A day date in Charleston, South Carolina.

When I first got married to Nate I moved to Columbia, South Carolina (where he currently was based) which is 1.5 hours from Charleston. Needless to say I found myself visiting very often. If not with him, with a friend. As a newlywed we made such sweet memories in Charleston and it held a dear place in our hearts when we left. We currently live a 3.5 hour drive from Charleston so we took a two day date down to the beaches and here are some of the places we went to go eat and relax. It was a gorgeous 75 degrees and we just enjoyed sitting on the beach together for 1.5 days. Highly recommend!

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Beaches

Isle of Palms

Isle of Palms is such a darling island. Think beautiful beach homes lining the beach with Palmetto trees and darling walkways to get to the beaches. South Carolina calls their state tree the Palmetto tree and they are everywhere.

Isle of Palm is right down the road from Sullivan’s Island. The reason I love these beaches is it’s not super commericialized such as Myrtle Beach where there are rows of large hotels.

Sullivan’s Island

On our day date in Charleston, we relaxed on Sullivan’s Island which is down the road 15 minutes from Isle of Palms. It has a row of restaurants to get some food. One of the ones we checked out was The Longboard. Read on to hear about how that experience was.

As far as parking and beach access goes it’s pretty easy to find a place to park. We went on a Friday afternoon. Out of all the times I have been to Charleston, I haven’t found it difficult to find parking. I grew up on the West coast so when I first went to the beach on the east coast I was expecting it to be cold. That is a funny story with my husband and I when we first got married. We still laugh at it to this day. I showed up to Charleston for the first time with a hoodie and pants because I thought it would be cold like the Oregon beach always is.

Lodging

As far as lodging in Charleston you can stay downtown in the Main street historic city of Charleston which is where you will find the cobble roads, horse tours and fabulous southern homes along with many fine dining options. Nate was there on a trip one time recently and went to The Darling restaurant which is an oyster bar and he said the shrimp and grits there were the best he’s ever had.

There are plenty of areas on the beach you can find to stay at, whether you rent a home or get a local hotel. You can drive to the beaches if you stay further away as well. Many options depending on what you want to experience and how you like to travel.

Charleston Eats

During our day date in Charleston, we ate at a restaurant in Sullivan’s Island called The Longboard. It started in St. John and has a Tommy Bahama restaurant vibe. It wasn’t a fabulous experience but worth checking out if you haven’t been. The decor is pretty like you’re on a beach, the food is ok; however, I did leave my brussels sprouts because they were fried with no flavor. So I don’t recommend those.

I do recommend this Ceviche. However the portion size was small so make sure to order an entree too. It comes with these delicious plantain chips. I love fresh plantain chips with any dip.

Nate ordered the tuna and he left a little hungry. Again not a large portion for the price point so keep that in mind.

When I called to make a reservation the staff took my reservation time and said “see you then” and hung up and and never took my name down. LOL Needless to say they didn’t have us in their system for a reservation. I figured we would go somewhere else if they were booked so I didn’t bother calling back. So overall, it’s ok, but we wouldn’t go back to the Longboard for dinner. I would check out the brunch. That looks delicious. It was pricey for the amount of food and the service wasn’t great. You can check out the menu for the Longboard here if you do decide to check it out.

I did discovered the most amazing juice shop I’ve ever been in off shore in Mt Pleasant. Mt Pleasant is the city before you get to the island beaches.

It’s family/locally owned with just the one location. The kids working were super friendly, helpful and cared about what they were doing. It was simple, with pretty prices and delicious. I got a 32 oz juice for the price of one 16 ounce that you would get at a juice franchise.

Nate got the avocado toast and I got the hummus toast. Delicious! They sprinkled mint. sea salt, lemon juice, cucumber and sprouts on the hummus toast. It was the perfect wake up meal. Tall glass of juice and humus toast. We went back there twice while visiting.

We also checked out a Poke Bowl place called Poke Brothers. It wasn’t the best experience or bowl but I would go back. I love a good Poke Bowl.

We also went to Kid Cashew on our day date in Charleston. There is a location in Charlotte as well so we knew it was pretty good. Kid Cashew is a Wood Fired Grill with a Mediterranean-focus menu with a variety of kale and quinoa bowls, wood-fired veggies. I love the salmon and stuffed quinoa avocado. For some reason at this location the avocado wasn’t as appealing and good as the Charlotte location. Nate got this shrimp and grits.

Their hummus is really good and I add veggies with it along with pita.

I like balsamic drizzled all over my sprouts so I had to ask them to bring some lemon juice because there wasn’t a lot of flavor in these. You can check out how I dress up my brussels here. I have a hard time with restaurants brussels because they seem to not add much flavor to them or are either too fried or not cooked just right. These were cooked good just not much flavor, so add some hummus to them with a lot of lemon juice!

On our way home we stopped at a restaurant I like in Columbia, SC called Tazza Kitchen. I’ve been there twice since I’ve moved back to the South and I recommend the Kale Salad and add salmon or chicken. It’s the closest salad I have found that is similar to True Foods Organic Kale Salad which is my favorite. Still awaiting True Foods to open up near me. That is my favorite restaurant and I could eat everything on the menu.

Marriage

This next section is for all of you who are getting married, want to be married or are married. For those of you who are newer readers who don’t know my story, I waited very intentionally for my husband. He is an answered prayer. Many years of waiting, believing and trusting God had the perfect plan/man for me. I was pretty much always single because I knew marriage wasn’t going to be a Disneyland experience and was going to be hard work with lots of challenges along the way. Which, now that I think about it, Disneyland (with small children) is hard work and lots of challenges! LOL Maybe that wasn’t a great example.

I needed to find that kind of man who I wanted to trudge the road of life with. With that, we have been married 12 years and are at that stage where some of you may relate: three small kids, no support system, and he’s gone an awful lot. With that, I live my life with intention and resiliency with a method of constantly becoming. I am a work under construction and so is our marriage. We have always put our marriage first and made sure our children know that their parents work together and stand firm with each other on important areas. Again if, I wasn’t so clear and persistent in what kind of man I wanted, I would have settled and probably been divorced. Needless to say we are on the same page. We don’t have family around to watch our kids. We pay for support. So with that, heres my challenge to you.

If you have family/friends to help or even if you don’t, make that time together so it’s just you two talking, planning and being. Figure out a date to go sit and be with each other.

Closing thoughts on a day date in Charleston.

1. Marriage Commitment Mentorship: We invest in one monthly call with a marriage mentorship couple. They are out of Oregon so we do this via Zoom. If Nate can not get on the these calls because of his schedule I would go on by myself and or we would find a time to reschedule to meet individually with the couple. It’s basically a business coaching session because let’s face it, your marriage is a business in a way. For more info on how you can get your marriage involved in the Marriage Commitment Mentorship reach out here to them.
2. We are not one to sit down much and watch TV. We are constantly playing catch up in one way or another in life. We like to find a TV show we both like and that makes us be intentional to sit and be with each other. Sometimes the show starts conversations that relate to our family life and each other. Sometimes we just sit and enjoy and be with each other. The only cost is the monthly Hulu membership which is the only reason we got the Hulu. We have done this twice with a TV series and are currently watching This is Us. We love it and enjoy that time to sit and be. Or we will watch a movie we already know and love together. Maybe this one isn’t for you because you already sit and watch TV. We have to make it happen otherwise we are tired when the kids are down and just want to go be alone to regroup from the kids. Most of the time I use my time when kids go to bed to work whether I’m blogging, creating choreography, listening to music for workouts or color matching someone. Making this time once or twice a week has been helpful in just being with each other. He is a morning person and I am a night person so sitting down at night has to be intentional otherwise he will go to bed at 8.
3. Lastly, we go on a date. For us it’s not always dinner. My husband being a pilot we have to get creative. It could be breakfast or lunch. It’s usually dinner because we still have one little guy not in school yet so when we hire a sitter we make sure she’s there for all 3 of them. Sometimes we actually make our “This is Us” show night our date night. We tell the kids you are in bed and stay in your bed because mommy and daddy have a date planned and it’s at home! No interruptions. Your kids will notice how you value each other and it’s great for their security and mental health. I tell my daughter who is eight that we do this so we don’t get a divorce. She needs to learn that marriage is a work program.

I hope this helps you either discover a new place to travel or make the time to invest in your marriage. I know after we had three kids marriage got to that “for better or for worse.” We are finding we constantly need to be in check with ourselves, each other and as a family. If we let the not so good feelings pass by, they bottle up and end up in an explosion. Your kids thrive when you have a strong marriage, they need to see how you are working towards your marriage to feel secure and safe.

Check out my reel here to see all photos and video experiences from this day date in Charleston, South Carolina.

Question for you?

What are some of the ways you and your husband spend that quality time together? Comment below and help us all out.

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