Travel Thursday: Exploring Downtown Charleston

 

A couple of days ago I introduced you to the beginning of our Charleston vacation! We arrived in town late afternoon on Saturday, so we settled into our hotel and then headed downtown to explore. Our hotel was about a half hour from downtown, so by the time we drove in, found a parking garage that still had space (hello, holiday weekend) and made our way into the heart of the city, it was nearly dinnertime.

                I’d read that the City Market (like a giant farmer’s market) is also open Friday and Saturday nights from March-December. I’d never been to a farmer’s market at night before, so we decided to try that. This market is housed in permanent buildings, and I think there were three or four of these long, skinny building stretched out through multiple city blocks. Not all the booths were open for the night market, but we had fun exploring! We found our Christmas ornament souvenir and another little treasure for our house.

                While exploring, we saw the Charleston Crab House seafood restaurant and noticed it had rooftop seating. That sounded fun, so we put in our names and only had to wait about a half hour. Ryan tried shrimp and grits – and actually enjoyed it – and I got a blackened fish. (Donated the bun and most of the fries to Ryan.)

                After dinner, we walked around some more and wanted coffee and dessert, so we were excited to find a legitimate dessert café. Alas, they didn’t have any seating, so we asked for ours to go. We ordered a sundae to share, but it was ready about a full ten minutes before our coffee and was mostly soup by the time we found a park bench where we could eat. It wasn’t the best experience, which made me so sad!

                By that time, we were tired and ready for some sleep, so we went back to the hotel. Sunday morning was supposed to bring more rain, so we had breakfast at the hotel and spent some time in Bible study/reading/napping, and then we headed back into the heart of the city for more fun.

                We went back to the City Market and got some sandwiches, and then we took them to a cute little park to enjoy lunch outside by the fountain!

                Ryan really wanted a pineapple whip (and I don’t think I’ve had one before…if so, I didn’t remember), so we got those to enjoy while walking around. It was so hot and so crowded.

                Found the cutest fire station!

                And Rainbow Row. These colorful houses are a Charleston landmark, but I was surprised at how hard they were to see through the trees! I guess the pictures I’ve seen are not summer photos.

                We wandered down by the water and walked around a bit. It started looking stormy, and we were ready for some air conditioning and coffee, so we went in search of that – by way of the Pineapple Fountain.

                We found a little coffee shop called Clerks. It was attached to a hotel and kinda fancy. We ordered Americanos and shared a cannoli.

                Ryan’s one goal for the trip was to find a cool hat, so we went back to City Market to check out the hat vendors. He found one! I loved it.

                Then we walked foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr in a lot of people to see the theater where Noah and Allie had their first date in The Notebook.

                Then we had to walk foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr back!

                We were hot and tired by then, so we called it a day, found a Publix to get some food for random meals throughout the week, and rested the remainder of the night!

                Ryan liked downtown Charleston more than I did. I think I would have liked it more if it hadn’t been a holiday weekend. Maybe there were just too many people pressing in. But I am so glad we went, and I did have a lot of fun seeing the famous landmarks!

Wednesday in the Word: Part of the Story

 

                In church on Sunday, I shared a message about Bible study, and I talked about the reasons I love reading and studying from a physical Bible. One of those reasons? The chance to mark verses that are impactful to me…to keep a written legacy of my faith journey.

                Psalm 37:23-24 are among those verses: The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.

                Next to those verses, I’ve written January 25, 2024….praying for open doors in ministry. At that time, I was still working for LifeWise, and I was preparing to fill in for Jonathan during his sabbatical that would start in about four months from that date. I had known since October of the year before that God had placed a call to local church ministry on my life, but I had no idea how or when He would work it out. While LifeWise was about ministry, I knew the job wasn’t the kind of role God was preparing me to do.

                If you’ve ever had a desire to fulfill something the Lord has called you to, you understand the frustration of trying to be faithful where you are while praying for the God-planted desires of your heart. And that’s where I was.

                I found the verse that particular day when I read a social media post written by Christine Caine. She said, “We all want to get from here to there. I love it when I realize I’m standing in a here place that used to be a there place. As I reflect on all the steps I took – being obedient, faithful, staying my course through all the hard times, I realize how my heart and endurance are what got me here. Every step you take today to move you from here to there is ordered of the Lord. Rest in this assurance, resist the temptation to obsess about where you will end up someday, and trust God by being faithful where you are now.”

                Perfectly timed words, right?

                I didn’t know on that day that I would have less than four months left with LifeWise, and that the weeks of filling in for Jonathan (plus the weeks throughout that year that I filled in at a different local church) would be meaningful preparation for what God had for me later that same year.

                I didn’t know on that day that in one year I would be there – working in full time, local church ministry.

                May the Lord always establish and order my steps. May I always delight in His way. As I go through seasons of here-to-there ministry, may I always be faithful where I am and trust that the Lord is always preparing me for moments to come.

                And may He do the same for you!

Tuesday Tales: Charleston Bound

 

                I told you Sunday that we just returned from this year’s birthday trip, and it was such a GIFT. We hadn’t been away for a lengthy birthday trip since 2021, and I think it may have started to show. This year’s destination was Charleston, South Carolina, and the main reason we chose it was because South Carolina remained a glaring hole on our travel map. We’d been through it before – and even spent the night with some friends in North Augusta, South Carolina, but alas, it was before the map, and we didn’t actually do anything in the state other than stay at our friends’ house, so it didn’t count as destination travel. We’d heard such good things about the beauty of Charleston…and so it became our destination! Come along with me today as we look at the start of our trip!

                I had to giggle out loud when I got up the morning we left and did my Scripture writing for the day. I read the passage in Mark where Jesus sent the disciples out to minister, and he told them not to pack a bag or take anything excessive. The whole time, I knew this was in the next room. Gulp.

                The Shaffers: Charleston bound!

                The entire day of travel was fraught with slow-downs, constructions, accidents, re-routes, and rain. It was one of the most frustrating driving days we’ve had for a long time. We tried so hard not to stop for any reason. I think we only had three stops the entire day – and they were for bathrooms/food/fuel – in and out so fast. And yet we lost three hours off our time from start to finish. Here are some scenes from the road:

                The mountains appeared at last, complete with a tunnel!

                In a TOTALLY unexpected event, I drove three full hours of the trip, including all the mountains, torrential downpours, back roads, and darkness. We didn’t want to pull over to switch drivers because we were afraid of losing another half hour off the trip!

                The first night we stayed in a little tiny town – home to some friends of ours. They sweetly offered for us to stay in their guest house, which was small and absolutely perfect for us.

                The next morning we made our way (still in the rain) to their house to have breakfast and spend the morning with them. They have a sweet puppy who helped us fill the Lexi void. They also had a screened in front porch, and we were able to sit out there while a gentle rain fell, and it was the sweetest way to spend a morning. Forced slowdowns like this are much more welcomed than forced slowdowns in traffic.

                So our friends used to live in the same town where Ryan and I grew up, and we went to high school with their daughters. A few years ago, their youngest daughter passed away very unexpectedly after giving birth. Ryan and I had never met any of her girls until this trip. We really loved meeting them. (One of the girls was gone to practice that morning so she missed the group picture.)

                We finally packed up and hit the road again, and about four hours later, we finally made it to our home for the week! To try to save some money (cities are NOT cheap for lodging) we stayed in North Charleston in a Residence Inn. We looked at Airbnbs but couldn’t justify the cost. This hotel gave us breakfast every day, but we had a bigger room with a couch and kitchen, which made it really helpful for a longer term stay.

                We were so happy to be there, and I’ll be back Thursday to tell you about our adventures exploring downtown Charleston!

Menu Monday: Nourishing Body and Soul

 

Today is the first day of a new month! Ryan and I are home from vacation and tightening up our menu plans. That will obviously not be reflected in today’s Menu Monday post, because much of this week’s post still looks our vacation.

Monday: Leftover Chicken and Macaroni Salad

What We Loved: We spent an entire day exploring on vacation and were very hot and hungry when we came back to our hotel. We didn’t want to start over getting ready so we could go out to eat, so we had more of the chicken and macaroni salad we bought at the grocery store the day before. It was the grandest start to our evening on the couch!

Tuesday: Strawberry Fields Salad/Cheeseburger at Culvers

What We Loved: We spent another entire day exploring and were SO hot and hungry at the end of the day. Ryan really wanted Culver’s, so we found one (a super nice one!) and he chose a cheeseburger meal, and I chose their Strawberry Fields Salad. I love that salad so much. The year they don’t bring it back will be a sad year.

Wednesday: Chicken Salad and Pizza from MOD Pizza

What We Loved: We really wanted to stay in for the evening, so Ryan ordered pizza for himself and salad for me from MOD Pizza. He went to pick it up and we ate in the hotel. The salad was really good – and really big! It made two meals for me. I think he got about 2.5 meals out of the pizza!

Thursday: Leftover Chicken Salad and Pizza from MOD Pizza

What We Loved: This day was our last full day of vacation, so we needed to start packing and didn’t want to add more things to our food collection. Leftovers for the win!

Friday: Fajita Wrap from Buc’ees

What We Loved: We ate dinner in the parking lot of Buc’ees – and I chose the chicken fajita wrap. It came with two smaller wraps, so I had one on Friday night and the other one Saturday for lunch. Tons of flavor!

Saturday: Pesto Pasta with Asparagus and Peas

What We Changed: Annnnnd back to cooking! We did a grocery haul so I could get back to cooking. This recipe is actually a vegetarian recipe, which is rare for us, but it was good and filling. I did make a few adjustments. For the pesto, I had mixed greens rather than arugula, and I used dried basil rather than fresh. And I didn’t have pistachios, so I used chopped pecans, both in the pesto and on the top of the salad. I used chickpea pasta, per usual, and everything else was pretty accurate!

Sunday: Shimp Tacos with Latin Yellow Rice

What We Changed: This was pretty tasty! For the shrimp tacos, I used 4 large tortillas instead of 8 small ones. I skipped the jalapeno peppers in the slaw. And I skipped the sriracha in the sauce. This was also the first time I had air fried shrimp, and it was fast and tasty! In the rice, I skipped the Sazon seasoning and just used garlic and seasoned salt. It was really good!