The trip to Charleston swung into action the moment I saw that The Constellations were opening up for Minus the Bear at the Music Farm. Joining me for the show would be Suzanne & Krissie. I called in a favor and scored us tickets to the show and then found a room near the venue that wasn’t sky high since it was Memorial Day Weekend.
5:30 AM – Sunday, May 29th – the alarm goes off…I am still hungover from the stupid fun I had on Thursday, Friday, & Saturday. Time to rally though. I can sleep when I’m dead…or on the beach. I swing by Suzanne’s and we load Hailey the Honda up with beach essentials…football, boogie board, vodka & red bull. We head onward to pick up Krissie…after a few slight wrong turns and mispronunciations we now have everyone and everything we need for the beach. I slept for 2.5 hours. Suzanne for an hour, and Krissie for 4.5 hours…combined total, 8 hours of sleep before Charleston fun…we’re good right?? Delirium and laughter set in right outside of Rock Hill, SC. Suzanne’s Facebook Update: Road trip: Red bull vodka, Shelia, krissie, banana, 1 hour plus 2 hours plus 4.5 hours collectively equals one full nights sleep and a partridge in a pear tree. Then Suzanne from the backseat says, “Shelia be careful of Yoshimi, he’ll spin you out but I have a banana to throw at him and I’ll be damned if Mario the Italian is on the beach, I’ll throw the banana at him instead.” She then falls asleep. We arrive at Isle of Palms by 11ish…give or take a few minutes. We park. We hit the beach for chilling, sunning, & floating in the beach.
3:30 PM – we reload the car & go check into our hotel. We hit the cobblestone streets of Charleston in search of food and land at 39 Rue de Jean…to us Rue. We ask to sit on the patio and order beer, wine, water, oysters, crab salads, and sushi. Our server RJ had impeccable timing…and by impeccable, I mean, he walked up at every inappropriate converstaion we were having, but he got our sleep deprived humor and put up with us. He had just as much as we did so we ordered a cheese plate, fries, edamame, dessert, and martinis. Please go to Rue and sit in RJ’s section. He was completely awesome. So awesome, we were going to buy him drinks after his shift. That sadly didn’t happen because well…what had happened was…
7:30 PM – we walk out of the hotel and across the block to the Music Farm. The Constellations hit the stage at 7:55 pm and we want to grab a drink and a spot in the crowd. There is some sort of kick ass party in the block we are walking across and it instantly lifts our tired spirits and settles us for a night of great music. We befriend DeAngelo behind the bar, order a round, and head to the merch table and Jamie from the Constellations greets us. We hug, I buy a shirt, wish a good show and then drag Suzanne & Krissie into the crowd. Krissie has seen me at a Constellations show…Suzanne was about to experience her first…the band hits the stage and rocked are faces off for the next 35 minutes. We also acquire a new friend, name unknown…her friends didn’t want to dance and we were. We were also the only people in the crowd drinking and the oldest people in the crowd. Score 2 points for the 21 & up crowd!! Suzanne is now a fan of the band 🙂 We return to the bar and buy the band a round of shots and as the 2nd band plays we leave. We saw who we came to see and hit the streets of Charleston. Quick run through…we hit A.C.’s…don’t dig the vibe going on, chug some drinks, bail. My depth perception is not at full capacity and what looks like a 2 foot drop is a 5 foot drop and I end up on my ass after scaling a wall. Nothing’s broken. Nothing’s bruised. Laughter ensues and we continute to walk. We hit Hyman’s Seafood, drink a round of drinks, bail because the overpowering smell of seafood. Hit TBonz for food and drinks we don’t finish. Return to the hotel by 11:30 pm and pass out from exhaustion and booze.
Monday…we wake up, have breakfast, shower, check out and hit the streets of Charleston for a little shopping. I, being the Buffett fan, request Margaritaville trip but between the hotel and there we stop at some awesome stores like Robot Candy Co. If you need a 4.75 lb gummi bear, they’ve got it. If you need candy from your childhood (lemonheads, grapeheads, candy cigarettes, etc), they’ve got it too. We goof off in Margaritaville for a bit and then hit a side street. I hear Shelia Taylor being yelled out into the Charleston air. Suzanne & Krissie proclaim I know someone everywhere. A blast from my past, Miss Tracy Little…fantastic chef and spontaneous person and I hug, catch up, and promise to keep in touch. She working at Charleston Place and we agree that the next I’m down, I’m eating there. We continue our walk and stumble into Mellow Mood and spend a solid hour there. Suzanne & I buy dresses for the summer here and for our Australia trip in December. Jay & Tanya are the best ever! I felt at home in their store. Jay chatted with us about Australia, the places he & his wife visits, the fabrics of the dresses, the stones in the jewelry, and so on. We leave with our purchases as happy as can be and lifetime patrons. So lifetime that two hours later, I return to the store and buy the dress that caught my eye in the first place. I knew it was suppose to be bought if it was still in the store and it was and Xavier Rudd was playing as well. Universe, I listened. I bought it. We head to Squeeze on suggestion from Jay but it is closed and we had to Mac’s Place Pub & Grub. When we walk in, we all 3 agree, it’s our kind of bar. We hang out with Travis the bartender and recap what a great store Mellow Mood was and the great people we have met in Charleston. We also agree that we’re down for a day trip and make plans to do it again in June and every month after that too.
So thanks to: RJ (Rue), DeAngelo (Music Farm), Jay & Tanya (Mellow Mood), Travis (Mac’s Place) for your great services and to everyone else we met along the way that made the trip fantastic.
A huge thanks to the Constellations for putting on a hell-uv-a show and of course thanks to Suzanne and Krissie who joined me on this road trip.
The world is your oyster people…make each moment count.
