Jan 16, 2012

Weekend Update Part II: A Tourist In My Own City

In case you missed it, you can catch up on Weekend Update Part I! Please don’t miss out on my awesome dance moves in that video

Sunday: Sunday morning, my friend Melissa and I went over to Sandpiper Nursing Home to volunteer. Volunteering twice in one weekend? YES! So fulfilling. Every Sunday, Melissa and 2 of her family members visit the home to do Sunday School with the residents. We listened to her grandmother speak, sang songs, and chatted with some of the residents. They were so cute, and I had to laugh because half of them were either asleep or falling asleep!

A bit later, Rachel and I took advantage of the sunny weather for a bridge run/walk. It was in the low 50s but beautiful out. We walked the majority of the bridge and down the pier at Mt. Pleasant Memorial Waterfront Park for a total of 4.62 miles.IMAG1494

Unfortunately my knee started acting up on the incline of the bridge. I must have done something nasty to it during my 10-miler last week. I told Boding about the pain, and he came right over to the rescue! With him he brought “something to heal the pain, something to dull the pain, and something to forget about the pain.” In other words, he brought over glucosamine pills, wine, and a movie. He truly is my brother from a Chinese mother.

Monday: Rachel and I decided it was imperative that we take advantage of our day off and be tourists in our own city. To start off our day, we walked from her apartment to Gaulart & Maliclet French Café, otherwise known as Fast & French. This quaint little restaurant on Broad Street is one of my new favorites. Its menu has everything from breakfast, brunch, lunch, snacks, dinner, wine, coffee and more!

I had the Croq’ Baguette: ham, Dijon, Swiss & mozzarella. There was so much cheese on this warm, crusty bread. I really wish I had ordered the tomato vegetable soup to dip it in. It was perfect. Even better, my sandwich with tax was around $6. Score.

Rachel’s lunch was just as delicious. She ordered the Sandwich Provencal: black olive tapenade with tomato, basil, and goat cheese on a baguette. If you like olives, you must try this.

We agreed that we have to come back for some wine and cheese…oh, and brunch and dinner too. Winking smileGaulart & Maliclet French Cafe on Urbanspoon

Our next stop was Goat. Sheep. Cow. to pick up what we both consider “the best piece of chocolate we’ve ever had in our life.” Remember when I blogged about Sweeteeth Chocolate? Yep, their “Sea is for Caramel” bar is incredible. It was the perfect post-lunch treat.chocolate

But dessert didn’t stop there. As we walked from Church Street down East Bay Street, popping in stores here and there, we landed at Charleston Candy Kitchen where snagged a piece of chocolate praline.

We then moseyed down to Market Street Sweets and picked up another praline sample! As if our teeth weren’t already hurting, our final dessert stop was at Godiva where we both got a Crème Brulee truffle. I promise that we both saved this piece for later, as our teeth were at risk of falling out of our heads.image

On our walk back Rachel’s, I found my dream house. I’m not in love with the structure, but look at those colors! Hot damn. Purple and lime green are my favorite, but on a house? Yikes.

We covered 4.3 miles and felt like accomplished tourists. My poor knee hates me, but the company and fun was well worth it!walk

On the way back to my house, I snapped a pretty picture of the sun setting from the Cooper River Bridge.

Oh Charleston, how I love thee.