Some highlights from the trip:
Anne "Big Hands" McManus strikes again.
Anne, MagZilla and I were the first ones to arrive early Thursday morning. We cabbed it to the condo, where we wandered around aimlessly for about 30 minutes until we discovered that we could get into the condo without checking in. Actually getting in took us another 15 minutes until we could figure out the lockbox which held the key. 3 girls with B.S. degrees vs. 1 lockbox. Victory goes to the lockbox.
After a filling breakfast at Cracker Barrel, we hit the pool and awaited the arrival of Honeybear, Cari, and Beenbag!
Boone Hall Plantation, Mount Pleasant, SC
Since our 2 rental cars arrived with Jen and Halina, we were no longer trapped at the resort! We decided to take a trip to Charleston, SC on Friday. We made a stop at Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant. It has been a working plantation for over 320 years. It was also in The Notebook (no, Ryan Gosling was not there). We took a tour of the mansion, and then hopped on a tram ride around the grounds. Which are HUGE. Our tour guide informed us that Boone Hall used to be home to 15,000 pecan trees. The pecans were harvested and sold. Unfortunately, due to storms and other natural forces, there are only about 800 of those trees left.
Avenue of the Oaks
The Avenue of the Oaks leads up the mansion, and is the longest avenue of live oaks of all the surrounding plantations. Wouldn't mind waking up to that view every morning.
We were quite hungry after our historical adventure, and we all know Honeybear gets quite frisky when she is hungry. Or cold. Or tired. So we headed to The Tattooed Moose in Charleston for a late lunch. This restaurant was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Absolutely a dive, no contest. Not that the food wasn't good. It was very tasty. We all shared an order of the Duck Fat Fries with gravy, and Banana and I shared the Super Melty Grilled Cheese and Mike's Famous Duck Club Sandwich. Probably some of the best fries I've had, and the duck club was excellent (although their grilled cheese ain't got nothing on my avocado cheddar grilled cheese delight!).
That being said, if you enjoy being served food by an arsenal of overweight, greasy-haired, big-bearded men, then this is the place for you. I, however, do not. Everyone knows by this point that I am a clean freak, and this extends to matters of hygiene. So if you are not clean, DO NOT TOUCH MY FOOD. I attempted to think positively by reminding myself that the waiter was not the one cooking my food. This failed when A) I noticed open sores all over his hands, B) I observed a similar-looking overweight, greasy-haired, big-bearded man cooking in the kitchen while I was waiting for the bathroom and C) Honeybear's sandwich was topped with a (presumably) beard hair. So when it came time to consider dessert, I passed.
From there we headed to downtown Charleston for a walk along the waterfront shops and restaurants, where Halina proposed to Maggie. What exactly she proposed, no one is sure. But it was moving.
Anne is moved by the proposal. Maggie is speechless.
That night, we partied like we were young again. Well, some of us still are young. I am not. I am 24 going on 84. So it was a big night for me. We did some bar hopping at Broadway on the Beach, and then cabbed it home at 2 am when the bars closed. And we danced like we had never danced before! Well, Anne did. She is a wild dancing machine.
Anne takes a break from dancing to join in a group picture. No, I do not know who those dudes are.
And then Saturday we beached it! It was a glorious beach day at a beautiful beach. Free of rocks, seaweed, and sharks.
This picture is actually rather terrifying.
After a day of sunning and being tossed around by the waves, we headed out for the strangest night we had ever experienced.
It was strange because:
We started out at Mango's On the Beach for dinner. Halina and I shared the lobster ravioli and crab cake sandwich, neither of which were picture-worthy. (Thank goodness I have friends who like to share food!) The food was mediocre at best, but our waiter clearly had never heard of deodorant.
From there we took a cab to a bar called Sharky's on the strand. We left shortly after an older gentleman (probably 60's?) wearing an open leather vest with no shirt underneath approached Anne and Maggie and whispered sweet nothing's in their ears. Creep alert!
Next stop, back to Fat Tuesday's at Broadway on the Beach. Where we witnessed the makings of a 5-some in action. No joke. And not the cool kind either...2 older women took turns making out with a group of 3 older men. EXTRA CREEP ALERT.
And finally, we headed to Rodeo Bar next door for some live country music and dancing. It was a blast, and totally made up for the creepiness of the evening!
On our last day, we started out with a stop at the House of Blues for the Sunday Gospel Brunch. Where we were forced to sing! Honeybear will be having nightmares of the experience for months to come.
And then back to the beach. I could definitely retire here.
A group of traveling singers. They weren't very good.
Anne, Maggie and I left Sunday night after celebrating Halina's 24th birthday, complete with cupcakes!
The birthday queen herself.
Like I said, it was so hard to leave these ladies behind. But there's always the Second Annual UConn Reunion to look forward to next year!
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