8 - Charleston, SC (Part 1)

00:01
Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Michelle, I'm your host, and this is the Biscuits and Gravy podcast. I'm glad you guys are here. And today we are talking about Charleston, South Carolina. So I am super excited about this episode because we just got back from Charleston.

00:21
Oh, let's see, probably, I guess almost two weeks ago now that we got back. And I am so ready to go back. Y'all. I put together a reel on Instagram this morning. And if you're not following us over there on Instagram, it's just Biscuits and Gravy podcast. So you can find us there. And so I share a lot of like real time, like while we were in Charleston, I was sharing.

00:50
pictures of where we were visiting and stories and videos and things. So please follow us over there on Instagram if you haven't already. But I shared a reel this morning that I compiled of some videos that I took in Charleston and put it to music to a Darius Rucker song about Charleston and I just...

01:17
Like I just sat there and almost wept because I just want to go back so badly. I even sent it to my husband because I was like, hey, think it's about time for another trip. I'm sure he's going to disagree, but we both have had a really good time in Charleston. We spent, uh, let's see, three days there. Um, we left on a Tuesday. We came back on Friday. So,

01:47
um so three nights but it was a really really nice uh trip i'm gonna try to get through all of charleston in this episode but uh you know i like to keep these episodes to about 20 minutes so if it looks like it's going long then i'll break it down into two different episodes but so charleston um i had not been to charleston since um

02:14
well really to stay in Charleston since I was much younger. I would say probably high school age. I know my family took a trip there, me and my sister and my parents. But I don't really remember a whole lot about Charleston. I remember doing like a ghost walk one night in Charleston. But I guess I was just too young to really appreciate the beauty of Charleston really. I just kind of looked at it as like a creepy old town.

02:44
I don't know, just didn't really, I don't really remember a whole lot about it except for this one funny story I have. I was really into like scary movies, like old timey scary movies back in the day. So the birds, if you remember the birds movie. And we were out by the battery in Charleston, out by the water and the, like at that time,

03:14
which if I'm remembering correctly, at that time you could actually drive by the waterfront there. Now you can't, so it's just gravel where you can walk along there in the park. But from what I remember, you used to be able to drive through there unless I'm remembering a different area of Charleston. But nevertheless, we were driving around there near the waterfront and there was a park. And...

03:43
My stepdad had, I think they said he had sunflower seeds and he was just walking around in the park there and he had sunflower seeds and the birds obviously found him and would not leave him alone. And I mean, they were swarming him. And I'm in the car just like screaming like, Terry, haven't you seen the birds movie? And um.

04:11
just thinking like when I'm just gonna peck his eye out at any moment. So they always make fun of me about Charleston now because that is like the focal memory of our trip to Charleston was the birds attacking my stepfather. So anyways, that was kind of all that I had in memory of Charleston. Adam, I don't believe ever went to Charleston when he was younger.

04:39
But he and I and at least three of the kids went through Charleston on a work trip with him when he was working for a corporate, working in a corporate job in Charlotte several years ago. And we passed through Charleston, eight at a place, which I'm actually gonna talk to you about in a little bit.

05:05
that was recommended that we eat at. And that was the only experience we had of Charleston. We just ran through Charleston basically. I got to see some cobblestone and some iron gates and that was it. So that was my experience of Charleston. So this time I really just wanted to like drink it all in. You know what I mean? Like I just wanted, I knew I would love it. I knew I would fall in love with the architecture and the cobblestone and...

05:34
the colors and just the old world nature of Charleston and the food. I knew I would I just knew I would fall in love with it. The fact that y'all know I love the beach and the fact that it was that it is a coastal town. Like I just I really really I really wanted to just take my time in Charleston this time. So we did not bring our kids with us this time.

06:02
I can't remember honestly a time where Adam and I have gone out of town, far out of town without the children like out of state without the children. But we took the opportunity the kids were busy doing some other things and we took the opportunity to do that and it's really good. Like I know this is not part of the podcast necessarily but I am such an advocate at this point in my marriage. We've been we've been married almost 16 years.

06:32
um to get away together alone without plans without work uh because really the past oh gosh i mean the past decade of our marriage has basically been if we got away it was for work you know um or it was with the whole family for a family vacation which is work in itself so

07:00
a huge advocate for that. it was very good for us. it was very good for us to have a break. we were both feeling very worn down by life the last couple of months and we were ready to get out of town. so charleston, let me pull up my notes here i have on my phone because as we were drinking charleston in i was making notes on my phone so i would not forget to tell you guys some things. so

07:28
and I can already tell this episode is gonna go long, so I'm gonna probably break it into two episodes. All right. So, you know, when people think of Charleston, they think of horse carriage rides, they think of ghost walks, ghost tours, they think of Rainbow Row, they think of seafood, and the market, the Charleston market.

07:57
The Pineapple Fountain. There's a lot of like iconic things about Charleston that people just picture in their minds when they hear the name Charleston. So a few of those I actually had on my list of things I wanted to do and see and experience. And I can say I had, let's see, one, two, three, four, five. I had five like attraction location type places that I

08:26
wanted to see and go to and experience and we went to four of them. So I have yet to go to the Boone Hall Plantation and actually since our trip I've actually added more to my list. But at the time of the trip I wanted to go to the Boone Hall Plantation so I will hit that on the next trip I hope. But I wanted to go to Rainbow Row, the Pineapple Fountain, Charleston Market, and the Angel Oak Tree.

08:56
As far as food goes, I knew I wanted to... well, I asked for recommendations on our Instagram and I believe on Facebook as well. And so I took some suggestions from people who who said hey you've got to go to this one particular place in Charleston. And so I wrote all those down and so I've got let's see I've got six places that I definitely wanted to go and

09:26
and we ate at five of them. So proud to say we almost completed our list and so let's see. But you know I would love to do one of the walking tours. I would love to do a carriage ride sometime. But in the spirit of taking things slow and really drinking them in, I didn't want to be in such a rush to like

09:56
all the things. I wanted to really be intentional about how we spend our time and our attention and I didn't want to be overwhelmed by all the information and all that stuff. So also I mean we didn't want to spend money on things that we didn't just really really want to do you know. So what we spent money on was a good place to stay which I think I'll talk about that first but

10:24
good place to stay that was in the historic district so we could just walk out our door and walk everywhere we wanted to go. I didn't want to have to hop in the car, find parking, you know, come back to a parking deck. Like I just didn't want to... I didn't want to have to navigate that or I didn't want Adam to have to navigate that. I wanted just to be able to walk the city anytime we wanted to and we did. We walked. People were asking us like, what did y'all do in Charleston? I'm like...

10:53
We ate and we walked. We ate and we walked, because that is the truth. We ate and we walked. And it was so nice just to be able to come back to our room, to use the bathroom if we wanted to, to, you know, just after breakfast, we could walk out the door, go wherever we wanted to go for the day, come back, take a nap, go out for dinner.

11:24
uh you know that kind of thing. Walk around after dinner, come back, walk back to the hotel. Never really have to use our car. And so so really that's what we did and we did not want to spend money on tours and things this time because we really spent money on good food and a nice place to stay. Um we walked the city every day like I said. Um St. Philip's Church was uh one of my favorite stops.

11:53
you know, when Adam was like, where do you want to go next? And I'm like, let's go back to the church. So, I mean, you know, every, I don't know, we went two or three times to the church, two or three different days to the church, just to look at all the grave markers and to hear the bells and the bell tower and just to take in the beauty of it and really, you know, God's glory in it.

12:22
It was it was really beautiful. So I loved going to the church. The marketplace. So this is one thing that kind of disappointed me, I have to say. We chose a hotel. I'm going to get into in just a second, right beside of the Charleston marketplace. So right there, smack dab in the middle of the city. And I or the historic district and I.

12:51
had always, I mean, people that were talking about Charleston were talking about the market and how you've got to go to the market. And so I didn't know really what to expect. I mean, I thought it was, I thought there was going to be like a lot of food vendors and like, I thought it was going to be like a farmer's market honestly, I think is what I expected it to be. But it was like an open air flea market and it was not.

13:18
what I wanted it to be. It was not, I mean, we walked through the market. I mean, literally we had to walk through the market to go anywhere or at least walk by it. So we walked through the market every day we were there. I guess I was just expecting to see something that would grab my eye and be like, I have to have this, but I didn't. So I honestly, I didn't buy anything in the market. I know that's probably a really weird thing to say. People probably.

13:46
are used to like buying up stuff at the market but I didn't find a thing I wanted at the market. They have a for anyone interested in the market this might be your thing it wasn't mine but it might be your thing they have like an open air market section and then they have like an indoor market section and with air conditioning which it was like 95 degrees while we were there so we appreciated the air condition part but

14:15
So the air conditioning part was more of like actual stores and then the open air was more like a flea market type. What I did love was that Cali's Hot Little Biscuit was part of the market. I did not realize that at the time, but you know, one of the reasons why I really wanted to go to Charleston, I think I've probably mentioned before was Cali's is in Charleston. There's a couple of locations of Cali's in Charleston.

14:45
And I've been kind of obsessed ever since I found out about Callie's, uh, about their biscuits and I've bought, um, the owner, Carrie, uh, Maury's, I've bought her cookbook. I've used a lot of her recipes here at home. So her restaurant Callie's is in the Charleston market. So as soon as you walk into the air conditioned part, there is Callie's and, um, so we definitely had a biscuit,

15:16
Well, I think I'll save I think I'll save Cali's for when I talk more about the food. I really this episode I really want to talk about like where we stayed. So forgive me for getting ahead of myself. I will say before I move on to where we stayed, that rainbow row. And just walking, I know I told you guys that we did a lot of walking. I don't know how many miles we walked while we were there, but just walking the alleys.

15:43
and the cobblestone streets and just taking in all of the architecture um was just the it was like i i'm speechless even trying to talk about it like adam was making fun of me not necessarily making fun of me because he knows me but i think he just thought it was funny just to watch me look at everything you know uh just observing

16:13
I was like, look at this. Like, we would just stop and I would say, look at this. And he's like, it's a window. And I'm like, oh no, it is not just a window. You know? Like look at this. Like just soak this up. Like is this not beautiful? Is this not amazing to you? And it did not do the same thing to him that it did to me, but it was...

16:41
such an experience. Like I think what I found to be the most intriguing and beautiful part of Charleston and the whole experience of Charleston is something that I expect to find one day when I travel to Europe. You know when I'm in Rome or Paris that I would just be able just to...

17:11
kind of marvel at where I'm standing, you know, the history of the place and...

17:21
how much thought went into what I'm looking at in the moment. You know? And I just think, like that's what I want for my home. Like I'm looking around, I'm sitting in my bedroom right now and I'm looking around at just the years that I've poured into this one room of my house. Just, it may not look like much to other people, but just the wall color and the bed frame.

17:52
and the seating where I'm sitting right now and the lamps and the vases and the wall hangings you know like just how much I want this to be visually pleasing and comforting and at the same time inspiring because it's so beautiful you know that's like I just

18:21
That's something that really speaks to me, obviously, because you can tell I'm just stammering over my words because I really don't, I don't know how to put it into words, how I feel.

18:35
But the reason why I want to go back to Charleston, honestly, is not the food. Even though the whole next episode I do for you guys will be about food. I really, it was just, it was just the beauty of what I was seeing. You know, it was, it was the architecture. It was the cobblestone. It was the history. It was the water.

19:02
You know, it was just all of it combined just really took my breath away. And if you feel like me, I know this is a food and travel podcast, so a lot of it is about food. If you think you are very similar to me, then for that reason alone, Charleston is a great place to go and visit, just to take in the city, just to take in.

19:30
the beauty of the historic district and all the all the sites all the things so all right so I'm just gonna tell you a little bit about where we stayed and then I will call it quits on this episode and then I will do the whole next Charleston episode about food so stick around for the next one if you're wanting to hear about all the

19:58
wonderful places we ate. That's what I kept hearing from people was I kept seeing all the food you were eating and it looked amazing. So all right so we stayed at the Andrew Pinkney Inn. It has beautiful historic rooms, hardwood floors, old hardware floors, creaky hardwood floors. Loved them. It was a beautiful mix of antique and modern.

20:24
which is really my style. That's what I love. I'm not a antiki person by any means. Like, I mean, you won't find probably one antique, maybe one antique in my whole entire house. But I do love, you know, the vintage look. I am not a farmhouse style person. I don't love all white.

20:51
Um, you know, and neutral colors, like I love, I love color. I love actual color. Um, and I'm actually getting ready to redo our living room walls. Um, I'm going to wallpaper them, uh, in a colored wallpaper. And I'm so excited about it because I feel like I really wanted to do things neutral when I moved to this house because my old house

21:18
was very colorful. I made it how I wanted it and I loved it so much. But I was like maybe I should mature a little bit into all neutral colors when I moved here. And um so I did that and then I've just been bored to death with it. So I need some more color in my life. So we're going to redo things. So all that to say...

21:41
This inn was beautiful. It was, I wouldn't say it was very colorful. The outside was colorful. It was a beautiful like mustard yellow color. But the interior of our room anyways, I didn't get to peek at any other rooms, but the interior of our room was pretty neutral. But it was very beautiful. It looked luxurious, but comfortable. And...

22:08
I really loved it when I walked in. I was like, oh my gosh, they had really tall ceilings. It just looked very old, but it was so comfortable. They have at the Andrew Pinkney Inn, they have a rooftop solarium where they serve an elevated breakfast, like a kind of like a continental breakfast, but it is very nice. It was not just muffins and...

22:37
cereal. It was a huge bowl of fresh cut fruit. It was a really good yogurt that you could choose from. They had quiche. They had like little breakfast casserole. They had...oh what else do they have? They had a lot of warm, fresh cooked foods that were really good too.

23:08
and of course coffee and juices and things like that. And then in the evenings, every evening they have a wine and cheese social and all this was included in your stay. So that was nice because you know sometimes you have to take that into consideration if you're going to have to go buy breakfast for yourself or whatever and

23:34
I think the price for the Andrew Pinkneyan was very reasonable. We actually got it when there was a, I think it was a 10 or a 15% discount for stays of three nights or more during the summer. And so we got that deal. And then of course the two food options were complimentary as well. So that was nice.

24:03
There was a quiet, so the Andrew Pinkman is on a quiet street, but it's in the middle of everything. So it was really a unique location. Like I said already, we were able just to walk out the door and walk to anywhere we wanted to go in the historic district. They had a neat option where you could text the guest services if you need anything. So you didn't actually have to go to the front desk or call on the phone or whatever. You could just text them and they were continuously.

24:29
Texting just to make sure that your stay was comfortable and you didn't need anything I actually texted them for extra pillows the second day and Within ten minutes they had brought pillows for for them for that night The valet service that they offer is a is a must in my opinion we didn't realize that until we got there Because there is a parking garage that's just

24:57
right down the street from the inn. But, so we park in the parking garage, which is hot. Oh my gosh, it was like a sauna in there. And it stunk so bad. And it was really hard to find a parking place. So we got there and we parked in the parking deck, then we went down to the hotel to check in, and they were just like, are you gonna do valet parking with us?

25:26
And we were like, I don't know, like, what do you mean? Like, what all does that entail? So they have like a little parking lot right behind of the inn. And parking is difficult in Charleston. If you've ever been, it's difficult to park in Charleston. So we were just like, well, we hate that. We already hate that parking deck over there. And and it was very expensive. So if you go back to the parking deck and you leave,

25:56
in the same day and you come back, they're gonna start your time all over again and even if you had paid for the day or whatever, it was just a mess. So we decided to do the valet parking which just meant that there was a man out there 24-7 taking cars from people and putting it in their parking lot and it was just a flat fee. I think it was like $24 a day.

26:26
which compared to the parking decks that were like $30 a day, we thought that was a steal. So we did that. That way we could just walk to him anytime we wanted to and be like, we need our car. He would get our car and bring it to us. Then we would drop our car off with him. Like it was just, it was just a nice thing. We've never stayed anywhere that had valley parking before. So it was, I think it is.

26:55
a must if you stay at the Andrew Pinkney Inn. In the lobby they have coffee and lemonade and cucumber water and sometimes they keep freshly baked cookies in there. We never got to have a cookie but we saw them when we checked in. We should have grabbed them then. They didn't have any the rest of the week that we were there but they did have coffee and lemonade so we would stop in. You know after we would get done walking around the town we would come back to get some

27:25
some water or some coffee there. I will say, and I've told some people this since then, that we had room 101. So if you stay there, you will walk right by our room that we stayed in if you don't stay in room 101, but it is the very first room you come to when you walk in. I will say that if you stay in that room.

27:50
which I loved because it had a street view. It was beautiful. You could see out onto the street. You could see across the street where the office for the Andropiknian is. You could see the valet parking fellow sitting out there waiting on people to come and use him. And it was just beautiful. That room was, but the noise, being by the front door,

28:20
was difficult, especially for us because we go to bed a little earlier than most people probably. And we get up earlier than most people do. But there the first night it was pretty it was pretty loud. People were coming in and not being respectful of other people there. We heard some cursing and some, you know, drunken talk maybe? I don't know.

28:50
But just some very loud, you know, obnoxious people coming in really, really late at night for several nights, but by the last night anyways, I had gotten smart enough to actually turn on my... I have a fan app for the noise and I turned that on before we went to bed and cranked it up and I didn't hear anything all night. So

29:18
So I got smart by the last of our trip. Anyways, so if you do stay there, just know that that first room is gonna be a lot more noisy. It's also by the elevator, so you can hear the elevator ding throughout the day and late into the night and everything. So if that's gonna be a problem for you, I would suggest asking for a room not by the front door. But like I said, the view from the front door room was beautiful. So...

29:48
I would just put on, I would just, I would stay there again and just turn my app on for sure this time. Alright I am going to stop this episode for now and I will pick back up in a few days with the rest of the episode talking about all the wonderful places that we ate. I also want to talk about the angel oak tree that will be in our next episode. So I hope you will come back and join me.

30:17
that episode. I hope you enjoyed this one. If you will send me a DM on Instagram or send me an email. It's just biscuitsandgravyfm at gmail.com and let me know what was your favorite part of this episode. Have you gone to any of the places that I mentioned in this episode? Or I want to hear about your Charleston experience. I think it's so fun to share stories with people. I think that's one reason why since we've been back and they knew that we had...

30:46
you know friends and people that we've uh you know in our community knew that we went to Charleston because they were watching our Instagram or um Facebook my personal Facebook people have just been you know wanting to hear the stories wanting to hear where we went wanting to hear where where we enjoyed eating and then since then I told Adam yesterday I was on Facebook and I was like all these people are going to Charleston not because of us or anything like that that's not

31:15
I didn't really, you know, I have not really heard of people, friends of mine or Facebook friends or anybody going to Charleston in a while or sharing their experience. And now I see all these people cropping up saying we're going to go to Charleston, we're going to Charleston. And so I think it's so cool that it's become one of those. I mean, it's always been a destination in the South, but I feel like maybe we're enough

31:45
all the shutdowns and everything that happened back in 2020 that people were just really trying to get back out and travel and experience new things and experience old things that you know they want to experience again so I'm just I'm excited I'm excited to talk to people so if you would send me a message I'd love to hear from you I'd love to it will be me that responds to you so yes please do. All right well

32:13
This is enough for this episode, I've kept y'all long enough and I will talk to you guys next time. Bye.