Walking in High Cotton

Twice a year, my college roommate, Beth, and I get together to celebrate our birthdays. Typically it's a one day event of shopping in Georgetown, Chartreuse in Frederick, or revisiting our stomping grounds at JMU. After college Beth had the opportunity to live in Charleston, SC and we have been saying for years we were going to make a trip together. Well, life as you know it sometimes has other plans from marriages to babies to deployments to unfortunate family members passing, to new jobs and well, you get it. Life has taken precedent over the last few years. But when Beth told me that she and Kelly were going and I knew we were due to get together soon (a certain someone's birthday :) ), I knew I had to make it work!

As I walked along the cobblestone streets to meet my friends I could hear a man singing in the near distance, "Wagon Wheel" and the words, "if I die in Charleston, at least I will die free." I let out a little squeal and walked faster until we were reunited. 

The weekend was everything I imagined and then some. The city is magical, from the hospitality, the architecture, and memories that you make while under the Carolina moon. 

Beth's outer beauty pales in comparison to how beautiful and caring her heart is.  And as you can see, she is STUNNING!

You simply cannot leave Charleston without one of the top memories of the trip being the culinary delicacies which is one of the reasons I keep going back year after year. 

From my favorite appetizer of fried green tomatoes with crab to lobster grilled cheese to Virginia ham served on a whiskey barrel stave to Charleston pralines and bourbon pecan pie at 11 pm with coffee "strong enough to hold off the Union army and barbecue pork Benedict." We left no food group behind this weekend.

To top off our weekend we were asked to be "models" at a photoshoot at a restaurant that was named one of Charleston's best new restaurants, Stars Restaurant, in Upper King. When we walked in there was the watermelon and feta salad, shrimp and grits, chicken Benedict, amongst other items to make every taste bud on cloud nine!

Of course I welcomed my internal alarm clock to tag along for the trip as I love this city for the sunrise as much as the sunsets. As the city slept I loved getting lost on every side street. 

It was almost a full moon along Rainbow Row. 

As Van Morrison would say, this weekend was "Sweet as Tupelo Honey."