A trip to Charleston

Hey guys, I'm back with another post. I went to Charleston with my mom for two nights, and I gotta say it was one of the best vacations ever! Normally I can't enjoy vacations because my brother will complain the whole time about something stupid, but this vacation was just a girl's trip, so it was so nice, and relaxing. So anyways I'm going to document my trip, and basically say what we did, and all that. 

Me and my mom woke up early and went for a run together. We both just do a three mile course with a couple hills. So after we went running, we showered, and got ready. Then we headed out on the road. From our house to Charleston, it's about a four hour drive. So we drove up there, and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Ansonborough Inn. The hotel is really old, and has character. I think it was built in 1910 or something like that. When we checked in they upgraded our room at no cost, so we were excited, and we were just expecting it to be a tiny upgrade. But they surprised us a lot. They put us in a suite!! My mom walked in and said "holy shit", because this is the best room we both have ever stayed in. The room was so nice, and we loved the architecture.  

The sitting area. I loved sitting here, and watching HGTV. 

This room had it's own fireplace. I loved having this fireplace on, it made it so cozy. 

This bed seriously made me, and my mom feel like queens. I mean I'm tiny, I only take up about 1/3 of my twin size bed, and yet I got all this space. Like dang. 

It had it's own bar area too, which is nice if you want to sit down. 

This old chandelier hung over the bed, and it's very pretty, especially during the night because it dims. 

After we got settled in the hotel, we went to go get lunch. We went to Ted's Butcherblock. I had the Italian sandwich with a side of mac and cheese. The Italian sandwich is pretty good, and it's a good affordable place to go in Charleston to eat. 

 This mac and cheese was really good. It was very rich, and it's served cold. You have to be sure to get the mac and cheese if you go to this restaurant. 

After lunch we decided to walk around town a little bit, and check it out. I just love the architecture of Charleston, it's very charming. 

I thought these bikes looked cute so I snapped a pic. 

We visited the waterfront park, and it was very pretty. I got some good pictures.

I just love the old oak trees. They are so beautiful. 

I took a picture in front of the pineapple fountain.

I thought this house looked cute so I took a picture with it. 

I love the flower bed of this house!

We walked around for a while, and snapped lots of pictures. I like how the streets are colorful, it made up for the uninspiring weather while we were there. 

This door is so cool. The  architecture in Charleston just makes for some really great photos. 

I love this photo, I think this is the best photo I've taken in a while. I really love the vintage sign, it really sets the scene. 

While we were walking we came across an old graveyard. It was kinda creepy. I can't imagine how it is at night, I would not go in there. 

This is another photo that I really like. I could just see this photo being a story somehow, I don't know how to describe it. It's kinda like the feeling of being able to write a whole story based off of one photo. 

After we walked for a while we headed back to the hotel, and as you can see I'm bundled up in my boyfriend's jacket of course. He gave me his old track jacket so of course I'm going to be wearing it. When it was 5 we also went downstairs for free wine and cheese hour. So we got some goodies, and then headed back up to our room. 

I just felt spoiled, so my mom snapped this photo of me eating chocolate on the bed while wearing the hotel robe.

Later on I took a bath because why not, it's on their dime. After the bath I chilled for a little bit, then went to bed. 

We woke up around 7 the next day, and went down for free breakfast. I ate a bagel with cream cheese. Then we went back up to the room to get ready to go to the Middleton place plantation. 

The scenery was so beautiful here. This is the first plantation I've ever visited, and it was well worth the admission price. It's just crazy to think that someone used to be this rich, because of all the land. 

I went crazy with pictures at the plantation.

This statue is really cool, and it adds a old element to the garden. 

The property is so pretty because it's right on the river. 

I couldn't help to take pictures in front of this beautiful scenery. 

Another shot from a different angle. 

I just love the Spanish moss trees that inhabited this plantation. We don't really have Spanish moss in North Carolina, so seeing Spanish moss trees was great. 

I thought this was a cute picture. 

Here is one of the old houses that are on this plantation. The houses have so much character, and they look really cute. 

And yet another statue that looks cool. 

There was animals that were on the plantation. They had goats, chickens, ducks, horses, a peacock, some sheep, pigs, cows, and a bull kind of thing(I don't know what it's called). I really enjoyed the sheep the most because of the noises they make. 

This was the closest I've ever gotten to a peacock before, this photo is so good. My mom actually took this picture, and I'm using it because my peacock photos were not as good as this one. 

After we left the plantation we went out to lunch. And my god if you guys go to Charleston, you have to go to Cru Cafe. I ordered the general Tao's chicken Entrée with a side of mac and cheese. I lost the picture of the general Tao's chicken Entrée somehow, but it was so good. 

At least I have a picture of the amazing mac, and cheese. This was by far the best meal of the vacation. 

After lunch we just walked around Charleston some more. 

Then later on I watched HGTV, took a bath, and went to bed.

We woke up around 6;30, and packed up our stuff to head back home. We showered, and left the hotel around 8. We stopped by Callie's Hot Little Biscuit for breakfast, and it was so good. The biscuits are like little dough balls. I ordered two buttermilk biscuits, and one bacon biscuit. These biscuits are bite size, so that's why I got three biscuits. 

These were so good. The bacon biscuit was the best, and had the most flavor. I also ordered a mint iced tea to go with it, and it was pretty good. We ate the biscuits in the car, that way we can get home at an earlier time. So we just drove home, and we got home at around 12. And for the rest of the day I was working on this blog post. 

I really enjoyed the trip, and I would for sure visit Charleston again in the near future. The food was really good. I love the character, and architecture of the city. You know what I noticed in Charleston, is that people drive crazy, so you have to watch out.  Like for example when we were going to plantation, there was a guy who was driving on the other side of the road when there was a downhill, and he was speeding. Like he could easily get injured because it's a downhill, and you can't even see who is coming. So just a warning, people are crazy. But other than that I can't complain. It was great because it was just a girl's trip, so we could relax without worrying about my brother Cal complaining. 

Thanks for tuning in on my blog. I'll see you guys next week with another post. 

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How to pack light for vacation

Hey guys I thought I might do a post about how to pack light for vacation, because I am going to Charleston on Tuesday for a two day trip. It will just be me, and my mom who are going to Charleston because my family worked out a deal. It was either go on vacation or get a bike, and I chose going on vacation over the bike. My brother got a bike, and he's staying back. And my dad likes staying behind on the vacations anyways, and I can just use his bike when I want to. So it all works out. Originally we were going to go to Emerald Isle, but it's going to be raining when we wanted to go, so instead we're going to Charleston. It will be raining in Charleston too on the days we are going, but we don't think it's a big deal because Charleston is all about the art galleries, food, and shopping. I'm very excited, and so is my mom. I've never been to Charleston so this will be a good experience. From the photos I saw, it is very pretty there, and I like the architecture. 

You may think you need a ton of stuff when packing for vacation, but what if I told you that you only need a few basics. A lot of us make the excuse that we need something when packing. You may say to yourself, "that's just in case if we go here", or "lets bring this just in case it gets cold". We all make those excuses to stuff our bags to the brim. But if you look past all those maybes, you will be able to pack less. So here are some packing tips to help you pack light. 

When you pack only what you think you will use it eliminates the sense of packing things that you know you won't use. Actually when I was younger I would pack a giant duffel bag for only a two day vacation, and I enjoyed packing a ton of extra stuff, even though I didn't use it. It was like my entertainment, and now fast forward when I pack for a two day trip, all I take is my backpack. This tip would have helped me a lot when I was younger. 

Long trips cause you to stuff your suitcases full of too many things. But you can prevent this by only packing for a week. I know no one really wants to do laundry over vacation, but it is a way to save luggage space. That way you can just reuse the same clothing, and wash it. What happens a lot of the time with stuff like toiletries, you usually end up packing more toiletries than you actually need, so it will be hard to run out of product in the first place. But then if you run out you can go to the local store to pick up more of a product if you run out of something. With toiletries, most hotels provide basic things like shampoo, and conditioner, and soap, so if your hotel offers that then you really don't have to worry about packing those basic things. 

Plan ahead on what shoes you want to wear, check the temperature, and pick what shoes your going to wear depending on what you will be doing on vacation. What I usually do is wear one pair of shoes for the whole trip, that way I don't have to have shoes taking up extra space. I know in some situations, you will need two pairs of shoes, so just pack accordingly based on the conditions. Lets say you do what I do, where you only have one pair of shoes on vacation, make sure that they are versatile for all situations. Not just for one dinner, or one day at the pool, if you know what I mean. 

A lot of people carry around extra stuff in their wallet or purse that they may not actually need for the vacation. So to save space in your bag, only pack what is essential for the vacation. Especially for girls this tip applies the most because woman usually always have their purse filled full of stuff that they don't even know is in there. So only carrying what is essential is a very liberating feeling, and it's good to only have what you essentially need. 

This tip actually works because it makes you evaluate what you're going to pack more since you have less space to work with. I tried this, and it actually made me think more decisively about the stuff that I was packing for vacation. Packing a smaller, and more light bag also feels very liberating, and it creates a mental sense of freedom in a way. 

That was all my tips for packing light, get excited for a Charleston travel diary post coming up next week. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you guys next week!

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My Summer Room

Hey guys I'm back again with another post! It's finally summer break, so I decided to decorate my room for summer!! I think it looks really cute, and summery. So let's take a peek.

This is what you see when you first walk into my room.

This is my dresser, I added some sea shells, magnolia clippings, and a summer quote that says "live a bikini kinda life" to add a summery vibe to my room. 

Here is a closeup of the quote. I really like the font of it, and also this summer I am going to live a bikini kind of life. 

I love the magnolia clippings, it adds a kind of tropical vibe to my room.

This is a closeup of my bed, I taped some magnolia clippings to the frame of my bed, and I changed out my pillow for the summer. 

I bought this pillow a couple months ago for spring and summer, and it's really cute. Stripes are kind of a summer staple for basically the whole summer, so stripes really add a summery kind of look to your home, or outfits, etc. Isn't this pillow so adorable by the way?! I love it.

This is a closeup of magnolia leafs I added to the top of my bed. These are real, so when these clipping die, I can just go click some more, and change it out. 

I painted this last year, it's of a cliff by the ocean. I replaced my spring barn painting, with this more summery painting, and I really like how it works. 

I used to have a table at the front of my bed frame, but I decided to change it out with this crate, because the crate adds a more beachy vibe to the space. 

I used to have a sunflower painting in the place of this painting, but then I changed it out to this painting. This was when I was first learning how to paint, so it's a bit bad, but it I like how it looks a bit abstract. If you were wondering when I painted this I attempted to paint a couple cliffs on the ocean. It didn't work out so well. 

Then this is the last part of my room. I didn't decorate this area or anything for summer, but I thought I would just show you guys this area anyways.