Holidays Trip to…Charleston, SC

Definitely Airbnb (airbnb.com) has become our preferred app to book a place to stay. It is cheaper and most importantly we get to meet locals. And if you like to travel as much as we do, you should know that experiences when traveling is everything. You might not remember the place but you will definitely  remember the conversations, the smell, the laughs, and that will trigger the good memories.  

This was a short stop to Charleston thus we only spent a night on our way to see the family in Orlando, Fl (The Toll City :$ ). We stayed at Mt. Pleasent area, which is only 10 minutes from The French Quarter. This area looks very modern and growing; there are new constructions everywhere you look around. 

Revelry Brewing (@revelrybrewing) was our first stop of the night. They have very complex beers selection (this is a great compliment). We picked a barrel aged stout black and a belgian blonde. You gotta sit at the Rooftop…spoiler: the view is amazing. Nice crew, awesome environment, reasonable prices. 

City Market was our next stop. It was too late in the night to see the artesians but we had our appetizer as an anticipation for the entree the next day. 

The next day we said bye to our host and headed to the City Market (the main attraction). I didn’t know before Charleston is a cruise town. With that mind, there was a lot people in the City Market (Tip: try to look for a parking on the street. We paid over 15$ just for couple of hours. Don’t make that mistake.) Yes, you gotta go to the City Market. People work hard to make things for you to remember the city and come back to it:  baskets, soaps, scultures, paintings, pictures, horse ridings, books, recipes, food, chocolates, jewelry, clothes, scarves, more and more. At the time to leave this beautiful city we stopped to eat. 

Taziki’s (@tazikis) is a small mediterranean restaurant. As we started on this vegan diet adventure, we couldn’t pick a better place to continue with our healthy lifestyle. We ate two delicious sandwiches to then and only then continue hitting the road off to Orlando. 

MB

Wine Tasting Black Friday in North Carolina!

 

This year for the Thanksgiving weekend we decided to stay local and promote the small biz (An excuse to explore the nearest vineyards).

Our Black Friday started at 11:00am in Adams Vineyards & Winery. If you enjoy Muscatine and Fruit Wines this is a great place to visit. They have a great variety of wines, most of them are North Carolina awards winners. Among of those are: Papa Johnny’s Reserve and Mathew Red Reserve. Check their website here: adamsvineyards.com.

We are more dry wines drinkers. Adams has 3 different dry wines: Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, and Beulah. We chose the Beulah as the one to take home. It is a well balanced white wine. Ahh!! the owners are super sweet and easy to talk to….that’s what I call the true Southern Hospitality.

The second stop was Chatham Hill Winery in Cary. These guys export the grapes from the NC mountains and complete the wine process in the facilities in Cary. They have a large wine menu, checkout the website: chathamhillwine.com. We did the DRY Wine Tasting, where we tasted 8 (eight) different wines from the Dry Wine list. This list includes 12 (twelve) wines. They have also a Semi-Sweet Wine Tasting (but as I said before, we are more Dry wine drinkers at this point of our lives). I recommend the Perfect Harmony, Malbec and Cabernet Franc. If you are not in the mood for wine tasting go for a glass of any of those three.

Our third stop was a failure. We went to Cloer Family Vineyards to find out that it was closed. So, we headed to our truly third stop of the day: Doyle’s Vineyard. They were hosting a Wine and Painting event at that time but that didn’t stop Doyle to meet us in the Wine Tasting Room.  Doyle has six (6) whites and seven (7) reds going from dry to semi-sweet. No fruits wines in this place…just as an FYI. This place deserves you open a bottle and relax enjoying the view (if the weather permits). The Kaleidoscope’s Gold or Red or the Zinfandel (100% Zinfandel) are my top three, mix it with dark chocolate for a sweet treat.

I must say the best part of our wine tasting tour was the people we met… and skipping the Black Friday chaos in the Mega Stores!!!!

MB

Black Friday Road Trip

 

 

Adams Vineyards and Winery

Adams Vineyards and Winery

Chatham Hill

Chatham Hill Winery

Doyle’s Vineyard

Doyle’s Vineyard