Category: travel.

Hello everyone!  Just wanted to pop up a quick post to say that I’ve returned from Disney World exhausted, yet somehow also feeling renewed.  I gave myself a day of rest yesterday to recover from all of the crazy chaos that is a Disney park (if you can count a day of unpacking and doing laundry as a day of rest).  So rather than having a full on post about some sort of painting project today, I’m just going to share a couple of quick highlights from Disney.

My sister and I stayed at Port Orleans – French Quarter on Disney property.  I’m sorry to say that I didn’t really take any photos of French Quarter.  I wish I had taken a few more because it was really quite picturesque.

Full disclosure, the photo above actually shows Port Orleans – Riverside.  It is the next door neighbor to French Quarter.  There is a lovely walkway along the ‘river’ between the two areas, and we walked this pathway a couple of times during our stay.    I snapped that quick photo at dusk.

We had requested a room with a view of the river, and at night we often heard the horse drawn carriages clip clopping past on the path.

We absolutely loved this resort.  We’ve stayed at a few different Disney properties, and so far this is definitely my favorite.  It’s one of the smaller resorts on property and thus felt very quiet and uncrowded.  Considered how wildly crowded the parks themselves feel, it is nice to come home each night to peace and quiet at your hotel.

If you’ve been following me for long, you know that my sister and I (and sometimes my niece) go to Disney regularly, so I’m not going to bore you with all of the details of this trip.  However, I thought I’d share one of my favorite highlights which was a visit to Space 220.

 Space 220 is the newest restaurant in Epcot that opened in 2021.  When dining at Space 220, you first board the space elevator that ascends 220 miles upwards to the Centauri Space Station.

The illusion is amazingly realistic.  You’re given a ticket to board the ‘space elevator’ and from there you can watch through upper and lower porthole windows as you speed away from earth and towards the space station.

You can watch as Florida, and then the entire planet grows smaller and smaller beneath you.

Once you arrive on the space station, you are met by a host who leads you into the restaurant where you have the most amazing view of planet earth from high above it.

Throughout your stay, different objects appear in view such as space shuttles and astronauts moving equipment around and such.  I didn’t manage to catch any of that in a photo, but it was surprisingly realistic.

As you can imagine, dining at a space station isn’t cheap.  They offer a prix-fixe, 2-course meal at lunch for $55 p.p. or a prix-fixe, 3-course meal at dinner for $79 p.p.

However, if you’re more budget conscious, you also have the option of visiting the lounge for drinks and appetizers.  If you really just want to experience the adventure of traveling to space, you could easily get away with spending less than $20 if you just get a drink.

My sister and I opted for drinks and a couple of shared appetizers.  The drink we both ordered was called the Atmospritz and was made with New Amsterdam vodka, Aperol, Blood Orange, Orange Juice, Prosecco, and a Cotton Candy Cloud.  It also came with a bit of a flourish as our waiter poured them after he brought them to our table.

You guys, for a drink made with cotton candy, these were crazy strong.  My sister is a bit of a light weight, so it wasn’t surprising that she was feeling loopy after just a few sips, but even I couldn’t finish the entire drink.  Not without needing to take a nap under the table anyway.  But they were certainly fun to try.

For appetizers we went with a classic shrimp cocktail and chicken on a waffle.

Both were really delicious.  I’m super picky about my shrimp cocktail.  The shrimp has to be perfectly fresh, not fishy smelling or rubbery.  These were fabulous.  Totally my favorite thing on the table.  My only complaint is that we paid a whopping $24 for just 4 shrimp.  However, they were U 10 shrimp, in other words, quite large.  My sister preferred the chicken on a waffle, and that was quite delicious as well.  It was fried chicken with some smoked bacon on a roasted corn waffle with a spiced coleslaw and a bourbon maple glaze, and it was $18.

Although we weren’t stuffed or anything, the dessert menu didn’t really offer anything that tempted us.  So after finishing our drinks and apps, we took the space elevator back down to earth and headed off to Norway to go on the Frozen boat ride.

As usual, we had a great time at Disney World despite some pretty massive crowds and a bit of heat and humidity.  But it’s great to be back home again.  We came back to sunny skies and temps in the 60’s, so I’m going to have to work a little to get back into the holiday spirit, but I’ll definitely have some Christmas painting projects to share with you later in the week so be sure to stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, have any of you dined at Space 220?  Or maybe you have another favorite Disney restaurant that you want to recommend.  If so, be sure to leave a comment!

As I mentioned earlier this summer, both my sister and my niece purchased annual state park passes this year.  I’m not sure how these work in other states, but here in Minnesota an annual state park pass costs $35 and allows you unlimited free entrance into any of the 75 Minnesota state parks for one full year.

So this summer we’ve been trying to visit as many as we can, and my sister and niece are on a quest to collect a pin and a patch from each one.  We’ve pretty much made it to all of the parks that are within an hour or so from the Twin Cities, so last weekend we took a road trip to get to some that are a little further out with our main destination being Itasca State Park.

On the way up north we stopped off at the Charles A. Lindbergh State Park.

There isn’t a whole lot to this one, but you can see the boyhood home of the famous aviator who was the first to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic.  The park itself, however, is actually named for his father who was a congressman for Minnesota from 1907 to 1917.

Unfortunately, none of the buildings were open while we were there so Debbie and Kris were super bummed that they couldn’t get their pins and patches.

We made it up to our lovely airbnb cabin on Potato Lake in Park Rapids by dinner time.

  It was a bit rainy, so we grilled some steaks and played some board games inside for the evening.  The next morning we woke up to a beautiful misty sunrise over the lake.

We decided to head to Lake Bemidji State Park on our first full day.

We admired the lake …

And then took a hike on the Bog Trail.

The trail brought us to Big Bog Lake.

We were hoping to spot some wildlife on the opposite shore, like maybe a black bear or a moose, but no such luck.  Debbie & Kris did get their pins and patches at the park office though, so they were happy about that.

After lunch, we headed in to the town of Bemidji.  Stopping off to say hello to Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox, Babe, is pretty much a requirement when visiting this area.

We then dropped Mr. Q off at the nearby disc golf course so he could play a round, and while he was doing that we hit the shops.  I’m not gonna lie, the town of Bemidji was a huge disappointment to me.   The shops were mainly full of tacky, cheap souvenirs and the entire area felt a bit sketchy to me.  We quickly decided to get out of there and head back to our cabin for the evening.

On day 2 we headed to Itasca State Park.

For those of you who may not be familiar, Itasca is famous for being the location of the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

It’s pretty much a rite of passage for Minnesota kids to walk across the Mississippi.

These days it feels rather like an Instagram set up.  Those stepping stones are just a little too perfectly spaced to be authentic.  But maybe it was always that way and I just didn’t notice that when I was a kid.

For those who may not quite have the balance required for the stepping stones, there is also a log bridge you can take across.

Although this is the quintessential photo op in Itasca State Park, the park has lots more to offer including the very nicely appointed Jacob V. Brower Visitor Center.

I especially enjoyed the historical exhibits including this one with all of its vintage camping gear.

And this exhibit of the original Lady Slipper restaurant ware from the Douglas Lodge.

I got a kick out of the original menu showing such tasty treats as peach and cottage cheese salad, and chicken giblets on toast for only 70 cents.

A dinner that included several courses and half a chicken cost a mere $1.25.  I’m not at all sure I would enjoy cantaloupe a la mode for dessert though, and Maple Pecan ice cream served with Ritz crackers?  Was that a thing?

The lodge was built in 1905, but I’m not sure what year that menu was from.

We didn’t do a ton of hiking in Itasca State Park, but we did hike up to the fire tower.

Once we got there, Mr. Q and I totally chickened out of taking the stairs to the top for the view.  My sister made it up to one platform, but my niece went all the way up.

We also checked out a short trail to see the largest white pine in Minnesota.

Just look at the size of that thing!

I think we timed our visit just right for avoiding the crowds in Itasca State Park.  Kids are back in school, but we aren’t quite at peak fall color just yet.  I bet there is a line up of people to climb up that tower to get a birds eye view of the fall colors when they are at their peak.

There was so much more to see in the park, but by mid-afternoon we decided to head back to spend a little time enjoying the amenities at our cabin such as the canoe and the fire pit.  We went for a lovely paddle on the lake, then made bbq chicken fry pies over the fire for dinner.

All in all we had a lovely time up north.  I totally recommend visiting Itasca State Park, so far it is my favorite of the Minnesota state parks we’ve visited.  How about you?  Do you have a favorite state park where you are?  Leave a comment and let us know.

I wasn’t planning to post anything today (I thought I’d give myself the holiday off), but I just had to share this quick post for all of you fellow cruisers out there.

Mr. Q, my sister and I were having dinner on Saturday night, about to start a game night, when I remembered reading that the brand new Viking Mississippi ship was in St. Paul about to set sail on its inaugural voyage.  So on a whim we decided to scrap game night and drive into St. Paul to see if we could catch a glimpse of the ship.

Despite having lived in the Twin Cities for 35 years, I actually had no idea that there was a ‘port’ in downtown St. Paul.  The address was on Shepard Road, so we figured we’d just cruise down Shepard and see what we could see from the street.

Turned out that the ship was pretty easy to spot, and not only that but a parking spot had just opened up at nearby Lower Landing Park.  So we parked the car and got out for a closer look.

That’s Mr. Q and my sister, Debbie.

OK, so Lambert’s Landing isn’t what most of us cruisers would picture as a ‘port’, it’s technically a ‘landing’, an area along the river where ships can tie up to load and unload.  There aren’t any buildings or anything like that.  But it is cool to know that in the 1800’s this was one of the busiest steamboat landings in the U.S.

It was a gorgeous evening, the weather was perfect.  We took a stroll along the river while waiting for the ship to set sail.

You get a nice view of the Comcast building across the river.

We also got to see the brand new Viking Mississippi up close and personal.

This ship was designed specifically for cruising on the Mississippi river and according to Viking it is the biggest vessel currently sailing in this region with 193 staterooms (check out details and photos on the Viking website).  It is also the first Viking ship built in the U.S. (it was built in Louisiana).

You can’t quite see it properly, but that is an infinity plunge pool on the upper deck aft.

I have to admit, at first we found it rather crazy that people would pay $9,000 (and up) per couple to sail along the Mississippi stopping in places like Red Wing, LaCrosse and Dubuque, Iowa.  We joked about whether or not they were serving regional foods (like they do on their European river cruises), and what would that include?  Tater tot hot dish?  Lutefisk?  Walleye?  Spam?  Surely they will serve cheese curds when they get to the Wisconsin portion of the river.

I checked out the shore excursions being offered for Red Wing and they included a trip to the National Eagle Center, a tour of Maiden Rock Winery (we have visited both, check out this post), and a visit to the Red Wing Pottery Museum (we tried to go there during our Great River Road road trip, but it was closed).  I looked at some of the excursions offered at other ports too, and there were quite a few that looked like placed I’d love to see like the Stonefield Historic Site in Wisconsin, and visiting Mark Twain’s hometown.  So maybe it’s not so crazy after all, I think those passengers are going to have an amazing trip.

I’d forgotten what a festive atmosphere there is during a sail away.  There were probably 40 to 50 people on shore to watch the ship depart.  Just as the sun was sinking below the horizon, the ship pushed away from the landing and sounded its horn making us all jump.

As the ship sailed past, the three of us were reminded of how much we loved our Viking cruise on the Danube and we realized we can’t wait to take another cruise!

We waved and shouted bon voyage to the lucky people on board while dreaming of our next cruise (spoiler alert, we’re thinking Norway, next fall).

How about you?  Are you a cruiser?  Or are you in the ‘ugh, how awful to be stuck on a boat’ category?  Leave a comment and let me know.

 

We had some absolutely perfect weather this past Sunday, so my sister, niece and I decided to take advantage of it and do some hiking.  My niece purchased an annual state park pass, and we are getting lots of use out of it.

We started out in Whitewater State Park, which is near Winona, MN.  The list of trails in this park all seem to have one thing in common, the guide describes them as steep and hilly.  Personally I’m more of a ‘flat and wooded’ sort of hiker, but I was game to try ‘steep and hilly’ if it meant getting an amazing view.  So we headed for the Chimney Rock Trail.

Hmmm, a ‘moderate’ 1 hour hike, that seems easily doable, right?

It starts out pleasantly enough with a stone bridge over the Whitewater River.

As soon as you’re across, you see some steps in front of you.

But that, my friends, is only the beginning.  There are over 100 steps leading up to Chimney Rock, interspersed with some narrow, rocky trails.

It was fun to check out Chimney Rock, but I have to admit I wasn’t brave enough to crawl inside (although plenty of others were).

Although going up is physically challenging, for me it’s coming back down that totally freaks me out.  I was so focused on not slipping and falling that I didn’t even take any photos on the way down.

But we made it down safely, and then decided maybe the Trout Run Creek Trail, which was described as flat with packed dirt was more our speed.

It was really lovely.  We were surrounded by leafy forest that was filled with bird song.

However, we’d only gone a little way down this trail when we saw a turn off for Inspiration Point.  There were a couple of hikers coming down from that trail and they told us we really shouldn’t miss it.  Sure, it’s steep and there are over 100 more stairs, but it’s so worth it.

And I thought the first trail was scary.  Yikes!

If you like narrow, rocky trails with a steep drop off beside you, or lots and lots of rickety wooden stairs, you’ll love this trail.

But I have to agree that it was worth it to get to Inspiration Point.

That being said, none of the three of us were actually brave enough to go stand at the very end of the point.  Luckily that other lone hiker went out there so I could include her in my photo to try and capture the scale of the place.

The view was pretty spectacular, even from where we stood (in safety).

Unfortunately my photos definitely don’t do it justice.

I have to confess that my fear of heights kept me from really admiring the beauty up there.  And on the way down I was too concerned with not falling to my death to get any photos.  But I found this great post on daytripper28.com with good photos of these trails, including a picture of the rather frightening stairs coming down from Inspiration Point, so go check it out if you want to see what I’m talking about.

After making it back to the car in one piece, we decided to head over to Carley State Park.  This is a much smaller, and less spectacular, park.  But my sister and niece want to get to as many of the Minnesota state parks as possible, and it was just a short distance from Whitewater.  We did a quick hike through the woods there just so that they could check it off their list.

We decided to take the scenic route home from there and stop off in Lake City.

If you aren’t familiar, Lake City is located on the Minnesota side of Lake Pepin.

Lake Pepin is a naturally occurring lake on the Mississippi River (ie. it was not created by a man made damn).  It’s known as the birthplace of water skiing which was invented here in 1922 (you can read more about that here).

We didn’t realize it beforehand, but Lake City was celebrating Water Ski Days last weekend.  We arrived just in time to have roads blocked by the parade, but too early to see the water ski show.

That’s OK, we found a great ice cream place and enjoyed some waffle cones while wandering around lakeside.

As I enjoyed my white chocolate raspberry ice cream I was reminded of what a beautiful state Minnesota is.  So tell me, where do you live and what are some of the prettiest spots near you?  And are you a fan of steep and hilly, or is flat and wooded more your style as well?

 

 

First up, congrats to Cyndi.  I drew her name to win the paint giveaway from my previous post about Charleston.  Today I’m sharing the last post from our trip.  Be sure to read all the way to the end for another paint giveaway!

While the first half of our trip to Charleston was spent exploring historical sites and admiring beautiful homes and gardens, the 2nd half was spent at the beach.  Folly Beach, to be specific.  We packed up all of our stuff, checked out of our first hotel and drove about 20 minutes to hotel #2 so that we could stay right on the beach.

Here is how visitfolly.com describes Folly Beach …

Folly Beach, South Carolina is one of America’s last true beach towns. Just minutes from historic downtown Charleston, Folly Beach is a 12 square mile barrier island that is packed with things to do, see and eat. This is a funky, laid-back, come-as-you-are kind of beach. The pace is invitingly slow, the people are captivatingly unique and the shops and restaurants will receive you with good old fashioned Southern charm and hospitality. It won’t take long for you to feel right at home.

Surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Folly River, visitors enjoy six miles of wide beaches, surfing, fishing, biking, kayaking, boating, eco-tours, and sea wildlife including several endangered species. The sunsets on Folly are legendary, so make sure you have plenty of space on your camera or smart phone … seriously, free up lots of space!

A few steps from the beach, downtown Folly features an eclectic array of locally owned stores and restaurants. Fun bohemian clothing, beach knick-knacks and surf shops are mixed with fantastic seafood restaurants, casual cafes and one-of-a-kind bars. With live music coming from all directions and fruity cocktails calling your name, your cares will melt away as you become lost in the Folly lifestyle. And when the sun goes down, Center Street becomes a lively mix of beach-casual nightlife and rooftop dance clubs.

Whether you need a beach front home for 20 or a romantic room for the two of you, Folly Beach is the perfect spot for vacations, reunions, beach weddings, or just a quick weekend getaway. Come visit us at ‘The Edge of America’ … you’ll love life on the edge.

I have to say, for a marketing blurb, it’s fairly accurate.  Folly absolutely felt like a funky, laid-back beach town.  We had some great seafood, some delicious cocktails and listened to some live music.  Everyone we met there was friendly and welcoming.  The staff at our hotel were exceptionally good (and after the really awful staff at our first hotel, this was a welcome change).

Speaking of our hotel, we stayed at Tides Folly Beach.

What I thought was really unique about this hotel was that every room was truly ocean-front.  In the photo above you’re looking at the street facing side of the building.  This is where the open air hallways and doors to the rooms are.  I’ve put a little arrow on the photo to show the location of our room, we were on the 7th floor.

Once you step into the room, all you’ll notice is the wall of glass looking out the opposite side onto the Atlantic Ocean.

Full disclosure, I did not take that photo.  I borrowed it from the web.  However, that is basically what our room looked like with the exception of the pretty aqua colored bed spreads.  We had some really drab beige colored spreads that were itchy and kind of gross.  Also, our room never looked that tidy.  One of the outcomes of COVID is that most hotels no longer clean your room during your stay.  I’ve stayed in … let’s see … five hotel rooms over the last year and none of them offered maid service every day.  The Disney hotels cleaned your room every 3rd day, but the rest did not clean the room at all regardless of duration of stay.  The Tides staff did say that you can request maid service, but you have to do so 24 hours in advance.  We probably should have done that because by day 3 there was so much sand on our floor that we may as well have been sleeping on the beach.

But … that view!

That view was worth having a little sand on the floor.

While lying in bed you couldn’t even see the beach, just the water, so it felt a lot like being on a cruise ship with the vast ocean outside your window (minus the motion of the ship).

I was fascinated by the pelicans that would glide silently past our balcony.  Since we were on the 7th floor, they were right at eye level.  I was never quick enough with my camera to get a photo of them from the room, but I did snap this one from the beach.

Looking down from our juliette balcony (if you aren’t familiar, this is a balcony that is only about 2′ wide, no space for chairs) you’ll see the pool.

I took that photo in the early morning before it was full of screaming children playing.  For the remainder of the daylight hours the pool was packed full.  As a result, we never went there, choosing instead to spend our time on the beach.

If you step out the door from your room into the open air hallway, you’ll see Center Street which basically ends at the hotel.

This street is lined with restaurants, bars and souvenir shops.  I’ve put an arrow on the photo showing our favorite place to eat, Rita’s Seaside Grille.

We ate there three times … no wait … four times.  Three of which were breakfast.  They had the most amazing Belgian waffles and a delicious peach bellini mimosa.

In the end, our favorite thing to do at the beach is to get up early and walk along the shore.

In my experience not all beach locales are conducive to this activity.  For example, we once stayed at La Jolla de Mismaloya in Puerto Vallarta which is situated in a cove that didn’t allow you to walk much in either direction.

But you can walk quite far on Folly Beach (the beach is six miles long).  We walked to the southern-most tip of the island where the Folly River meets the Atlantic one morning, and as you can see we pretty much had it entirely to ourselves.

We debated walking up the other direction to see the Morris Island lighthouse, but in the end we decided we weren’t up for the 8 miles round trip.

We enjoyed checking out some of the beachfront homes while we were out walking.

Mr. Q and I dreamed about how amazing it would be to live right on the beach.  We don’t even need a big ol’ fancy house like that one.  We’d be happy in a little cottage by the sea.  But as seems to be the trend in most waterfront locations, there are only a handful of small vintage cottages remaining.  I suspect that they get torn down to make way for the huge, expensive homes.  Although, to be fair, Hurricane Hugo did blast through Folly Beach in 1989 damaging many of the homes.  That may also explain why there are so few small, older beach cottages left.

One last thing.  Before you get the impression that the beach always looked like this …

Let me clarify.

That’s how it looked at 7 a.m. before anyone showed up.  Later in the day this beach was positively packed with people.

If you’re looking for a quiet, peaceful beach vacation, this may not be the spot for you.  However, it’s a great spot for families, and for those looking for more of a party atmosphere.

As we realized at the end of our beach stay, Mr. Q and I are really rather lame.  We could have done so much more in Folly Beach, rented bikes, taken surfing lessons, played volleyball, danced all night at the rooftop bars, but instead we mostly just relaxed on the beach, ate delicious seafood, and enjoyed a few cocktails.

FYI, that shrimp was delicious, and the cocktail was called ‘And Just Like That’, so clearly I had to have one (it was your basic Cosmopolitan with the addition of POM juice).

As you can probably tell from my photos, we were blessed with absolutely perfect weather the entire time we were in Folly.  This was a great way to end our Charleston vacation.  Although we stayed right there on the beach, you could also easily plan a day at Folly Beach while staying in Charleston as well.

Before I totally wrap up my Charleston blog posts, I have another paint giveaway for you guys.  Obviously, this one is inspired by the colors of Folly Beach; Stormy Seas, Endless Shore and Wharf.

The rules:  To be eligible to win, simply leave a comment on this blog post (you could tell me about your favorite beach.  Folly Beach was fabulous, but my all-time favorite beach is definitely White Bay on Jost van Dyke.)

Your comment must be left on this blog post, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, although it would be awesome if you did!

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Sunday, May 22, 2022 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $95, if the prize is not claimed by Friday, May 27, 2022 another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint I’m giving away today.

On our recent Charleston vacation, we stayed at the La Quinta Charleston Riverview, which is just across the Ashley River from the historic part of town.  Let me just say, this hotel was not great.  The traffic noise in our room was deafening, the hotel staff were awful (we had two hangers in our room and when we stopped at the front desk to ask for more we got a shrug and ‘I don’t know if we have any extra hangers’).  The included breakfast was so bad we only ate it once (and that was with a spoon because when we asked for forks we got another shrug and ‘we don’t have any forks’, apparently there is a hanger and fork shortage in the south).  I could go on, but suffice to say, I do not recommend staying at this hotel.  There must be better options out there.

That being said, we chose it because it was on the cheaper end … so I have to remind myself that you get what you pay for.  Lesson learned, it might be wise to pay a little more for your hotel.  I will say that it was in a pretty convenient location though if you have a car.  It was less than a 10 minute drive into the heart of historic downtown, and there was plenty of free parking at the hotel.  Although their website says that they have a free shuttle to downtown, when we arrived we were told that they no longer provide a shuttle.  Fortunately, we had rented a car and weren’t counting on their shuttle.

After our formal guided walking tour the previous day, on day two in Charleston we decided to just wander the historic district on our own.  We drove to an area called the Battery because my research told me that there was free parking to be had if you got there early.

  Since we’re early risers, and we were skipping that bad hotel breakfast, it was no problem to be parking the car in one of those free spots by 8 a.m.  Although it was overcast and the forecast called for rain, we never did get wet.

We walked along the battery towards Bakehouse Charleston where we knew we could get good coffee and some pastries (and FYI, their frozen mint lemonade is totally delicious too).

It’s a lovely walk where you can admire beautiful old antebellum houses along one side, and pretty water views along the other (and there are those free parking spaces in the foreground, as you can see they were filling up already).

This house along the Battery caught my eye.  It stood out because it was looking a little worse for the wear (this would have been a good one for your dad to fix up Connie), I wonder if it’s a popular stop on the many ghost tours that are offered in Charleston.

Check out that big ol’ crack in the foundation.  Yikes!  I can just imagine how expensive it is to maintain these old homes.  I’m so glad there are people out there willing to do it.  And FYI, this was the exception, not the rule.  For the most part the homes along here were in immaculate condition.

Once we were fortified with coffee and pastries, we headed out towards Waterfront Park.

This is where I found some of the only azaleas blooming for the entire trip (more on that in a future post).

This is also where you’ll find the Pineapple Fountain.

It’s a lovely place to just stroll around.

Just a sidebar note for any of my fellow cruisers out there, there was a Carnival ship docked right there at the pier.

So if you ever end up on a cruise that stops in Charleston, I can tell you that you are going to be docked right in the heart of the historic district and everything I’m sharing with you in this post is within easy walking distance of the ship.

And this brings me to one of the absolute highlights of our trip, for me at least.  Wandering through the neighborhood called South of Broad.

First off, if you want to avoid the crowds, this is one way to do it.  We did see the occasional horse drawn carriage full of tourists,

but for the most part Mr. Q and I had these streets all to ourselves except for the locals out walking their dogs, and the gardeners who were out cleaning up after the previous night’s storms.

My goal was simply to admire the houses …

and the gardens …

up close and personal-like (gosh I envy their boxwood!).  And there’s no better way to do that than on foot.

I’m fairly sure that Mr. Q deserves a medal of some kind for being OK with just wandering around this neighborhood for a couple of hours, stopping every 30 seconds so I could take another picture.

And even being willing to pose next to a giant planter to show the scale.  Seriously, that thing was huge.

Speaking of huge planters, check these out.

Aren’t they gorgeous?

Charleston is known for something called a single house, and there were quite a few examples in this neighborhood.

A single house is one room wide, with a porch running the length of the house down the side.  That door you see in the photo above leads to stairs up to the porch.  The actual front door to the house is in the middle of the porch.  If you want to learn more about single houses, check out this informative article from charlestonlivability.com.

Another really cool detail on the houses in Charleston were the gas lanterns.  I initially thought the flickering flames they gave off were some kind of fancy light bulb, but I asked our guide on the Alley tour and he said they were genuinely gas fueled flames.  Since it was a rather dreary overcast day, those lanterns added a warm, cozy feel.  They also go a long way towards convincing you that you are visiting a bygone era somehow.

Now, get ready for some serious eye candy … well, at least for my fellow gardeners out there.  I totally stopped and drooled over every garden we passed by.  Some of them were front and center for everyone to see.

While others were tucked away behind wrought iron.

Wrought iron being another thing that Charleston is known for.

Is there any better combination than wrought iron and wisteria?

This planted staircase also caught my eye.

Isn’t that unique?  I don’t know that I could do anything like that here in Minnesota.  What plant would survive our winters in that little amount of soil?  And how would you clear a foot of snow off those steps without disturbing the plants?  Hmmmm.

I’m afraid I might be coming off as some kind of snoop here, peering through gates and over hedges (and just to be clear, I did not trespass.  I stayed on the public sidewalk or street the entire time).  But my philosophy on gardening is this; if you go to this much trouble to have a beautiful garden, you probably want other people to see and admire it too.

Tell me fellow gardeners, am I wrong?  Does anyone garden simply for their own enjoyment, unwilling to share the beauty with others?

I didn’t just admire the gardens, I drooled over the houses too.

Our self-guided tour was made even easier by the frequent presence of plaques giving the history of notable houses.

We saw quite a few of these, and they gave lots of interesting information.

So if those aren’t an invitation to snoop around, I don’t know what is.

If you ever get to Charleston, I absolutely recommend taking some time to just walk around this beautiful neighborhood.  Get some coffee to go at Bakehouse Charleston and then just stroll around.  While it’s easy to get turned around, the area is small enough that you never can actually get lost (kind of like Venice, right bff?!).  There always seems to be a glimpse of the water around the next corner to re-orient you.

Although I have some more posts coming up about some day trips we took from Charleston, this is the last one about Charleston proper.  Just in case any of you are planning a trip there, I can also recommend the following things we did:

Touring the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon.

This is a great way to learn about the history of Charleston.

Visiting the Gibbes museum of art.

The Gibbes is small (at least compared to our MIA here in Minneapolis), but really well done.  If you’re interested in furniture (um, you are, right?), it’s worth a quick visit.  My favorite exhibit was the miniature portraits though.  Definitely go see those.

Taking a food tour with Bulldog Tours.

This is a great way to learn a little bit about the cuisine in Charleston and how it was formed by the varied cultural influences of French Huguenot and English settlers, and of course the African slaves, combined with the local food sources available.  I admit, I never did quite understand where the banana pudding came into play, but it was delicious.

Eating amazing BBQ at Home Team BBQ.

They have a few different locations, we ate at the one on the Ashley River Road.  It’s fairly unassuming looking from the outside.  We just stumbled upon it when driving back to our hotel one afternoon.  Mr. Q had the BBQ nachos with pulled pork, and yes, he ate all of it!  I discovered my love of Carolina mustard based bbq sauce there.  Yum!

So, I’m curious.  What’s your favorite thing to do on vacation.  Would you also be content to walk around and admire beautiful houses and gardens?  Do you enjoy museums?  Are you interested in the local cuisine?  Or do you prefer more adventurous activities like rock climbing or skiing?  Or maybe you’d rather just a sit on a beach with a cocktail (don’t worry, that activity is coming up later too).  Leave a comment and let me know!