Bachelorettin' in Charleston

I've missed you, blog world! I've been driving all over the South (four states, to be exact) on a whirlwind trip to Charleston for my friend's bachelorette party, and I finally got back Monday afternoon. Exhausting, but so much fun. It was my first time in Charleston so it was fun to explore a new city, hang out with my favorite friends and go out dancing. But let's rewind about 1,300 + miles.

Wednesday afternoon my friend Rachel and I packed up the car (full of suitcases, snacks, a penis pinata—the usual) and drove four hours to Nashville, where we spent the night with bachelorette Lexi, her fiance Jamie and their fur babies, George (also known as the Great White Fluff) and Jennifer (Princess Shark). We woke up early Thursday morning to snow flurries and worried phone calls from moms, but the snow pretty much stopped falling by the time we left Nashville, and we had good travel weather and road conditions for the whole drive. The whole 10 hour drive. We seemed to be stuck in the Bermuda Triangle on the trip to Charleston—the GPS told us we had four hours left, and then two hours later we still had four hours left, or at least that's how it seemed. We also stopped a lot and went through a tiny mountain town with tiny mountain roads that I had to navigate very slowly. But we finally made it to our pink rental house in Folly Beach (about 15 minutes from downtown Charleston) just in time to unpack, reunite with our friend Stephanie who made it three hours sooner than us, and get back in the car, half of us going to the grocery store and the other half heading to the airport to pick up our fifth, Willow. I was very happy to find that our house was nice, clean and had sheets (it didn't have towels, but I brought some and had secretly been afraid it wouldn't have sheets) because I booked it over the Internet. (I highly recommend HomeAway Vacation Rentals, btw.)

Our house in Folly Beach.

Living room.

Sitting room area that opened out onto a big screened-in porch.

Outdoor area. It was too cold to go out there.

One of the three bedrooms. There was also a loft.

On the first day we walked to the beach, explored a little bit of Folly Beach (lots of it was closed for the off-season) and then drove into Charleston for delicious sushi and shopping on King Street.

There were fried oysters in that sushi!

A sake toast to Lexi, Jamie and puppies!

Rachel and Willow on King Street.

That night we played some card games in the house and walked to downtown Folly Beach for dinner at the Crab Shack. Rachel's steamed shrimp knocked my socks off. I think it's the best shrimp I've ever had, but maybe that's because I don't live on the coast anymore. I got oysters, of course. They were better than the ones we had in Savannah, but not very flavorful.Willow scored big with her oysters and found what we believe to be a little pearl.

My pearl-less oysters.

On day two we headed toward the market area in Charleston and had lunch and Bloody Marys at a rooftop bar there. I'm not sure what it was called, but the fried green tomato wraps with goat cheese were so good. Please ignore what appears to be my massive tangle of hair. Willow looks cute, though!

Stephanie with the bride-to-be

We walked around the market a bit to pass the time before our carriage tour of the city, and sampled Hyman's hushpuppies that some waitresses were handing out on the street. My kind of city, for sure.

Street puppies.

Carriage ride mule.

Rachel and Willow on the Charleston tour.

This girl was really good and had cool hair.

After the tour we stopped in a few more stores and then headed back to the house to get ready for that night. In the picture below, Willow is trying to bump up Lexi's hair. It didn't end up working because you can see the Hollywood Bump It through thin hair, but it looked really good on Willow. For some reason I don' t have a picture of it. Based on my scientific research, the Hollywood Bump It looks good on one out of four people, myself not being one of them.

Before the taxi came we did a small lingerie shower with lots of joke gifts like silver underwear, edible body paint pens and the like.

We went out for dinner at Coast and then walked a little ways to Trio, where we stayed all night dancing. There were two rival bachelorette parties there, but they were lame,as they did not have a pink wenis sticking out of their purses.

The next morning we got up, cleaned the house and hit the road! Where's your favorite place to road trip it? Have you ever been to Charleston?

Surprise Travels

Everyone's posts about snow have gotten me revved up for the holidays even though it's a nice 57 degrees here in Mississippi. Besides an upcoming trip to celebrate Thanksgiving in the beautiful Alabama wilderness (well, not quite wilderness, but we're visiting my brother who lives/works in the woods at a camp) and then a quick trip home, the holidays bring another element of excitement.

Why, you ask? Because I married (dated?) into an awesome holiday tradition: instead of gifts, Nurse A's mom and dad take the fam on a Christmas trip!

The destination is secret for as long as possible, but now that everyone has to take off work and drive from different areas we usually find out ahead of time.

The first year, my sophomore year of college and the second year Andrew and I were dating, we went to New York. It was amazing, and it was my first trip to NYC. This one was a legitimate surprise--we didn't get to open our plane tickets until we got to the airport. We saw the Producers on Broadway, explored the city and ate lots of delicious food. I bought a poster at the MET that I have yet to frame.

The next year was another huge first for me. We occasionally get a thin layer of snow in Oxford, but this was a sight I had not yet seen firsthand:

Nurse A in front of our cabin in Winter Park, Colorado

Lots of snow! Lots and lots of snow! Snow so powdery we couldn't even make a snowman. We skied one day and I loved it, but I didn't want to push my luck on the slopes another day as I fear death by ski, so Nurse A and I took a horse and carriage ride which was more our speed. This trip was fun too, but my feet froze on our snowmobiling trip. Like for real froze. There was ice in my boots and everything and it was quite terrifying because we were on top of the mountain. I still enjoyed it though, especially when feeling came back to my feet.

The fateful snowmobiling trip.

Our third trip was to New Orleans, much closer to home for me and a lot less travel time. We stayed at the Hotel Monteleone, ate lots of oysters and took a class at the New Orleans School of Cooking. Andrew and I were in charge of making the barbecue shrimp (which oddly required no barbecue sauce) and tried to cut the amount of butter the recipe called for (like four sticks) in half. The instructor caught onto us and about an hour later we were feasting on gloriously life-shortening deliciousness.

Carousel bar in Hotel Monteleone. It spins, which is fun until you have one too many glasses of wine.

Look at all that butter!

Last year we went on a Caribbean Carnival cruise which was my very first. It was a lot of fun, though the first day I had to adjust to the sea. I tend to have a problem with riding on big boats (not small ones), but usually a few hours watching the waves helps. We cruised to Cozumel, where Andrew bought tequila with a worm in the bottom. The weather was gorgeous and it was hard to believe it was Christmastime.

Andrew being eaten by the vine at the Mayan ruins. Have you see/read (or in our case listened to on tape) The Ruins? I wouldn't recommend it, but it inspired our picture.

Pretty water.

The whole group.

A few weeks ago when Andrew's family came to tailgate, his mom revealed our Christmas 2010 destination! We're spending the week after Christmas in Highlands, NC. Andrew's parents love Highlands and we're looking forward to a relaxing week of reading, hiking and, of course, eating. Oh, and lots of wine drinking. And maybe some snow. Have you ever been to Highlands? Any recommendations on things to do?