Flees.net

Our Trip to Charleston

This whole trip to Charleston started when Kelley, who has recently overcome injuries that prevented her from running, decided we should do this bridge run there. It was a 10k, a distance we had not run in a while. I begrudgingly acquiesced and we then started planning a weekend trip there. The run was on a Saturday morning, so we wanted to head up on a Friday and get a good night of sleep beforehand. We booked a room at the Holiday Inn, dropped off Dribble at the kennel on the way and headed out. Three hours later we arrived in Charleston and settled into our hotel.

It took us a while to figure out where we wanted to eat for dinner, and then took us a while to find it, but we settled on D'Allesandro's Pizza, a local old school pizza parlor with a lot of character. The pizza was quite delicious so we thought we might come back and try different stuff on another day if the opportunity presented itself. After dinner, we stopped by a couple stores that are not around our area - Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market. We bought some snacks and drinks (some amazing stuff) and then headed back to the room to drop it off. Then, we decided to catch a movie and went and saw Noah at the Cinebarre theater. It was one of those dine in theaters and since we already had dinner, we just got something to drink. Noah kinda stunk overall - we were not fans of the movie. After the movie we went back to the hotel to get some rest for the grueling run on Saturday.

Since our hotel was relatively close to starting line of the race, we were able to just walk there, but it was longer than we hoped, probably around 2 miles. Walking 2 miles before a 6 mile race is not exactly optimal. After waiting what seemed like forever, we finally got to start running around 30 minutes after the first wave started. It was crazy how many people were out there - tens of thousands for sure. The main thing that stunk was that my quads were super sore from a sprint workout 2 days before - I did not think about that until it was too late.

Once I got started running, it wasn't too horrible, but then we hit the bridge. It was one mile of non stop uphill running. Not awesome, but not as horrible as we were anticipating. After the run, it was a giant mass of humanity and it was really difficult to get to where the snacks and drinks were and selection was pretty poor, as was the plan/organization for moving people through the area. We sat in a park for a while resting, then decided to find the buses to get us back the start area. We got on the wrong bus, I guess, but the driver was cool and made a couple special drops for us and few other people.

We showered and changed and then it was time for lunch, and of course we were famished. Kelley finished her book, Divergent, the night before, so now we were able to go see the movie, so we went back to Cinebarre and had lunch there while watching the movie. The food was really good and movie was good too, so it was a good option. After the movie, we stopped by Whole Foods once again for some ice cream and then headed out to Sullivan's Island to go check out the beach and walk around. The beach was nice, but it was a little too chilly and windy to stay long. We admired some amazing houses and then headed back to Whole Foods again, this time to have dinner at their extensive hot bar. We then retired to our hotel room, rather tired from our busy and exhausting day.

The next morning, we got up early and went to the South Carolina Aquarium - we got there right as it opened and avoided the crowds. It was much smaller than the Atlanta Aquarium, but it was nice and interesting. There was certainly plenty to see. We saw a 4D dinosaur show while we were there that was neat - it made Kelley jump at least once. Since we were right by the ferry when we were done at the aquarium, we looked around at the Fort Sumter museum and planned out a trip to the Fort for later in the day. It was time for lunch, so we went back to D'Allesandro's pizza - DJ tried a calzone and Kelley got the special black bean base pizza and we both enjoyed it quite a bit once again. At that point we had a bit of time to kill so we checked out this nearby outdoor mall area. We quickly stopped by GameStop and then Barnes & Noble where Kelley picked up the 2nd book of Divergent since she just finished part 1.

From there we went back to the harbor to catch the ferry to Fort Sumter. The ferry took quite a bit of time, but the view was nice - we saw a battleship, Fort Pinkley, and the bridge we ran over earlier. A flock of seagulls hang out in the wake of the ferry and that was interesting to watch. The Fort itself was very interesting - we got a little bit of a tour and a history lesson and then we spent an hour or so walking around and checking it out. It was well worth the trip, even if the ferry back was a drag due to the repetition of it.

Once back on the mainland, we went to dinner at Jack's Cosmic Dogs, a place Kelley found online that served vegan hot dogs - something we thought was probably pretty unique. The food was decent but unremarkable. It was worth a try but I doubt we'd go back. Then it was time for our final event of the weekend, movie number 3, Captain America: The Winter Soldier at Cinebarre. The movie was really good - I could even go so far as to say amazing. After the movie, we went back to the hotel and went to bed. The following morning we packed up and drove back home. Overall, it was a very nice little trip.

Tags | Charleston | race | running |