I highlighted our hotel, the French Quarter Inn and Bocci’s Italian Restaurant, in previous posts, but I wanted to highlight a few other things with our trip to Charleston. We made most of our moves by foot. However, there was a free trolley that operated down in the historic district, but we found the timetable never had the trolley cars in the area we were in at the right time and it was easier just to walk. We did take a tour of the bay area by just riding the water taxi round-trip. 
We had thought about getting off at the Charleston Harbour Resort, but once we were there it didn’t look that exciting and the crew told us it was a mile from the resort to anything on Mt. Pleasant to eat other than the restaurant at the resort. The taxi stopped at Patriot’s Point where there is an aircraft carrier you can tour, but since we’d just toured Midway in San Diego we decided to skip this as well. On our afternoon trip on the taxi we enjoyed the bay, but we did not see any dolphins. Thinking that we couldn’t travel to the East Coast without having seafood we tried out two different restaurants in our budget. I’m not a huge seafood eater so we didn’t go to Hank’s Seafood which appeared to be a much more upscale eatery. Instead we had lunch one day at A.W. Shucks where the food was edible, but nothing to write home about. This place reminded me of Joe’s Crab Shack. Another afternoon we tried out Hyman’s Seafood ttp://www.hymanseafood.com/. This place had ads on all of the tourism guides for a free crab dip appeti
zer and we’d walked by it several times. On our last afternoon, we decided to stop in here and give it a try. The free crab dip was very disappointing. I tried the Carolina Shrimp and Grits. I ordered an appetizer portion as I wasn’t very hungry. Carolina style comes with a parmesan cheese sauce on the grits. It was basically something I felt that I should try since I’d read so much about shrimp and grits being a southern specialty. While it was somewhat tasty, I cannot say that I would rush out to get it again.
That last night we had the wine and cheese at the hotel and decided to forget about dinner and head to Kaminsky’s, www.kaminskys.com, a wine and dessert bar. Here the husband ordered a Cappuccino Float 
and I ordered a Berry Cobbler which was a large dessert served in a French Onion-type soup crock. I was only able to finish part of this and took the rest back to our room for a late night snack. 
We ended our trip in Charleston the next morning. We were sorry to leave this lovely area, but happy to be getting home. At the time, we didn’t realize how much the rest would get us ready for the busy next few weeks with our son and his sudden move for his job.
This American holiday started as more than just a day off work or as an extended weekend to get shopping deals. The holiday was created to celebrate workers contributions to the health, prosperity and success of our nation. To read more about the history of this, please check out the Department of Labor’s website here: http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm
The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity at our house. As I posted previously, our son received a job offer to teach high school ceramics in Washington State. I didn’t do much but try to stay out of his way while he packed his essentials. On Saturday afternoon my husband and son packed the car and left early Sunday morning for the 30 hour drive across the country. They arrived safely and will begin settling our son in to his new cottage by the sea. I didn’t make the journey because I would only take up space in the car that was packed full with things the boy would need to survive for the next year. Instead, I’ve been doing something I haven’t done in over 26 years, sleeping in my own bed alone. With my job, I travel overnights occasionally and I’ve traveled with my mom and sister away from my husband, but he has never been away from home for more than a couple of days and I always had the children to keep me company. So with my daughter at school and the husband traveling with my son I have been relaxing. No need to ask anyone what they might like to eat, I just fix what I want. No need to get out of my pajamas on Sunday or no reason not to put them on when I get home from work. I’ve been watching old British TV dramas and some reality T.V. shows. I think I could get very used to this. Last night our cable provider lost service for a couple of hours. Since they provide our internet service as well, I went upstairs to my bedroom and curled up in the oversized chair next to the bed and, I read for several hours before going to bed. The house was so quiet with no distractions or feeling like I should be sitting with the husband talking and/or watching Cardinal baseball. When was the last time you had the house all to yourself for an extended time? What did you do to take advantage of being “single”?
zer and we’d walked by it several times. On our last afternoon, we decided to stop in here and give it a try. The free crab dip was very disappointing. I tried the Carolina Shrimp and Grits. I ordered an appetizer portion as I wasn’t very hungry. Carolina style comes with a parmesan cheese sauce on the grits. It was basically something I felt that I should try since I’d read so much about shrimp and grits being a southern specialty. While it was somewhat tasty, I cannot say that I would rush out to get it again. 
and I ordered a Berry Cobbler which was a large dessert served in a French Onion-type soup crock. I was only able to finish part of this and took the rest back to our room for a late night snack. 
