Dhana was headed back to Charleston with her boytoy for an engagement party/oyster roast this past weekend. Well bad for her, lucky for me, he dumped her on Valentine's day! So enter into the festivities, Becky:) Dhana had graduated from PT school at MUSC in Charleston, so she was meeting a few friends there and had the romantic oceanfront room lined up for us to stay in! Yay me, someone that had a preplanned trip awaiting for me just to aimlessly tag along!
We headed to the great city of Charleston on a gorgeously sunny 70 degree day with the windows rolled down and the music cranked up! Got to the oceanfront Holiday Inn on Folly Beach early enough to see the sunset over the ocean from our 8th floor room that looked out at Folly Beach Pier. Our first stop on the map was Taco Boy for a beverage and an appetizer, next a $25 cab ride into West Ashley for some more fun. Now I have learned much about cab drivers and cab conduct along these past few months. One thing I know for sure is that you do not disclose too much information to random cab drivers. Dhana on the other hand, has not received the memo on cab conduct. During this long, long and expensive cab ride we heard the entire story of how our cab driver has lost $400,000 in the past 4months, wants to kill his business partners by tying bouys to them and letting the sharks eat them, and how he hates being a cab driver, and after Dhana had shared most of our current situation and hotel name, she turns to me and asks why I'm so dang quiet! Wide-eyed after what conversation just took place, I say calmly, Dhana I have just learned that all cab drivers are not friendly and it is not too safe to tell them your life story! She agreed, but did not hesitate to call him to come give us a ride back to Folly Beach at the end of the evening!
I did get my first oyster shot and conversation about oysters this evening. One of the bars that we met some of Dhana's friends at, called Pearl, was serving oysters left and right. The plantation worker that Dhana had befriended purchased us an oyster shot which was the equivalent of a small bloody mary with an oyster in it. It was pretty tasty I would say but you can't really taste the oyster. Obviously I don't tour around and not ask a lot of dumb tourist questions, so as the bartenders were shucking oysters for a large party, I asked them all sorts of questions! I did find out however that these particular oysters this evening came from Texas! That I found weird considering the fact that we were right on the ocean! What do I know though??
Saturday we woke up and went shopping on King Street and to eat at King Street Grille. Another warm gorgeous spring day here in SC for shopping along King street. Some of Dhana's friends escorted us back to the hotel for a quick change and then to another friends on Mount Pleasant which we got to cross over the very fun looking bridge to get too. This began the highlight of the trip which was the oyster roast. For this couple's engagement they had planned an outdoor event called an oyster roast. At this event they steamed lots and lots of oysters that were then dumped out onto long tables with buckets at the ends, shucking tools, rubber gloves and hot sauce. The oysters look more like barnacles to me, but what do I know about oysters? One of Dhana's friends, boyfriend took me under his wing and showed me the ropes on this whole operation. I did succeed on not only shucking and eating about 12-15oysters, I also managed to get about every oyster question I could think of answered. This boyfriend of Shannon's probably should have charged me a oyster guide fee of some sort! This was my first real attempt at eating oysters and definitely was a success!!
Next, to my delight, was the low country boil. This is where they steam shrimp, potatoes, corn on the cob, celery and polish sausage and then dump it onto a big tray next to the corn bread, sweet tea and coleslaw. Yummmmy, I could eat this about everyday! Then to top of the evening of sitting casually outdoors with the low hanging spanish moss from the trees, enjoying good food and meeting new friends came the moment I have been waiting for since moving to Sumter. The couple started off the dance portion of the evening by doing the Shag! I have the movie Shag, on VHS, and love watching it over and over. My sisters and I, friends and I, or just I quote this movie endlessly! So I'm not sure who was more excited, me or the couple that were engaged! Dhana says what the heck got you so excited.....I said well Dhana besides all of this fun and good food, those two are shaggin'!! She said, yeah that's what people do down in these parts! Well good because I like every bit of what's going on here is what I told her. We soon, sadly left the oyster roast and went back to Folly Beach to continue our fun night, but Dhana did assure me that sometime she will teach me to shag! Yipeee.
Sunday was the most gorgeous of all gorgeous days, 70 degrees and sunny at about 10am. What else were we to do on this fine morning except eat breakfast and bloody mary's out on the patio of a local restaurant? I was able to try my first southern breakfast grits and sadly did not enjoy them much at all. Now the bloody mary bar and the shrimp, mozzarella, basil omelet were amazing! We then did a little shopping, met her friends again for lunch and then headed back to the great city of Sumter for yet again a needed nap!! What a fun city with great southern hospitality and authenticity! I will be going back soon for sure.
We headed to the great city of Charleston on a gorgeously sunny 70 degree day with the windows rolled down and the music cranked up! Got to the oceanfront Holiday Inn on Folly Beach early enough to see the sunset over the ocean from our 8th floor room that looked out at Folly Beach Pier. Our first stop on the map was Taco Boy for a beverage and an appetizer, next a $25 cab ride into West Ashley for some more fun. Now I have learned much about cab drivers and cab conduct along these past few months. One thing I know for sure is that you do not disclose too much information to random cab drivers. Dhana on the other hand, has not received the memo on cab conduct. During this long, long and expensive cab ride we heard the entire story of how our cab driver has lost $400,000 in the past 4months, wants to kill his business partners by tying bouys to them and letting the sharks eat them, and how he hates being a cab driver, and after Dhana had shared most of our current situation and hotel name, she turns to me and asks why I'm so dang quiet! Wide-eyed after what conversation just took place, I say calmly, Dhana I have just learned that all cab drivers are not friendly and it is not too safe to tell them your life story! She agreed, but did not hesitate to call him to come give us a ride back to Folly Beach at the end of the evening!
I did get my first oyster shot and conversation about oysters this evening. One of the bars that we met some of Dhana's friends at, called Pearl, was serving oysters left and right. The plantation worker that Dhana had befriended purchased us an oyster shot which was the equivalent of a small bloody mary with an oyster in it. It was pretty tasty I would say but you can't really taste the oyster. Obviously I don't tour around and not ask a lot of dumb tourist questions, so as the bartenders were shucking oysters for a large party, I asked them all sorts of questions! I did find out however that these particular oysters this evening came from Texas! That I found weird considering the fact that we were right on the ocean! What do I know though??
Saturday we woke up and went shopping on King Street and to eat at King Street Grille. Another warm gorgeous spring day here in SC for shopping along King street. Some of Dhana's friends escorted us back to the hotel for a quick change and then to another friends on Mount Pleasant which we got to cross over the very fun looking bridge to get too. This began the highlight of the trip which was the oyster roast. For this couple's engagement they had planned an outdoor event called an oyster roast. At this event they steamed lots and lots of oysters that were then dumped out onto long tables with buckets at the ends, shucking tools, rubber gloves and hot sauce. The oysters look more like barnacles to me, but what do I know about oysters? One of Dhana's friends, boyfriend took me under his wing and showed me the ropes on this whole operation. I did succeed on not only shucking and eating about 12-15oysters, I also managed to get about every oyster question I could think of answered. This boyfriend of Shannon's probably should have charged me a oyster guide fee of some sort! This was my first real attempt at eating oysters and definitely was a success!!
Next, to my delight, was the low country boil. This is where they steam shrimp, potatoes, corn on the cob, celery and polish sausage and then dump it onto a big tray next to the corn bread, sweet tea and coleslaw. Yummmmy, I could eat this about everyday! Then to top of the evening of sitting casually outdoors with the low hanging spanish moss from the trees, enjoying good food and meeting new friends came the moment I have been waiting for since moving to Sumter. The couple started off the dance portion of the evening by doing the Shag! I have the movie Shag, on VHS, and love watching it over and over. My sisters and I, friends and I, or just I quote this movie endlessly! So I'm not sure who was more excited, me or the couple that were engaged! Dhana says what the heck got you so excited.....I said well Dhana besides all of this fun and good food, those two are shaggin'!! She said, yeah that's what people do down in these parts! Well good because I like every bit of what's going on here is what I told her. We soon, sadly left the oyster roast and went back to Folly Beach to continue our fun night, but Dhana did assure me that sometime she will teach me to shag! Yipeee.
Sunday was the most gorgeous of all gorgeous days, 70 degrees and sunny at about 10am. What else were we to do on this fine morning except eat breakfast and bloody mary's out on the patio of a local restaurant? I was able to try my first southern breakfast grits and sadly did not enjoy them much at all. Now the bloody mary bar and the shrimp, mozzarella, basil omelet were amazing! We then did a little shopping, met her friends again for lunch and then headed back to the great city of Sumter for yet again a needed nap!! What a fun city with great southern hospitality and authenticity! I will be going back soon for sure.
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