Charleston Trip - Part One

My investment club just got back from a fabulous trip to Charleston, South Carolina.  It's amazing that twelve ladies could actually get our schedules together to make this happen - and even more amazing that on this trip, there was NO DRAMA!  It was wonderful!

Our first night in town, we were lucky enough to have dinner at Husk.  We did have to make reservations several months in advance since this place is very difficult to get into.  If you are planning a trip to Charleston, I highly recommend this place.

The menu changes daily and reflects the freshest seasonal ingredients.  A few of the more interesting things we tried were compressed watermelon, pig's ear lettuce wrap (I couldn't quite enjoy the pigs ear - it didn't taste bad, I just kept thinking about the treats I used to buy for my dogs),  pimento cheese spread (delicious!) and the baked grits.   We left Husk feeling so full, I thought we might pop.

This is a picture of the outside of the restaurant:

 On Saturday morning, there was a farmer's market in the town square adjacent to our hotel. The pink building in the background is the Embassy Suites where we stayed and it used to be the Citadel.  Although not fancy, the location was great, the place was clean, and the staff was attentive.  The free breakfast was also good.  The weird thing was that not all the rooms had windows.  Since we only went back there to sleep, it was fine.

 The produce and the flowers at the farmer's market were just spectacular.  Look at those peppers!  There were plenty of local artists selling their wares, and I know we all had a great time mulling around.

Charleston has plenty of steeples.  Oh, that blue sky and the *perfect* weather!

Part of our group took an afternoon to head to the beach.  We went to Folly Beach which ended up being a great choice.  There was a festival  going on in the little town, and there was plenty to do (or not to do!) for all of us.   Just looking at the beach pictures makes me feel relaxed.

Folly beach has a huge fishing dock if someone wanted to do some fishing.

The piers under the dock - I thought this was so cool! Some of the girls got in the water and then sat on the beach.  I walked around and took lots of pictures - just soaking it all up!

We took a carriage ride and learned some history of this beautiful town.

Tom pulled us with grace and strength.

Of course, there was shopping.  There are several in our group who are hard core shoppers and they were not disappointed in all that Charleston had to offer.  The City Market was fun and we all picked up a few things, but the big time shopping was done over on King Street.

In the next post, I'll share more fun stuff we did.  We packed a whole lot of stuff into the time we were there.  

Amelia Island, Florida

 We took off at the end of the week last week and checked in at the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island.  This was the view from our balcony.  Not bad!

 We took time every day to walk past the dunes and down to the shoreline.  I kept taking deep breaths of that beautiful sea air.  Oh, how I missed it!

I picked lots of shells - big ones, little ones, shiny and dull.  There were *millions* of them! 

 Don't you love the little sandpipers?  I could watch them zoom around all day.

On two of our trips to Old Downtown in Fernandina Beach we ate at Arte Pizza.  They have a wood fired oven that gives their pizza the most delicious taste.  Mmmmm. Their antipasto was awesome too.

We also ate at a place on the water called Brett's Waterfront Cafe.  At first we thought it looked too "touristy" but the food was actually very good. I ordered Chicken Cordon Bleu and it was more like fried chicken with a piece of ham and cheese on top with a white gravy but it was very tasty!  On the evening we ate with Doug's friends we ate at a place called Espana which was a Spanish restaurant with tapas and paella.  I'm not a big fan of Spanish food but I ordered the scallops and they were very good. 

While Doug played golf I went shopping.  The Picker's Market was a cool place with lots of junk because they had the most amazing selection of large iron pieces and made me wish I had a Uhaul to take a bunch home.  Not this trip. :(  Maybe next time!

Relaxing in Amelia Island

Doug and I are relaxing at the Ritz on Amelia Island, Florida.
There is just something about the salty sea air that slows me down and forces me to relax. Walking the beach, picking up seashells and just totally relaxing.
Ahhh - this is the life! ;)

Last of the vacation pictures - Tortola.

Goodbye for now Tortola~

Sandy Cay beach on Jost Van Dyke was another beautiful beach we got to visit. We hiked around the island and saw lush plant life and about a million hermit crabs. The floor of the vegetation was just crawling with crabs of all different sizes. The island also was home to turtle doves that cooed for us the entire time we were hiking. We saw a few geckos or salamanders - I'm not really sure what the difference is - and the views from the top of the island were amazing - 360 degree view of beautiful blue water.
There wasn't anything to see snorkeling at this location but the gentle waves made for great relaxation in the water.

One of the days we took a long boat ride out to this little flat island called Anegada where only 250 people live on the entire island.

All 16 of us climbed aboard an old clunker of an open air taxi truck and took a 10 minute ride to the other side of the island where there is an amazing beach.

Imagine our surprise when we ran into TWO separate groups that were visiting from Oklahoma! What is the likelihood of that? Another night when we docked both boats at Sidney's restaurant we ran into yet *another* set of people from Oklahoma! Just weird~

You see both teams represented on the back of our sister boat (OU and OSU). We all signed the OSU t-shirt and left it behind tacked to the wall at Sidney's.
One day we went to the baths - an amazing location with these huge rocks on the beach. It was kind of scary walking through them thinking that if they were to shift we would be forever flattened underneath them.

Look at this crab we found hiding on a rock. It was kind of dark and we could barely see him hiding but my flash did end up capturing him.

We snorkeled all around these rocks some of which went waaaayyyyy down into the ocean. We saw some pretty amazing fish here.

Just after we took this picture below and just before we took off from this beach to snorkel, a baby sting-ray came right up to us in the shallow water. We just observed it and it finally swam away but how cool!

I'm going to do one last post about our trip and just wait until you see the pictures we took in Tortola at Long Bay Beach!

Boarding our catamarans

We took the Ferry over to Tortola and had a little dinner on the beach while the crews finished getting our catamarans ready for us to board. You can't even believe the excitement!

We had planned this trip for approximately 16 months and we couldn't believe the time was here.

Once we boarded our boats we set sail for our first destination and where we would anchor for the night.

Our chef, Fiona, prepared us a nice dinner and we spent some time getting to know the other couples on our boat. There were four couples per boat plus a Captain and a Chef. Fiona is also a Captain and is launching her own reality series called SeaAngels in which her and several of her female friends captain boats all over the world raising money for charity. Both Hal and Fiona took excellent care of us all week and I would highly recommend them for not only a fun but also a safe vacation.

We snorkeled and swam at Oceans Seven Beach and saw some amazing coral and fish. The weather was warm but overcast and we did get a bit of rain. Towards the middle of the trip when the sun started coming out in full force we could see that the earlier in the week overcast days were actually a blessing to keep us from getting burnt to a crisp.

Our week just got better and better and better! Next post I'll share some pictures of the baths - these incredible giant rock formations that we got to walk through and snorkel around.
I'm just now coming out of my fog from the trip and I've had sealegs all week. It's totally worth it though and if you *ever* have the opportunity to go on one of these trips, I would HIGHLY recommend it!

British Virgin Islands

We are back from absolute paradise and had such a fun time! We took ten days and went to the British Virgin Islands with seven other couples to sail on chartered catamarans. Our first stop was St. Thomas since it is the easiest place to fly to from Tulsa. We all arrived late on Thursday night, checked into our rooms, met for a drink and then, since we were pretty exhausted, called it a night.
Friday morning we all met for breakfast and decided to head out for a day of shopping, sightseeing and just having fun! Here we are gathering the troops for our first full day of adventure.

We shopped for a while then jumped on an open air bus and headed up to Bluebeard's Castle.

The views were amazing!


That evening we had dinner at a restaurant called "Hook, Line & Sinker". The food was very good and our trip was off to a great start!
Here we are the next day waiting for the ferry to take us to Tortola where we would board our boats.

To be continued...

Back from Vegas!

We got back late last night from Vegas and I've got a million things to do today but wanted to give a quick post about our trip.
We stayed at the Palazzo in a very nice room that overlooked part of the strip.


In the lobby connecting the Palazzo and the Venetian was an animated butterfly. As people walked by her wings would flutter and she would bat her eyelashes.

Butterflies were the theme and they had all these amazing sculptures covered in beautiful flowers.

These poppies were at the Bellagio and the fragrance was amazing!

We saw Barry Manilow on Friday night and I have to say that was the absolute highlight of the trip. My only complaint is that I wish he could have stayed on stage and sang about 20 more of my all time Manilow favorites. :) He told stories of when he was young and how he came to be a musician and he also sang a song from his soon to be released, brand new CD with *original* songs. The way the lighting is done in the show didn't allow for very good pictures from the audience. I'm going to try to edit a couple that I took but I'm not sure if I will post them.
After the show we ate at a restaurant called Mon Ami Gabi. The food was absolutely delicious!
We did some shopping, lots of people watching and a little gambling and over all just had a great time. It's always nice to get back home though and we picked up the dogs this morning so I've got to go love on them a little bit. :)

2010 in Review

(Warning: LONG POST!)
What a year this has been! I knew it had been busy and crazy at times, but when I actually sat down and took an inventory of what happened this year even I'm surprised! Of course, I can't include everything but here is some of what went on in our world this year:
(Remember, you can click on the highlighted links to take you to the posts I've previously done or click on the pictures to make them larger)
Brave Girls:

What an experience this was. Something my soul so desperately needed - time to be still, time to think, and time to meet a group of amazing, like-minded women. I came back from Idaho with a new perspective and new friends.
At Brave Girls I met Rachel - and what a great year we've had! We signed up and traveled to multiple crafty venues this year. Looking forward to more in 2011!

Mary Englebreit Conference:

I traveled to St. Louis where I met up with Rachel and met her sweet friend Kara. We had such a fun time together on this trip! Creating, eating, sharing stories. It was great!

Craft Room Organization (Almost):

In 2010 I wanted to get my craft room in shape. At one point early in the year I literally couldn't walk around in there. I hired a personal organizer to come help me because yes, I was *that* overwhelmed with what I was facing. The organizer came and we worked for several days sorting, purging, planning - and things were coming along pretty well. However, I think I totally overwhelmed her because she had a minor accident on her bike and needed to take a break until she healed. I've tried to contact her and haven't heard another word. Guess I'm on my own to finish. I'm GOING TO COMPLETE this project in 2011. When I do, I will post before pictures (they will remind you of Hoarders) and afters. It's going to be good!
I left my consulting gig. Yep ~ unemployed. I had been feeling that it was time to move on but that is always a scary proposition especially when you don't know what is next. I took a leap of faith and decided I would take a month off and figure out what I would do after our trip. Well - a month has now turned into 7 months and I'm praying for work in the new year. No regrets though as to leaving - it was definitely time.

Our trip of a lifetime to Rome:

What a time we had!

I loved that Doug enjoyed himself so much on that trip. I did too but it made it even better for me that he loved Rome!

We ate and drank and totally absorbed the Italian culture. The food ruined us for food back home. Everything in Rome is so fresh and so flavorful and simple! We got home to tasteless garbage. What a bummer!
We took a trip back East that got cut short. While in NYC, before we could see my family in Connecticut, we got word that Doug's mom was very sick and we needed to get home right away. It wasn't good.
In September, we lost Doug's Mom. We miss you Carol...

Creative Connection:
Another *amazing* event! Rachel and I signed up for this one and could barely wait to attend! We can't wait for the announcement of the dates for 2011 because we are all over it!

What a surprise for us when we ran into our fellow Brave Girls Melody and Margie.

I went to Las Vegas for Inspiration Unlimited. It was my first trip ever to Vegas and I didn't really even get to see anything! I went straight to the hotel and attended the scrappy conference. I met some really nice ladies there and clicked with Collette (not pictured). I enjoyed the projects although, like usual I didn't get to finish them. Overall though, honestly, I didn't enjoy the event itself. The people were "different" - no where near as friendly as the women I've met at Mary Englebreit, Creative Connection and Silver Bella.

Silver Bella - This was my first year to attend and definitely NOT my last. I drove to Omaha and roomed with Rachel. Met some new friends, saw some "old" friends and took a handful of fun classes. Again - didn't get much completed but had such fun. That is what matters, right?

Just back from Omaha, Doug and I made the trip to Connecticut to meet my sweet new nephew Joao (pictured below). During our whirlwind trip we took a day trip to New York with Bobby & Jess.

We also had a baby shower for my sister January during that visit. It was a quick trip but so great to finally see my family - especially since the trip in August didn't quite work out.
We got to meet Baby Joao. I love my sweet nephew!

The day after Christmas Baby Garrett was born to my sister January. Can't wait to get to meet him!

Looking forward to a great 2011 - Happy New Year Everyone!