Although we all hung out a various times over the weekend, my travel buddy was Ms. Nancy Pants. She and I actually took on a side job, painting an apartment in the weeks leading up to the wedding, in order to earn money and avoid credit card debt for the trip. Aren't we resourceful? We indulged in dark chocolate at every opportunity (our current favorite is organic Dagoba with lavender and blueberries), were ashamed of our sudden junk food habit (that does *not* include the chocolate, of course), slept in a bunk bed at the NotSo Hostel and realized that we will make fabulous witty and whiny old ladies. We also saved $160 per plane ticket by flying home on a Monday instead of a Sunday, leaving us with an extra day to mob around Charleston. Here's Nancy at the Charleston Farmers Market:
Charleston was beautiful and so lush, full of trees and sweet-smelling jasmine. I don't know that I've ever seen a city with so much contrast so close together. A shop with $500 shoes only a few blocks from a home with a fallen-in roof; a Holocaust memorial near the "old slave mart;" historic, gigantic, expensive houses next to condemned homes (for sale, of course, and probably to be replaced with even more high-income housing); a neat little mom and pop sporting goods store across the street from Pottery Barn, American Apparel and Urban Outfitters. It seems to be a place in transition, and although I expect to see contrasts like that in a bigger city, I was surprised to see it in a smallish southern town. Like a lot of previously-undesirable downtown areas, it's as if rich folk are running out of room in the suburbs and have turned around and headed back to Main Street.That all said, we did have a great time while we were there. Ellie's wedding was just like her: simple, elegant and stunning. The atmosphere at Legare-Waring House was classic and welcoming, and the food satisfied us all, vegan to meat-lover. The rest of the weekend was marked by a supremely kick-ass vegan breakfast at Rutledge Coffee and Cream, an entire day spent lounging on the porch swings at Waterfront Park, a number of "May I have a grande chai latte with soymilk, please?" stops at Kudu Coffee, lovely walks through the neighborhoods, a vegan- and celieac-friendly dinner at Little Thai Too, meeting a very sweet couple at their basket weaving booth at the above-mentioned farmers market, and NotSo Hostel's giant front porch and divine hammock.
Dude, I owned that hammock - and the porch swing. There was definite theme to my weekend:
Rock.
