Too Old

Well we got home a little early from our “big night out”—its only 10:30 and we are in our pjs and ready for bed! Guess we are turning into old ladies! Here’s a recap

This afternoon Christie and I literally walked Charleston up and down.

We were gone for 3 1/2 hours! We walked all the way down to the water and stopped in some cute boutique stores along the way. I got a refill on my favorite perfume EVER at the Gap (and yes, I still wear the same scent as I did when I was 14)—

I adore this scent and this little bottle was only $4.50! Can’t beat the good ol’ Gap.

We stopped and each got a tiny chocolate macaroon and I got an iced tea…..it was quite hot!!

And then by the market the man at the candy store was handing out candied pecan samples!

Seriously, its so hard to be in Charleston and not shop till you drop; the stores here are a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Especially the shoe stores. We must have gone into at least a dozen stores but we really didn’t buy too much. I got my perfume and some exfoliating face wash from The Body Shop (I will be doing a skin care post in the near future since you all expressed interest!).

On our long walk home we stopped at FreshBerry, which seemed to be like the ever popular PinkBerry, and I got a small vanilla yogurt with gummi bears, blackberries and raspberries—

Delicious but I didn’t finish it because I really wasn’t that hungry anyway (need to work on intuitive eating, Jenna!) and wanted to be hungry for dinner!

When we got home, we were super girly and applied Christie’s new tea tree oil face mask from The Body Shop to start getting ready for our big night on the town.

For dinner instead of the original place I had picked out, we decided to just go to one of my favorite little hole-in-the-walls here, Fast & French. This tiny French cafe was near my old house when I lived here and I’ve spent many an evening and morning eating fondue, drinking their $3.75 glasses of French wine (best deal in town) or having a cup of authentic French press coffee.

Its a small place that most tourists would look over but if you are in Charleston and want a great, authentic French meal that is very affordable, look here! All entrees are less that $20 and, like I said, wine is less that $4 a glass. For lunch, I love their open faced sandwiches (the goat cheese tartine was my personal fave) and a cup of their house-made ginger punch. Actually, one time when I had a horrible case of the flu while living here I ordered their ginger punch by the gallon and now I can’t really even smell the stuff but its good!

Christie and I each started out with a Kir, my favorite apertif. A Kir is just a mix of house white wine with a splash of cassis but it always tastes like France to me!

And then we split our favorite, escargots!!!!!

Ah yes, I know what you are thinking. Snails!! But these little critters are marvelous drenched in garlic butter. What isn’t marvelous drenched in garlic butter though? I fell in love with these when Christie and I were on a cruise a few years ago and then my mom and I would order then at Parisian bistros. You just have to get over the fact that they are snails and admit they are luscious.

As for my dinner, I ordered a bowl of the soup du jour, which was spicy tomato, and an open faced vegetarian sandwich provencal

This sandwich was wonderful! It was a toasty French baguette with one half smeared with black olive tapenade and the other with goat cheese. Topped with a tomato and fresh torn basil leaves. This might be my perfect sandwich!

I also had a glass of house red with dinner (love that $3.50 wine!)

After dinner we weighed our options. Dessert or drinks. Obviously we picked dessert. Our initial plan WAS to go out to a bar but we both were really tired from walking literally all day long (and me from my yoga!) and just decided to call it a night. Clearly we aren’t 18 anymore

I had the most divine dark chocolate bear claw, which was pecans and caramel drizzled in dark chocolate!

And then on our six block walk home we got a little silly.

Clearly we don’t need alcohol to have a good time!

As I said before, its only 10:30 and we are getting ready for lights out. Tomorrow we are getting up by 8 though and heading across the street to the famous Saturday morning Farmer’s Market to have breakfast and mill around. Midmorning our friend, Alissa, from high school is driving over from Charlotte to spend the day with us at the beach! I haven’t seen Alissa in about five years so I can’t wait to catch up. And then tomorrow afternoon we are meeting up with one of my friends from college for a glass of wine. Busy, busy, busy! But lots of fun—the weekend is flying by!

And finally: GOOD LUCK MEGHANN!!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t even express in words how proud I am of this girl! She is going to totally rock her marathon tomorrow! Love you, girl!