Five Must-See Sites in Historic Charleston

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and The Coca-Cola Company. All opinions are mine alone. #DASANISparkling #FlavorContest #CollectiveBias

I always love getting questions from friends and readers who are visiting Charleston: Where should I go? Is Charleston walkable? How can I make the most of a weekend trip?  I've rounded up  list of my five favorite sites that comprise the perfect walk around the Holy City and took the adventure myself with my favorite go-to beverage, DASANI® Sparkling, to share everything with you!

Stop #1: Charleston City Market - The historic market has been around for more than 300 years, along four blocks in the heart of downtown Charleston.  Everyday, artisans set up booths filled with handmade sweetgrass baskets, jewelry, candles, paintings, photographs, and souvenirs for tourists to bring back home.

Before heading out to the market, I shopped at my local Harris Teeter to stock up on DASANI® Sparkling.  They have such a wide variety of flavors, my favorites right now being the White Peach and Pear Kiwi.  You can shop for DASANI® Sparkling at a Kroger store near you!

Stop #2: Pineapple Fountain - After turning down East Bay Street and onto Vendue Range, Waterfront Park greets you just before the harbor.  Exactly what you would picture, this fountain is definitely one of the most photographed spots in the city!

Stop #3: Rainbow Row - Don't forget to enjoy all of Waterfront Park before walking south to one of the wharfs back out to East Bay Street.  You cannot miss Rainbow Row with its bright colors!  Located between 79 and 107 East Bay Street, these Georgian Row houses are the longest of their kind.  They've been painted their pastel colors since the 1920s and are often repainted to keep them as vibrant as can be!

While I'm walking down to Tradd Street for the next stop on my own adventure, DASANI® Sparkling wants to join you on your next adventure.  Speaking of adventure, October 1st through November 15th, you can enter for a chance to WIN an experiential trip to Albuquerque, NM for the 2019 Albuquerque International Hot Air Balloon Festival!

   1. Take a pic of your favorite flavor of DASANI® Sparkling 

   2. Post it to Instagram or Twitter using #DasaniSparkling AND #FlavorContest 

The Grand Prize winner will win a trip to the 2019 Albuquerque International Hot Air Balloon Festival in October 2019 for the winner plus 3 guests! The prize package consists of round trip, coach-class air transportation for 4 from a major airport near the winner’s home; 3 nights' accommodations; rental car; 2 Gondola Club passes (2-day passes) to the Festival; a hot air balloon ride for winner and 1 guest; $1,000 spending money; and travel agent services. 

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.  Legal residents of certain U.S. states and D.C., 18 years or older.  Ends 11/15/18.For rules, hashtags, alternate methods of entry, odds, prize and complete details, click here.  Void in CT, FL, IA, ME, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NY, ND, OK, PA, SD, and VT and where prohibited.

Stop #4: Church and Water streets - Zig-zagging down Tradd and Church streets, one of my favorite corners in Charleston is Church and Water.  There is the most Charlestonesque courtyard with a brick-lined street and some very Instagrammable spots.  If you follow any Charleston bloggers, you might recognize those shrub-lined steps on Church Street - make sure you take your own photo!

Stop #4: Church and Water streets - Last but not least, a walk back up Meeting Street and west on Tradd is absolutely necessary if you want to see some of my favorite homes, window boxes, shutters, doors, and door knockers in the city.  Make sure you walk all the way down to #126 to see the famous lion door knocker on the perfect peach door!

Have you been to Charleston before?  Did I hit your favorite spot?

Going with the Flo(rence)

I am thrilled to say that we have weathered Hurricane Florence.   This time last week, we really thought that there would be a Cat 3 or 4 direct hit to the Carolinas, with a storm 1000 miles wide.  Schools cancelled, starting on Tuesday, mandatory evacuation orders were made, and the state reversed the highway to get as many people out as possible.  Since the storm wasn't expected to hit until Thursday, we decided to wait it out a bit but still prepare.  This was the slowest moving hurricane ever, and with every 3-hour update, it was tracking more and more north, away from us.  There are a lot of people in and around Charleston saying that the governor took too many precautions too early, but really, they gave us 48 hours from its expected arrival, and I appreciate them really taking it seriously. 

Well, it took an extra full day, until Friday, to hit in North Carolina, and all of my prayers go out to our neighbors to the north.  At landfall, the storm was moving at 2 mph, so it has been raining and raining near Myrtle Beach and north.

By Wednesday afternoon, we were going pretty stir crazy, so a few of us took a walk downtown to see what everything looked like and get some fresh air.  Honestly, you could tell that people already knew it was most likely going to slide north because there wasn't nearly as much prep as there was before Matthew or Irma.  

Before the storm got here on Friday, we even set up a little impromptu kickball game because all scheduled sports were cancelled due to the evacuation. 

Over the long weekend, we ate a lot of food, played a lot of cards and Mario Kart, and even braved the storm for some rain tennis when we couldn't sit inside anymore.  We got truly lucky with this storm.  We were fully prepared for the worst, had our hurricane shutters up, and were prepared to leave if need be.  Again, prayers to North Carolina as they begin to recover, and if you would like to make a donation to relief efforts, here is the link to Michael Jordan's NBA Cares website, where you can choose a variety of charities from which to donate.

April Recap - Because Tomorrow...

Sorry, I had to.  Can you blame me?!  April seriously feels like it blew by.  I feel like every weekend I meant to do a weekend/life recap, but things got in the way.  Life happens, right?!  So, I decided to consolidate into one recap for all of April...

Easter Weekend - My parents are so cute and left us baskets when they were here to visit at the end of March.  We also decorated eggs with friends... because we're basically children haha!  On Easter, we went to church, brunch, and one of our local breweries: Low Tide.  They crafted a batch of their "Aloha Beaches" beer with edible glitter and turned it teal.  "Aloha Bunnies" wasn't one of my favorite beers taste-wise ever, but it sure was pretty!

The Masters - Mike and I headed to Augusta, GA during the first week of April for the Masters golf tournament.  No cameras or phones are allowed during tournament days, but they do have a photo station set up in front of the clubhouse, so you know we had to take advantage!

Dallas - Mike and I went on his surprise birthday trip to Dallas April 6-9.  You can read the full review here.

Golf Girls Visit CHS - My college golf team came to visit me and sightsee through Charleston the weekend after we went to Dallas.  We did everything "touristy" I could think of from eating biscuits at Callie's to drinking at the Vendue rooftop and sailing out to Fort Sumter to walking around Folly Beach.

Kickball Champs - Mike and I won our first belt!  One of our Wednesday kickball teams made it to the winter finals, and we won the AAA division.  The spring season starts this week, and we are looking forward to defending our title!

New England Wedding & Beer - Last weekend, we were in New England for the wedding of one of my college friends in Boston.  We also had a chance to stop at some of the best breweries in the country while we were in New England: Tree House and Trillium.  We will be back up there for a few weddings this summer and can't wait to try even more of their beer.  Spring has finally hit New England, and all of the flowering trees were so pretty!

Pirates Takeover Folly Beach - Last, but not least, my friends and I had our second annual pirate pub crawl out on Folly Beach this Saturday.  Seriously, I'm so lucky to have some of the best friends ever here in Charleston.  I would say the number of laughs, photo ops (one even with a bride getting married on the beach!), and conversation-starters with strangers far outweighed the number of eye rolls directed at our little, rowdy group!

Springtime in Charleston: Favorite Front Doors

It has been the most beautiful weekend in Charleston.  My college golf teammates are here, and we are exploring every part of the city we can.  This time of year might be my absolute favorite for walking around the city.  It's something about how the pastel homes and colorful blooms go together - I just love it!  Last month, I shared some of my favorite flowers around the city, and today is all about my must-see homes.  They aren't just the backdrop for Charleston photos, but they're all so unique and pretty that they deserve to be front and center!

Charleston seriously has everything: brick homes and walls, iron gates, beautiful wooden doors, historical gas lanterns, and every paint color of the rainbow!

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And where else can you get photo-bombed by a horse-drawn carriage?!