airport
The airport was TINY. There is one bathroom, one gate, one entrance, and the worst…No Wi-Fi. It is going through a revamp, so hopefully it will be much nicer the next time I’m visiting. This is our good-bye picture.
United Flying Fiasco
I was supposed to board at 7 PM, so I arrived at the airport at 6 PM. They kept saying there was mechanical issues and that once the passengers boarded, we would be ok. I had a feeling it might be cancelled as the flight kept getting delayed, I even asked the United agent if I could switch my flight and if they are sure this flight was still happening.
They assured me yes. Finally they announced the plane was boarding and would arrive at 11 PM, but that our flight was cancelled because the pilot “timed out.” Yes, timed out, what does that mean? He reached his maximum flying time for the day and could not fly.
After that it was a mad rush to the ticket line to get everything resolved. I ended up getting on a 5:30 AM flight with Delta. On top of that, they put us in the wrong hotel, so after a long game of shuffle board, I was at the hotel at midnight only to go back to the airport at 4 AM.
Other people were getting rebooked on United, but I refused to go again, so I told them I want them to switch me and it was a lucky thing I did. In the morning, I went to the airport, every flight was on-time, actually Delta got us there early, but the 6 AM flight for United was cancelled.
Before, I was indifferent to United. I’ve always been loyal to Delta, but after this, I hate United even more that words can say. Delta is still my #1 choice and look, they serve Starbucks now. It’s a sealed deal.
Pay It Forward
After landing at IAD, I went to see if I could take a super shuttle. The guy told me to take the Fairfax Connector to Reston and then catch the shuttle home to save money. No, it would have been so much better to pay the extra cash or a straight shot home. Since it was in the daytime, the buses don’t run as often, so it took much longer than expected.
When I got there, the shuttle just left and the next one was going to be 40 minutes late.
I met Tanya also going my same way, so we wanted to split a cab. Unfortunately, during that time, there were no cabs, so she booked an Uber, the Uber driver never arrived. So it was time to go back to the bus. When I got in, there was a little old lady who was lost and confused. She got on the wrong bus and needed to go to a location about 15 minutes from my house.
I looked at her flustered as the bus driver really didn’t help. She said, she can’t go to another location because the person picking her up doesn’t really speak English or know the area well enough.
She just reminded me of my mom and how confused my mom would be in the same situation. I told her to come with me and we’d have to walk to my house to get my car, but I can take her to where she needed.
After Tanya, me, and Lisa (the old lady) got off the bus, we all trekked it to the location. I got my car and as I was driving her, she told me she doesn’t have any family here. She works in the area and doesn’t drive, so she is meeting a friend to go to the outlets for her birthday.
I told Aline, I guess all the issues were meant to happen, so I could help this sweet little lady out. All things happen for a reason and it really taught me never to stop being nice. I really did this because I felt bad for her, but this small deed ended up making it possible for her to celebrate her birthday.