What To Do This Weekend?

Well, it's Thursday and that means I should start to think about what to do this weekend besides the usual ~ visiting with the parents, cleaning the house, and grocery shopping.  Dinner?  Movie?  Outdoor something or other?

My husband and I have seen some really good movies lately.  This past weekend, in honor of Halloween, we wanted to see either a scary movie or a creepy one so we watched Nightcrawler with Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo.  So creepy and good!!  A little graphic but the second half of the movie was better than the first half.  Really original and exciting!  A week or so before that we watched Gone Girl.  I had read the book so I knew how the movie would end but they did a fantastic job with it.  I'd recommend the book over the movie but just by a tiny bit.  Also, a bit graphic!  That surprised me...  I'd like to see Interstellar next although I hear it's quite long.

Last Friday were were busy handing out chocolate candy to the trick or treators.  Only half of whom were polite and said 'thank you'.  Lovely.  One little girl dressed up as 'the wind' and we had a couple of 'angels of death' with great costumes!  Those three young ladies all said thank you so they get two thumbs up from me.

I could pass up fun altogether and start painting our dining room gray and white but I think I might put that off until Thanksgiving week.  :-/

South Carolina X 3

View of Intracoastal Waterway from our hotel room's balcony

Hi all!  Long time, no post.  Again.  I'm not doing too well and keeping a regular schedule anymore.  Sorry about that!  I mentioned last time that I'd post about my trip to Charleston in April.  Figured since I've been to South Carolina three times this year (and never before that!) that I might as well post about all three trips to the Palmetto State.  Here goes!

The first time I visited South Carolina, my husband and I drove to Charleston.  In early July, we drove to attend a family gathering near Aiken.  A couple of weeks later, we drove to Myrtle Beach to stay at Marina Inn at Grande Dunes resort right on the Intracoastal Waterway (see photo above).  Talk about a lot of driving back and forth from Virginia to SC!

I had a lot of fun on all three trips but had to work remotely during our Charleston journey so that put a damper on the vacation.  We stayed at the historic Francis Marion Hotel downtown for one night and walked around the city a lot.  The location of our hotel was perfect!  We ate a lot of good food and really enjoyed the college town atmosphere.  Savannah Bee Company was a fun store to check out and we lucked out on the weather.  We moved to a hotel in the suburbs to save money after our first night in town and that was a really good decision on our part.  It put us closer to the beaches and we had access to a pool and more space.  I'd recommend the Town and Country Inn and Suites because we enjoyed our stay but I wasn't crazy about their breakfasts (too expensive).

I'd say one highlight of our trip was the horse drawn carriage tour of the historic part of downtown Charleston.  Another would be our ride out to Folly Beach.  Lots to do, the beach was gorgeous, and you can fish!  See photo below ~

We both loved visiting the Aiken area because it has a totally laid back vibe and it was less crowded than the coast.  Apparently, this is horse country!  I wanted to see inside of a Hobby Lobby store because I'm a crafter and it was overwhelming and fabulous.  A must see for anyone who loves craft stores!  We also ate some great barbeque and enjoyed wandering around getting to know the area.

Myrtle Beach was a must-see for me because everyone down South talks about going all of the time.  We stayed at a Hilton property that has its own private beach access and we LOVED the resort.  I'd recommend it to everyone.  The only downside is the traffic.  Eight million people on the roads and not enough traffic lights equaled chaos.  There was a wait everywhere we went (except for the beach) and it was loud, loud, loud.  We're older, quieter folks.  Myrtle Beach is great but not for us.  I'm SO GLAD we went and I can see why it's so popular but next time we are going to pick a less stressful destination spot on the water.  Here's the giant crab in front of one of the many seafood buffet restaurants (expensive but a must see):