This weekend I went to Charleston with a group of 7 women. One (Chelsea) has been a friend of mine since moving here, some of them are fairly new friends that I’ve met at trivia (through Chelsea), and some I met for the first time on this trip. This was the first time that I’ve been to Charleston without family. I knew I would have a good time but I was a little anxious while packing because I wasn’t sure what the expectations of attire were going to be. My idea of casual may not have been the same as theirs and we all know I’m not a dressy dress kinda girl. Also, to add to the anxiety, we were limited to ONE bag since 7 of us were riding down in one car and space would be limited AND the weather was going to be all over the place. We were going to have rain, 70’s, sun, and cold.

Friday we loaded up into the vehicle, strategically loaded our luggage like a game of Tetris, and made our way down to Charleston. We all contributed songs to a playlist that we listened to on the way so there was a little bit of all kinds of music. We made a quick stop for gas, snacks, and a stretch then made our way to our lunch destination, The Glass Onion. This was the first stop where all eight of us were together. It was a nice restaurant to be able to have some conversations and get to know each other a little better.

Next stop: Firefly distillery. Such a cool place. We ordered drinks and played some Heads Up while we waited for the tasting. Only two of us did the tasting, but the rest of us enjoyed our drinks and hanging out. While we were here, we met a bachelorette party group and they were hilarious!

Next stop on our adventure was Holy City Brewing. A few of us enjoyed flights while others picked one drink. Also, the bachelorette party we met at FireFly showed up. Some of them were very inebriated! It made for good people watching.

We left and made our way to Nippitaty Distillery. When we arrived, the owner met us in the parking lot and apologized that their hot water wasn’t working which meant they couldn’t serve us so we had to make our way to the next place.

Edmonds Oast Brewery is where we stopped next. It had been awhile since we had lunch and we had really late dinner reservations so some of us ordered snacks to hold us over. Sadly, my tater tots were cold and not good but it was enough to hold me until dinner.

We made our way to the hotel. The French Quarter Inn is probably the fanciest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. We were greeted by a bellhop who took our luggage and valet parked our car. At check in we were treated to complimentary champagne! There was also a candy bar with skittles, m&ms, and jelly bellies. We also had access to a pillow menu where we were able to choose additional specialty pillows.

We settled into our rooms, freshened up, and headed out to enjoy a drink at Gingerline before we went to dinner. Their menu looked so good and we were tempted to eat before we headed to dinner. Our dinner reservations were at The Obstinate Daughter.

Saturday we woke up to rain but by the time we had breakfast and got ready, the rain had passed. Some of us had breakfast in the hotel and some went out. We all met up and made our way out into the city to explore by foot. We walked through the market, through some parks, visited the Pineapple fountain, and stopped by the City Gallery.

When we made it back to the room, a few of us decided to take the complimentary bikes from the hotel and ride down to the Battery and the AME Church where the shooting took place a couple of years ago. We had so much fun but we had to hurry because we were running out of daylight.

After our ride, we went back to the room, freshened up, and headed out for some more fun. We ended up at Well Hung Vineyard where we enjoyed some wine and some snacks. Our next stop was a ghost tour. Before we made our way to the ghost tour meeting spot, we stopped by the hotel for jackets, cookies, and champagne!

Half of the group was done for the night after the ghost tour and the other half of us decided to keep the night going. Our first stop was Church and Union. It’s a bar that used to be a church. After a drink here, we moved on to Big John’s Bar! We had the best time! Lots of drinks and lots of laughs!

Sunday we woke up to a beautiful sunshine filled day! We had breakfast and packed up to head back home. What an awesome weekend I had with these girls who are now friends. Can’t wait until our next outing.