I did a ton of research skimmed Pinterest and decided to wing our trip to Charleston, SC. Pinterest led me to believe that I would need to visit a plantation, the beach, the City Market, take a carriage tour, visit the rainbow colored houses and see that pineapple-y fountain to conquer Charleston. I suppose I could have asked my friends who have actually been to Charleston, but when has Pinterest ever led me wrong? (Right?)
Day two and so far we’re doing good following our Pinterest itinerary. Pinterest points of interest are sprinkled liberally with Find Me Gluten Free recommendations.
First stop: Glazed Gourmet Doughnuts. The reviews were kinda iffy, but… doughnuts! Apparently, Glazed only offers GF doughnuts on Fridays and they don’t make a ton. Brian and I arrived around 9:30 and they still had enough to give us sugar shock. We ordered two Mocha and one PB & Banana (because Brian doesn’t like peanut butter…. weirdo!) I had to share my Mocha with Brian since I got the whole PB & Banana…. it was good, but I’d rather have had the whole Mocha.
OMG! They were fantastic! They’re not fried (boy, I miss fried doughnuts!) they are a very moist, cake-like doughnut. Super flavorful and delicious.
I was nervous about GF doughnuts from a ‘regular’ bakery, but the staff was great. I overheard the cashier reminding the doughnut kid to change his gloves, but he was already changing them. (Bonus points!)
After a nutritious breakfast we headed out to check off the first ‘Must See’ on our list – Visit a Plantation.
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens came highly recommended by Pinterest, Instagram and the hostess at our hotel. A number of movies (that I’ve never seen) have been filmed at the plantation… if that matters.
Admission to the Plantation was $20/ person and then and additional $5 (August special, normally $8) for each of the tours. We planned to spend most of the day and had brought enough cameras and equipment to shoot everything in sight, so we decided to take almost all of the tours.
Brian and I agree that the Tram Ride was our favorite tour. If you only take one, take the tram (you really should take more though!) The Tram Ride covered a lot of information about the Plantation, it’s history and the family. It also hit the highlights of most of the rest of the Plantation & Gardens. (The House Tour was very good too.)
Since we planned to spend all day we figured we could find something to eat at the Peacock Cafe on the property. Surely there would be a salad or a sandwich we could order without bread…. right? Wrong! The food is all catered in so everything is already assembled (and encased in bread) and no one had any clue about allergy info. I made do with a Sprite and a bag of Lays potato chips. Brian ordered the wrap and ate the insides, which turned out to be one slice of turkey, a piece of cheese and a bunch of lettuce. I realize that I’m the one with the health issue and the world doesn’t have to accommodate me and all that…. but there’s a lot of us GF people out there…. I’d have figured there’d be something that would work. (p.s. Vegetarians, you’re out of luck here too.).
We spent the majority of the day at the plantation so by the time we left we were sweaty, tired and hungry. Now we completely understand why early Charlestonians left and the city and headed north in the summer! If I’d had to wear a hoop skirt or petticoat I would be a little puddle of sweat.
I found Swig & Swine on the Find Me GF app. BBQ sounded tasty and it’s usually gluten safe….. and we were both too sticky to go to a ‘nice’ restaurant.
The BBQ was delish and our waitress was really great about pointing out what was safe and what to avoid. Actually there were only a few items that weren’t gf. I ordered the Three Meat Platter because I was starving and I figured that since I’d only had chips for lunch that I absolutely needed that huge plate of food. (I DID NOT!) Whew! That was a crazy amount of food. Brian and I could totally have shared that plate. It was all delicious…. I did my best…. but I ended up taking most of it back to the hotel.
The Baked Potato Salad was awesome! (I really have to find my own recipe for that so I can make it at home.) The recipes for the bbq sauces were posted on chalkboards in the restaurant. The Sweet Red was gf, but the Mustard had Worcestershire sauce which is generally not gf, so I avoided that one.
After dinner we stopped for cupcakes where I got distracted by the neighboring shops and completely forgot that I’d left my bbq leftovers in the car. Oops! I did find an absolutely adorable hat, so…. it was kinda worth it.
Cupcake Down South only had one kind of GF cupcake that day – Red Velvet. Red Velvet isn’t my favorite cupcake in the whole world….. but it’s still a cupcake.
And, of course, if you bought 5 you got the sixth one free. I did not need six cupcakes! That did not stop me from buying six cupcakes though.
At least we did go straight back to the hotel this time and we stuck them straight into the fridge.
Another delicious, not exactly relaxing….. (but definitely enjoyable!) day in Charleston!
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