I just got back from a two week work/vacation trip to Charleston. Ben was wrapping up some work training that he was down there for, and it seemed like a good excuse for a change of scenery. 

I drove down the day after Hurricane Ian hit South Carolina, but other than driving through some of the remaining bands of rain in Virginia (which was not fun), by the time I got to Charleston, you hardly would have known a hurricane had just passed through. 

We spent the first weekend settling in, eating some delicious fried chicken and BBQ, and I slept a lot. I did not realize how much the 8-hour solo drive would wipe me out, but I was dragging by Saturday evening and even Sunday I was still struggling. 

Despite the fact that I was on the struggle bus on Sunday, we spent the day over on Sullivan's Island. We explored Fort Moultrie, which guarded Charleston Harbor. 

It was definitely still flooded from the storm. 

We also walked down to the beach, though it was overcast and pretty cool, so we didn't hang out for long.

During the first week, I did a mix of working and taking vacation time.

Our AirBnb was a great set up for working. During the week I bounced between the living room and the beautiful screened in porch. I wish I had taken a picture of the porch. It was just such a nice change of scenery during my workdays. 

On Thursday, I had booked a kayaking/fossil hunting trip. This was the coolest way to spend a day in Charleston. The group met up and kayaked for about 25 minutes to an island in one of the rivers. Then we worked with our guide who was an expert in finding and identifying 30 million year old fossils. 

He helped me find my first ever shark's tooth, and then helped others in the group find and identify all sorts of fossils. I'd never been on a trip like this and it was so cool to find all these old fossils that were still in pretty good condition because they had been preserved in the limestone. If you're in Charleston and looking for something kind of unique to do, I highly recommend this! 

I spent Friday afternoon soaking up a perfect 80 degree day at Isle of Palm.

In the evening we met up with a friend from PA at Edmond's Oast Brewery. Multiple people had recommended the brewery to us, including a coworker whose daughter works there, and it was just really nice to catch up.

We did a really fun day trip to Savannah my second Saturday in town. It actually was my favorite part of the whole trip, and I'll dedicate a separate post to that. 

My in-laws were supposed to get into town Sunday morning and we were going to to do lots of the traditional Charleston things -- walk around the battery, visit Rainbow Row, go see the Pineapple fountain. 

But they ended up with the travel day from hell and instead of landing in Charleston at 9 a.m., they got there at 7 p.m.

Ben and I walked around, hit some of the touristy spots and stumbled upon some sort of festival on King Street where the road was closed to traffic so pedestrians could stroll and check out all the vendors set up. 

The Halloween decorations were on point.

Monday was our day of museums. We visited the Old Slave Mart Museum downtown, and then went over to Mt. Pleasant to Patriots Point. 

The highlight was obviously the photo-op with the Top Gun fighter jets. 

And we of course did a ghost tour. Ghost tours are one of my favorite, kind of silly things to do when visiting cities. You always get to hear a couple of cool stories and some of the local folklore.

Our trip ended with Ben's graduation on Thursday, and then the long drive back home on Friday. 

It was a fun two weeks full of good food.

Our Charleston Recommendations