Every year I try to go somewhere for the Memorial Day long weekend, even if it's just to my parents' place. This year I visited a childhood friend in South Carolina. The trip got off to a rocky start, but once I was in town, we had a great time!
The rocky start was at the airport (no surprise there). I was flying out of Reagan National Airport, which I had never done before; I only did that because Southwest Airlines did not have any direct flights to Columbia, SC (from any of the nearby airports), so I had to fly American Airlines instead. What a mistake. I got to the airport nearly two hours early (because American Airlines told me to), and when I had just about 20 more minutes until my flight was supposed to leave, I learned that my flight was delayed by two hours. That means I had to wait FOUR hours in the airport. I was so angry! I had to go over to one of the bars in the airport and do a double shot of whiskey to make myself feel better. I wrote complaints on both Twitter and the American Airlines website, but they could not offer me a refund or a voucher (just one more way Southwest Airlines is the best). Then I waited a while on the bus that takes you out to the tarmac, and then we FINALLY took off, and I didn't get to SC until after 9pm when I was originally supposed to land just after 7pm. My friend picked me up, and her boyfriend had bought us pizza for our late dinner (I also enjoyed some more whiskey at this point). And that was the end of Day 1.
Day 2
This boar statue is in downtown Greenville. It's actually a fountain: it's always drooling!
It rained pretty much all day for my first full day of vacation, but we
didn't let that stop us from having fun. We made the long drive out to
Greenville, SC (yes, there is a Greenville in both SC and NC) and walked
around the cute little town.
We enjoyed crepes for lunch from Crepe du Jour, and I also tried a Borgia coffee, which is pretty much coffee mixed with hot chocolate, orange flavoring, cinnamon, and whipped cream. Yum!
Then we stopped in a few shops before heading to the Dark Corner Distillery for a tasting. Because of Blue State Laws, my friend had never been able to go because she was always in town on Sundays; we also couldn't do a tasting of more than 6 kinds of liquor because of these rules, even though they had 12 spirits to try! So we divided up the list and then shared so we could taste all of the options.
Photo by Danielle Fahey
I thought the spirits were good, especially the gins, but of course I couldn't take any home because I wouldn't be able to fly with them. So I bought a "Whiskey Girl" T-shirt as a souvenir instead. Now I'll have something to wear to every country music concert from now on!
We made tacos at home for dinner and borrowed Game Night from Redbox for a movie night. I would normally write a blog post for a movie, but this one wasn't worth it. It's a silly comedy but with suspense/violence mixed in, which is not my cup-o-tea. I love Rachel McAdams, but I liked Disobedience more (see below).
Although there was still a bit of rain, the forecast was mostly clear, so we decided it was safe to do some more activities out-of-doors. We visited the local farmers market, which was much bigger than I expected (more than 3 full city blocks!). There was some art work I was tempted to buy for my mom, but again, I couldn't think of how I would safely get it home. The market started closing up just as we were leaving, and then we made our way to the Riverbanks Zoo & Garden. This actually ended up being our one sunny day of the trip, so I thought it was perfect timing to see the flowers and animals in the sunshine.
Here are just a few (or a lot...) of photos I took that day:
This fountain is dedicated to organ donors, which I thought was really cool.
"I'm king of the mountain!" I saw someone feed him some popcorn. No wonder those meerkats were so fat!
These kangaroos remind me of Romans who just ate a huge meal and are now lounging after some revelry.
This lemur is quite flexible...
After our outing (during which we did get a little sunburned), we wanted some good ol' Southern BBQ for dinner. So we went to nearby Midwood Smokehouse. I had pulled chicken on a salad which was both healthy and delicious. Afterward, my friend had a surprise for me, which I had no idea what that meant...
We drove out to Congaree National Park at about 10 o'clock at night for a night walk. I saw many fireflies, and then my friend pointed out that the bugs were lighting up all at the same time, or "synchronously." Only three species of fireflies do this in the United States, and at this park, it only happens once a year during a two-week period in late May-early June. What perfect timing for my trip! And it was a full moon that night (or nearly so), and it shown down like a spotlight in the park. It was amazing how much we could see on our night hike just from the moonlight; you could even see our shadows as if it were daytime!
Day 4
Photo by Danielle Fahey
The forecast was pretty good for this day, too, so we wanted to do something else outdoorsy. We considered kayaking, but it was a little expensive, and the kayaks looked like open-style kayaks (i.e. you are more likely to get wet), so I was not into that. So we decided to go hiking instead. Table Rock State Park is known for good, strenuous hikes, so we made the 2.5 hour drive out there. By the time we arrived, it was already about 1pm, and we were some of the last people to start the hike (a lot of people were finishing up just as we began). We were told it would take us about 4-5 hours round-trip, so we had to get going! It was a great hike for exercise, and we even enjoyed ourselves in the rain for a couple of minutes. And my friend's dog was happy, too!
We finished up at exactly 7pm, so our hike really took close to six hours (granted, we took breaks and such). We headed to Travelers Rest afterward for dinner, since we knew we couldn't make the drive home on empty stomachs. Shortfields was dog-friendly, so we sat out on the patio and ate dinner (mediocre food and service, but it felt good to relax). Plus there was an eight-week-old black lab puppy on the patio, too, and it was SO cute!
This was our rainiest day, so we made this our "staycation" day. We had a lazy morning, and then went out to get our nails done. But all of the nail salons were closed for the holiday! Since we were already in the Vista neighborhood, we went to Starbucks for coffee and then did some shopping at Urban Outfitters (I bought a green sweatshirt for my next Dartmouth reunion, which is still a few years away...). As we were crossing the street to get back to the car, I was almost hit by a Fiat! She was stopped at a red light, and I was crossing IN the crosswalk with the walk sign lit up. I started to cross, and she inched closer. I thought I had made eye contact with her and in doing so believed she would stop, but she kept getting closer, to the point that she was moving me into the intersection as my hands were on the hood of her car! I wasn't scared because it was such a tiny car and she was moving so slowly, but I couldn't believe this happened! I yelled at her and gave her the bird, and she rolled down her window and said she was sorry, blah, blah, blah. People like that shouldn't be allowed to drive!
After that excitement, we drove home for lunch and baked a banana chocolate bread pudding (recipe for that here). Then we headed to the Nickelodeon (or fondly called "The Nick"), an independent movie theater in downtown Columbia. The tickets were very reasonably priced (especially compared to DC prices), and the theater shows the names of their members on the screen before the movie, which I thought was really nice. We saw Disobedience, a movie about the forbidden love between two Orthodox Jewish women (skip the rest of this paragraph to avoid spoilers!). I thought the film was very moving, and tells a story that is not commonly portrayed but should be told. And the acting was phenomenal. The story takes place over just about a week of time, so not that much happens; my friend pointed out that it is more of a "character-driven" movie than a "plot-driven" movie. The music threw me off a little bit (it seemed to get cheerful in random places), and it didn't have the Hollywood happy ending that I wanted but knew would not happen. It was certainly a somber film, and I was glad we had that banana chocolate bread pudding to enjoy at home after the serious two hours we had just experienced.
After the movie, we played some Boggle (no one will usually play with me, and I think this friend will not play with me again; I'm just too good!) and hung out until it was time to watch the Capitals hockey game. We took an Uber to Hickory Tavern, a local sports bar, to see the game. The food was good and the service wa fabulous; they made us feel right at home. We lost the hockey game, so that was too bad, but we still had a good time at the bar before going home.
Day 6
This was my last day in South Carolina. Since I was flying out of Charleston with Southwest Airlines (thank goodness), we spent the day exploring Charleston, a cute town with lots of shopping.We had lunch at Lowcountry Bistro, where the food was a bit overpriced but the experience of eating out on the balcony with a cool breeze and looking out over palm trees was divine.
We headed to the Charleston City Market, a famous market in town. There were tons of cute things, especially the handmade crafts, but I think the only purchase made was my friend's new pair of sunglasses. Then we made a stop by Candlefish before heading to the Tanger Outlets, which are just a few minutes from the airport. We were much more successful there in our shopping. I bought tons of exercise clothes (I'll never feel guilty buying that stuff because I know I'll use it), and my friend bought a lot of cute things, too. Then I successfully shoved my new purchases into my suitcase before my flight.
My flight out was delayed, but luckily only by an hour. I didn't get home until close to midnight, and I still need to catch up on sleep from this entire vacation. But it was worth it!
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