As most of you know, John is the travel planning guru in our family. He does most of the legwork on our trips, as I prefer to be surprised when I show up to our destination! So when he suggested Beaufort, SC when we needed a one-night stay close to Bluffton two years ago, I was game, but didn’t really know what was in store. I think it’s fair to say that we were both blown away by this quiet Southern town – it captured us in a way few other places have. We’ve been eager to return ever since, and this past weekend, we got the chance to!

Beaufort is not Charleston or Savannah – it’s much smaller than both. I think I love it because it seems like a place people lead normal lives – but in a beautiful, idyllic way! The streets are quiet and draped in Spanish moss. The houses are absolutely gorgeous but have people puttering in the lawns or sitting on their front porches. When we ate dinner in the bar of a local restaurant one night, it seemed like everyone knew each other. For any Hart of Dixie fans out there, Beaufort really reminds me of Bluebell – except with slightly weaker accents :)

Like last time, we stayed at City Loft Hotel, and continue to be huge fans of the way the owners have transformed an outdated roadside motel into a chic boutique motel! You can read my much more thorough review of CLH here.

After checking in, we immediately hopped on City Loft’s complimentary cruisers and pedaled toward the Point, the beautiful historic district right next to downtown. I was in my happy place – there are few activities I enjoy more than biking or walking around an old neighborhood with John at my side. We even chatted up a few of the residents!

I could go on and on…

…but I will stop there! Aside from biking, we also ate some delicious food. We had lunch in Bluffton, which is between Savannah and Beaufort, at The Cottage. It was good; any place that serves free pimento cheese to start is a-okay in my book. Dinner was at Breakwater Restaurant, right next to CLH. We ate at the bar (celebrating after Duke’s Final Four win!) and I think it was the best meal of our trip. Highly recommended! Finally, we had Easter brunch at Wren. Charming decor and yummy food. We didn’t make it to my store crush, Lowcountry Produce, for a meal, but I couldn’t resist popping in for a quick visit!

Easter was celebrated at First Baptist Beaufort. I will admit I lingered on the front steps after the service, trying to soak in the conversations of the locals around me, imagining what their lives were like! Hopefully that’s not too creepy :)

We are now engaged in an active campaign to get John’s parents to retire in Beaufort, at least for the winter. Fingers crossed!

The first and (until this weekend) last weekend we visited Savannah, I had a major attack of seasonal allergies, limped around on a bleeding foot, and scratched my cornea. John had a blood sugar crash. Needless to say, we owed this Southern city another shot, and finally, six years later, we returned!

Savannah is about a 5.5 hour drive from our home in NC, which means it is a long but doable weekend road trip. We set off early on Friday morning, and after hitting some traffic, arrived around 2pm. Our first stop was Gryphon Tea Room. It’s a restaurant run by SCAD in an old pharmacy, with original Tiffany glass panes and furnishings. It was beautiful and felt like a library! Our table was up on a podium, with really comfortable velvet chairs. The leopard carpet was a nice touch :)

The food was good; the service was quirky (SCAD students!). The highlight was our drinks – blackberry pomegranate lemonade and peach rosemary lemonade. After lunch we started wandering in the direction of Forsyth Park, pausing in several squares and oohing and ahhing over many houses. One of my favorite activities!

The weather was perfect – low 80’s, sunny, with a light breeze and lots of shade from oaks and Spanish moss.

Savannah and Charleston get compared a lot, but to me, they seem very different. Savannah is darker and a bit more Gothic, with lots of wrought iron and Spanish moss — more similar to what I’ve heard and seen of New Orleans. Charleston is preppier and brighter.

After popping into several shops (Fest, Number Four Eleven, One Fish Two Fish, Sylvester & Co General Store), we jumped back in our car and drove 15 minutes outside of Savannah to McQueen’s Island Trail. Our quick run along the Savannah River was lined with palms and and came complete with a marsh view! Highly recommended for stretching your legs.

After checking into our hotel for the night (the Andaz on the waterfront – we got a good rate on Priceline and were very pleased with it!), we walked over to Chippewa Square for a Good Friday service at First Baptist. Then, we walked back to the waterfront and settled in for dinner at Treylor Park. It was lovely to stroll from spot to spot!

We did have trouble deciding where to eat – restaurants we researched seemed either old-school fancy and too expensive or not enough of an experience for dinner. Treylor Park’s menu looked intriguing, so we decided to give it a go! We started with the PB&J Chicken Wings (tossed in a peanut/pecan butter and served with a peach jelly sauce) and the Pigs in a Biscuit Blanket (artisan sausages nestled in biscuit blankets with spicy mustard). We loved both concepts and they were also delicious. For our entrees we went more traditional – a burger and a BLT. Sadly, the execution was pretty average on both. One other note – the noise level was high, since the tables and bar area are one and the same.

We considered going to Leopold’s for ice cream, but headed back to the hotel when we saw how long the line was – it was probably 100 people deep!

On Saturday morning we had a quick breakfast at Goose Feathers Cafe, then hit up a few more spots before heading out of town. One was The Paris Market, probably the most famous shop in Savannah. We both loved it! It was one of those beautifully curated stores that is inspiring to just walk through, even if most of the goods were too expensive for us.

Our final stop in the Savannah area was the free Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. You can drive through it on a beautiful four-mile track surrounded by marshlands. We saw all sorts of water birds, turtles, and, oh yes, 28 alligators!!!

We had some beautiful weather in Savannah and loved getting away – but as a final review, 9 times out of 10 I would choose to visit Charleston. In my experience, it has a little less of a party vibe (feels a bit more refined), the food is better, and it’s an hour closer to our house. If any of y’all have visited both cities, I’d love to hear your thoughts and preferences!

Saturday night was spent in Beaufort, SC – report coming up next!

Friends!! It’s been a whirlwind three weeks in which I’ve slept six nights in my own bed. First we had our trip to New York City, then our annual camping trip with friends, then a Texas road trip between Houston and Texas for work. And then I hosted a baby shower for 45 people at our house on Saturday!! Lots to report. Let’s start with camping.

For the past three years we’ve spent a weekend camping with friends, and it has quickly become one of our favorite traditions! This year it was the Rays and us; we were trying to squeeze in a trip before Nancy got toooo pregnant. We risked a March trip, and happily were rewarded with a sunny, 65 degree Saturday and nights in the low 50’s! We stayed at the Carolina Beach state park and ventured into nearby Wilmington for lunch on Saturday. The park has beautiful trails, and aside from the fact that the water smelled a bit swampy, we had no complaints. S’mores and great conversation were enjoyed by all.

We arrived home from camping around 1:30pm on Sunday, and my flight to Texas left at 7pm – about enough time in between to wash my hair and do a load of laundry! While in Texas most of my days were taken up with work, so I don’t feel I can give any sort of comprehensive guide, but there were a few highlights:

Blue bonnets on the drive between Houston and Austin!

City Meat Market in Giddings, Texas! So legit. Bare bones. You tell them what you want, they chop it up, slap two slices of white bread out of a bag on top, and hand it to you by the four corners of the paper underneath. Delicious!

Torchy’s Tacos in Austin! When you mention Austin, everyone mentions Torchy’s, and it didn’t disappoint. The queso was the best I’ve ever had, better by a smidge than White Duck’s. We also ate at 24 Diner (and it was also delicious!). Thanks to tour guide Lisa for steering our ship!

As a final highlight from Texas, I got to spend one day with a favorite online pal, Victoria. We worked on a project together and it is going to be sooooo good :)

Whew! After all of that excitement, I feel a bit like my cat:

She says to do lists are for the birds. More soon!!

First trip of the month: success!

John’s sisters and their husbands live in New York City, so once we knew I had a work trip scheduled there, we decided to extend my trip and have John come, too! We flew up late Thursday night and stayed with Marget and Seth in Jersey City.

On Friday I worked remotely, then we all headed into the city for a late lunch at Shake Shack (yum).

Next we walked through the 9/11 Memorial Museum. It wasn’t exactly the most “fun” thing to do on vacation, but we both felt it was important to remember and honor that event in our lives and American history when we had the chance.

I thought the museum and memorial were very beautiful and thoughtfully designed. There are three main sections: the first is an exploration of the World Trade Center itself. The second is a memorial section for the victims. The third is the historical exhibition, which tells the story of what happened on 9/11 through a huge collection of video, audio recordings, photos, newspapers, artifacts, etc. If you are planning to visit, I would recommend moving through the first section more quickly than we did. The final section was both the most emotionally difficult and the most dense, and I would have liked to spend more time there but was a bit spent by the time we reached it.

On Friday we had dinner at Buvette in the West Village. It was perfectly French and made me even more excited for our upcoming trip! Three of us split six small plates and two desserts, which was a great amount of food.

On Saturday Marget and I started the day with yoga at a nearby class. After looping back to pick up Seth, John, and Wes, we met up with Joe and Natalie and the six of us plus baby toured a few favorite NYC spots: Brookfield Place (lunch at Little Muenster!), ABC Home, and snacks at LPQ (mint lemonade) and Eataly.

For dinner that night we all headed back to M + S’s apartment and tried to recreate one of the dishes we’d had the night before at Buvette – basically mashed potatoes and prosciutto on top of bread. It was as delicious as it sounds. It was so nice just to have a chance to sit and talk with some of my favorite people – we don’t see each other enough!

On Sunday John and I traveled back into the city to worship with Hillsong NYC. We have been fans of Hillsong United for quite awhile, and so jumped at the chance to experience Hillsong in person! (It’s estimated that 30 million churchgoers around the world sing Hillsong worship songs on any given Sunday – pretty cool.) Carl Lentz, their lead pastor, was at the Hillsong conference in Australia, so we got to hear Levi Lusko instead. (We were familiar with Levi from watching this video, so it was a treat to hear him in person.)

The experience was very different from what we’re used to every Sunday, but we are grateful for it!

The main song we sang was Broken Vessels, which I wasn’t familiar with but have been loving the last few days.

After brunch at the Tipsy Parson (which Marget described to me as “a place bloggers like to go” – it has great wallpaper) with Natalie and Joe, we headed back to Jersey for a lazy afternoon and takeout Indian before sending John home on a plane. I followed yesterday after speaking on Monday.

Pretty killer apartment view, huh? Up next: Texas!