Walk, Shop, Eat Some More and Sleep

I warned John prior to our trip that in addition to eating in Charleston, the shopping isn't bad either.   Lucky me, I can get away with a little bit of selfish indulgence on birthday weekends.

With time to kill post cooking class and pre check in, we wandered down to the old city market area.   I rarely buy anything, but like to poke around and do a little people watching.   I love the structure of the market with the white post beams and iron lighting.   The seagrass weaving artisans are always fun to watch too.

Apparently that's a blow fish in the photo above.   John says they actually look like that, but I'm not convinced that have that evil smile naturally.  

My favorite stop outside of the market was a gorgeous little spice shop.    I have a slight addiction to spice mixes lately after discovering that Penzey's moved to town.    But that's another story...

Left the market area and headed home to Church Street to check in.    Was feeling pretty icky from the sun and food and looking forward to relaxing a bit on the porch before dinner.

We stayed at 15 Church Street in an extremely charming home down by the waterfront park.    Annelise greeted us at the front door and walked us through front hall to the wrap around porch where she gave us a historical overview of Charleston and their beautiful home.   John and I stayed in the carriage house with our own separate entrance.    After getting ready for dinner we went back out to the porch to meet our fellow guests (and puppy) and enjoy some wine, music and conversation.  

(Truth be told, I was feeling a little anxious at the time as we were about to miss the UNC v. Marquette game.    I went to Marquette and John finished his residency at UNC so it was bound to be an exciting game with a good outcome either way.   (I felt a little better that we missed it when we heard the half time score was something like 40 to 15.  Yikes.   Was expecting a little more of a fight.))

I was super excited about dinner though.   We were dining at Husk, a relatively new restaurant in Charleston with a James Beard award winning chef at the helm.   They are all about the local ingredients.   Yup, I'm a bit of a food nerd.  

Ignore the horrendous pictures above, I wanted to give you an idea because that simple looking pork rib dish in the lower left corner was seriously the best thing I've ever had.    Charred, fatty, smoky, sweet meaty heaven.    I am seriously considering going vegetarian again after that dish because I don't think it will ever get better.

Go to Husk if you are in Charleston.   Reserve in advance as its pretty popular.   Ask for a table in one of the smaller rooms upstairs.    Swing by the bar in the building next door for a drink before or after.   Its very charming.   And the service is some of the best we've ever had.     Love this place.

After dinner, the short walk home through the gas lamp lit streets to our cozy little room.    Life is good.