Although it was bittersweet leaving PA right as the weather was cooling down, South Carolina greeted us with some beautiful sunny days to remind us that Summer is not over yet!
All week we have been in the routine of waking up to the hotel breakfast buffet, lounging around until the afternoon, and then sightseeing around the colorful city.
Our hotel is located on King Street which is known for its dining scene and
hundreds of shops, so that was naturally our first step to getting to know Charleston.
But on Friday, we got to do a little bit of exploring with Jake's sister, who lives in Georgia! We wandered in and out of the fancy King St stores and local boutiques.
One of my favorite shops we visited was Candlefish, which is a shop dedicated to crafting handmade, quality candles. The store has such a positive atmosphere and a refreshing sense of style. Candlefish's "library" of candles makes their home-goods store so dreamy and unique. Definitely check this place out if you are into home decor and supporting local business!
After shopping downtown on King St, we visited the Historic District to check out the Charleston City Market, which is one of
the countries oldest market places
dating back to 1804.
The Charleston City Market is a gigantic market hall with locally made goods and touristy souvenirs. They are famous for their sweet grass baskets, which apparently go for hundreds.
The Market stretches for blocks with over 300 booths and vendors. There is also a night market which is held Friday and Saturday evenings.
The next place we stopped at was Eli's Table for a quick brunch and some air conditioning (it was so hot out in the sun)!
Eli's Table is in the historic section of Charleston, which is just a beautiful location and of course they had all of that Southern Charm. I had a yummy plate of sweet potato waffles with maple bacon and Jake ordered the catch of the day, which was snapper over risotto.
If there is one take away I have from eating down south it's that you almost can't go wrong with your restaurant choice, because every place is packed full of hospitality and comfort food (also a bunch of seafood).
Only a few blocks away from our food was the famous Rainbow Row, but truthfully the whole historic neighborhood is sprinkled with color! Rainbow Row has an interesting history with different theories about how the colors came to be. One theory suggests that the houses were painted for drunken sailors to make a clear distinction between the row homes, but the real story is that a wealthy family painted a few and the neighbors followed their lead.
Rainbow Row is beautiful, but I definitely don't think it is worth all the hype. There were tons of people taking Instagram shots in front of the buildings which made it hard to get a good picture of the row of houses.
To top off the night, Jake and I went to see one of our favorite comedians, Tom Segura, at the Gaillard Center. The venue was like a fancy concert hall, which I think paired beautifully with some raunchy comedy.
Just imagine settling in with a drink in a place done up for an opera, but instead of costumed performers there was one man imitating his Latina mother and humping a stool for a bit; sheer art.
I've never been to a comedy show, but I highly recommend it. It's feels so positive and fun to be in a room with a bunch of people uniting over how silly humans are.
Friday was amazing. Everything we did was exactly what I like to do when traveling; learning about the history, a little bit of shopping, and some eating of course!
We still have a few places to check off our Charleston bucket list before we head home including Fort Sumter, a carriage ride for a historic tour, maybe a plantation, maybe a ghost tour, and definitely the cat cafe downtown.
Thanks for reading!
KB