5 Charleston Favorites

For my 5 things this Friday I decided to go with a theme.  Kev and are  heading to Charleston for the weekend and I could not be more excited!  Both Kev and I have only been once before.  You can read about that trip here.  After our first visit we knew we were going to have to go back!  Today I'm sharing the five things I'm looking most forward to doing on this vacay.

1.  Eating:  It is no secret Charleston is a mecca for fine southern foods.  I have been reading many fellow bloggers recommendations for must eat places in downtown and I've got my list to three.  Being Labor Day weekend I know places will be crowded so I'm hoping to hit at least two.  I was able to score brunch reservations at one so things are looking good.  My three top picks are Poogan's Porch, Toast and Magnolias.

2.  Exploring:  Disclaimer:  I am a huge history nerd so Charleston is right up my ally.  I love wondering around the historic district looking at the beautiful buildings and hearing historical stories.  For this trip I purchased a groupon for an evening ghost tour.  I can't wait to hear some scary stories :-)

3.  Beach Time:  Charleston is a bay surrounded by 5 beautiful beaches.  Kev and I decided to spend one of our days on Folly Beach.  This will be our first time visiting it but it looks pretty cute.  It looks like there are plenty of good lunch spots there....were always centered on food!

4.  Rooftop Lounges:  I am a sucker for rooftops!  I love looking over the cities and enjoying fresh air.  Two Charleston hot spots I'd like to visit are The Rooftop at Vendue and The Market Pavillon Rooftop.

5.  Shopping:  It wouldn't be a vacy without a little shopping.  One of may favorite places we visited on our last trip was the open air market.  I can't wait to pick up a few gifts...is it to early to start Christmas shopping  ;-)

After returning from Charleston on Monday I will be heading to Myrtle Beach,  SC with my parents for the rest of the week.  Cheers to vacations!

Happy Labor Day Weekend

Charlotte Weekend Recap

Good Morning Lovelies!

I'm fresh off an action packed weekend.  When Kev got the opportunity to attend a skim board competition in the Outer Banks this past weekend I decided to head to Charlotte to visit one of my favorite people in the world, Sara.  Sara, who you may remember as my maid of honor from my wedding posts, recently moved to Charlotte, aka one of my favorite cities ever!

Friday after work I made the hour and twenty minute drive down I-85.   I am so in love with Sara's place because you can honestly do everything you need without a car.  In a short walk or bike ride she can be in uptown in a matter of minutes.  On the other side she has an awesome neighborhood called Southend which is loaded with shops and restaurants.  After some catching up we decided to hit up Food Truck Friday in the Southend neighborhood.

The highlight of my food truck experience was Southern Cake Queen's strawberry shortcake!  It would be pictured but I couldn't hold back on devouring it.

After that we headed back into Uptown to one of my favorite spots, The Epicenter.  The Epicenter is the mecca of entertainment in uptown Charlotte.  We decided to relax at The Bubble Lounge.  The place seriously reminded me of the Cosmopolitan in Vegas.  We snagged a table on the balcony patio and had a perfect view of the skyline.

Saturday we decided to get our bike on so we got ready and rode to Vapiano in uptown for lunch.  If you've been around my blog before you know I never go to Charlotte without visiting here. Best chicken parm ever!!

Next we biked over to the cutest uptown Starbucks where we and a couple hours of coffee infused conversations.

With the weather looking a little gloomy we biked back over to the Epicenter to see a movie at SMG Cinemas.  Sara had several Groupons so we got in for only $5.  SMG is the coolest theatre I have ever seen.  The seats are like recliners and they have a full service restaurant and bar.  If you want to order any food you press a button and the waitress will take your order.  Amazing right!  You even have a built in tv tray :-)

After an action packed day we rode our bikes back to the house and had a Netflix binge marathon on Witches of the East End.  Oh my goodness I had never heard of this show but it is so addictive!  We only broke our marathon to baked cookies with we the covered with chocolate fudge brownie ice cream!

Sunday brought more dreary weather so we broke out the car.  We headed to brunch at Tyber Creek Pub.  Best omelets ever!

After one more Starbucks run it was time for me to head back to Greensboro. 

A big thank you to Sara for being an amazing host! 

Las Vegas: August 2011

Some of my favorite blog posts to read are about travel.  I love to look at pictures and get ideas from other bloggers.  I also love to look at places I've been and see what other people do when they're there.  For me it had proven to be one of the best ways to find good restaurants and entertainment.

 

Within the past couple of years before I started blogging I was lucky enough to take several amazing trips.  With my love of travel blogs I've been wanting to take a trip down memory lane and write some throwback posts.  I hope that you enjoy these posts as much as I do.  My first blast from the past is my trip to Las Vegas in August 2011.

 

This trip to Vegas was extremely exciting for me not only was it my first trip out west, it was also my first plane ride.  This trip came about when Kev's mom had a business trip and invited us to tag along. 

 

On this trip we stayed at the fabulous Palazzo.

 

The Palazzo is the sister property to the Venetian and one of the newest resorts on the strip.
 

 

We fell in love with the place instantly.

 

The pool was absolutely wonderful and was the perfect was to beat the 105 degree temperature during our stay.

 

I had just turned 21 3 months before this trip and I was beyond excited to enjoy the full Vegas experience.

 

We spent most of our evenings after dinner is the Venetian Casino because it was larger than the one at the Palazzo.

 

We didn't get too lucky but we also didn't loose too much money.  I had only allotted myself $10 to loose per day so I stuck to the penny slots.
 

 

We also spent a lot of time exploring the other hotels on the strip.

 

  

We discovered the Vegas monorail on our second day of the trip and it proved extremely helpful on getting around.

 

 

While the strip is fun to see during the day nothing beats seeing it all light up at night.

 

 

One thing that you will learn quickly about Vegas is that there is no shortage of fabulous restaurants.  Every celebrity chef has at least one restaurant at every hotel.

Here's a recap of some note worthy meals we had at the Venetian/ Palazzo. 

 

Canaletto (Venetian)

 

Grand Lux Café (Palazzo)

 

I♥burgers (Palazzo)

 

Lagasse's Stadium (Palazzo)

 

Solaro Poolside Dining (Palazzo)

Sadly this was long before my days as  blogger so I had no idea the importance of taking pictures of my food but I promise that you could not go wrong with choosing any of these resturants.

 

 

Wisconsin Weekend

This past weekend I headed up to Green Bay, Wi with Kev and his parents.  Kev's dad grew up in the north western part of the state so Kev has always been a giant Green Bay Packer's fan.  He even has a super sized Brett Favre picture over our mantel.  Ever since I've know Kevin his dream has been to see the Packer's play in their home stadium. This also knocks  #9 off my 30 for 30 list.

It was quite the day of travel to get to Green Bay.  We started off by driving to the Charlotte airport.  From there we flew to Chicago and after a short layover made our way to Milwaukee.  There we picked up a rental car and drove the final 2 hours to Green Bay.



Here are some pics from our drive through Milwaukee.  Such a beautiful city! 
I would love to explore it more!

 

If you've never been, Green Bay is definitely a sports town.  Everything in it centers around the Packers!

Even the straws at McDonalds supported the Pack!

And all the cabs showed their Packer pride



On our first night we had dinner at Sidelines Grill.  A restaurant directly across from the stadium.  The food was good and it was neat to see so many Packer's fans.  It was here that I tried my first cheese curd.  They are amazing!

The next morning it was game day and the whole town was ready to go super early.  After a warm breakfast at Denny's we made the drive to the stadium and I faced the true cold of Wisconsin for the first time!  Burrrr!  If you are a southern native like myself it is unlike anything you've ever felt before!

 

Our seats were on the 3rd row!  I could almost touch Clay Matthews!

Me and the Packer's most memorable fan St. Vince.  I happened to be sitting right behind him!

 



Even though the Pack lost it was still a neat experience.  Kev had the time of his life and I was so happy to see him so excited.

The next morning it was time to head back to NC.  After seeing some snow we were on our way.  Wisconsin was a beautiful place!  Next time we might visit in the summer though :-)

 

GO PACK GO!

 



XOXO Courtney

8. Go to NYC

Courtney and Sara Take New York

So a couple of months ago I made my 30 for 30 list and the first thing I was able to mark off was to take a trip to NYC.   This is a trip that I have dreamed about since I was little and when one of my friends, Sara, approached me I jumped at the chance to go.  On August 24, 2013 we boarded a flight out of Charlotte and the two small town girls were on their way to the big city.

After about a 1hour and 30 minute flight we arrived at JFK.  We are all about saving money so we took the Air Tran to Jamaica Station  and then took the subway all the way to 42nd Street Time Square.  It also took an hour and thirty minutes but it only cost $7.

Once we emerged from the underground dungeon, some people call the subway we walked to our hotel.  Thank goodness for Google walking maps or else we would have been doomed.  After a few wrong turns we arrived at our home for the next 4 nights, Hotel Carter. 

Hotel Carter is quite an interesting place.  I'm pretty sure it is the cheapest hotel in Time Square only costing us about $100 per night.   I had read before our trip that all the rooms past the 11th floor had been recently remolded so Sara easily talked the young man at check-in into giving us the highest one available so 22nd floor it was.  If you are looking for a top notch place to stay Hotel Carter IS NOT FOR YOU!!! But if you are like us and are essentially just looking  for a clean, safe place to sleep, because really it's New York people who wants to spend time in their room when these so much to see, then check it out.

After a speedy check inn we hit the streets,

First Stop Central Park

 

 



Fellow Gossip Girl Fans this is where Chuck and Blaire got married on the series finale

 

 



After Central Park we walked around the Upper East Side




While walking down 5th avenue I was nearly trampled by a swarm of preteen girls... One direction drove by and it was chaos!!!!

And Ended the Evening in Time Square

The next day we woke up early and cashed in our vouchers for the tour we had bought before our trip.  The company we went through was City-Sights and I would definitely recommend then to first time NYC travelers.  The pass we purchased gave us 48 hours worth of access to their hop-on-hop-off double decker bus tour, a harbor cruise and a ticket to the empire state building.

The first thing we did was the downtown bus tour:  Here we went from Time Square all the way through Lower Manhattan seeing things like Greenwich Village, Soho, Little Italy, China Town and Wall Street.

 

 



After that we went to the Cake Boss Café (hopefully you are familiar with the TLC Show). 

The best cupcake I've ever had!..and I've had a lot of cupcakes



Next it was on to The Statin Island Ferry.  The ferry is free and runs from Wall Street to Statin Island offering great views of lower Manhattan.

The next morning we headed out the Harbor Cruise: Here we saw things like the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and The Brooklyn Bridge

 

 

 

Our 48 hour bus tour passes were still active so we then took the Brooklyn Tour.  Brooklyn is actually the most populated to the 5 boroughs. 

That evening we headed to The Empire State Building



 

 

 





 The next morning we Started off in the Upper West Side:  This day was saved for some museum and shopping action

Serendipity 3 Frozen Hot Chocolate, Made Famous by the Movie

 

The New York City Museum, used as the school from Gossip Girl

Did My Best Blaire Waldorf Impression at the MET

Got cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery from Sex and the City



That Night we finally got a picture together

That's the Problem with traveling as a pair, one pic in 5 days lol

 

 



 

On our final morning we went to the Today Show









 

 

After that it was back to the subway and back to good old NC.  It was a total world wind of a trip.

 

XOXO Courtney