We started day three in Charleston with a fairly long list of must see/do’s to accomplish. I also had a secret shopping list in my head that I didn’t bother to mention to Brian… why worry him, after all.

For breakfast I’d been voting on this cute sounding place with cinnamon pancakes, but Brian saw that it was also vegan and he wasn’t having anything to do with fake bacon. Instead we chose Breizh Pan Crepes. It sounded like a great choice since all of their savory crepes are already gluten free and any of their sweet crepes could be made gf easily. (Its such a relief when everything starts out basically gf.)

The crepes were delicious… the restaurant was microscopic. Like… really, really tiny….. 20 seats in the whole place, MAX…. and we were all pretty snuggly. The food was good, but the service was slow. (That’s not an actual complaint. I like sitting around over coffee and chatting…. it’s just a warning not to expect a quick bite and then be back on the road.) While guarding a recently abandoned, dirty table, I commented to one of staff that they were having a busy morning. He said it was like that every day as I sat down and glared at the family of four that had been eyeballing my table for two.

We found a farmer’s market where I knocked one item off the Secret Shopping list…. something for Mom – Plantation Peach Tea. It seemed to be one of those Charleston souvenirs that’s available everywhere until you decide that you should probably get it and then it’s no where to be found.

We had lunch at the Palmetto Cafe. I wasn’t quite hungry yet, but Brian was and I was more than happy to sit in the air conditioning for a bit.

Lunch was crazy expensive. There was a tiny note at the bottom of the menu that said there is a $20 minimum per guest….. we had NO trouble hitting that number.

The Palmetto Cafe is inside one of the fancy downtown Hotels, so I really shouldn’t have been surprised at the prices. Also, Brian picked this one….. I tend to pick weird/eclectic… Brian picks expensive…. or pizza.

Lunch was fabulous. Brian and I both ordered the Seafood Club….. at $30 it was the most expensive club sandwich I’ve ever eaten, but absolutely worth every penny. Three slices of gluten free bread were loaded with smoked salmon, shrimp, crab, tomatoes and cheese. It was insanely good. I will dream about this sandwich.

I also had a drink called a Chantilly…. ’cause it’s hot out…. and because Brian ordered the French fries which were not technically gf because they are cooked in a shared fryer….. and I needed a ‘side’ too. (Don’t laugh, my reasoning is perfectly valid!)

After lunch we visited the Charleston City Market. It is a series of several long, mostly open air building that go on for several blocks. Vendors line either side of the building with a walkway down the center for shoppers to shuffle along.

It’s not quite what I’d expected. I’d been expecting something more along the lines of the City Market in New Orleans…. admittedly though…. I’m probably still pining for the New Orleans Market from 15 – 20 years ago….. everything feels so commercial and mass produced anymore. I miss the actual hand crafted, one of a kind stuff that you used to be able to find. Many of the paintings and artwork are reprints. And the jewelry looks like the same stuff you get at just about any other market. (Great, now I feel old and jaded.)

The one thing that did interest me were the sweet grass baskets and roses that vendors were making. I’d been thinking about getting one for Mom, but even the small ones were $40-50. Brian pointed out she couldn’t fit a cat in one of those and a cat sized basket was a few hundred. The baskets were beautiful and I’m not doubting the price/value…. I’m just saying that the first time I saw Vickie (the cat) gnaw on a $200 basket I might have a coronary. It was better for everyone that I just got Mom tea.

We took a carriage ride through the city and learned tons about the city, the architecture and our horse, Gary.

For dinner we were just looking for something easy and casual. Once again Charleston had left us both sweaty, tired and not pretty enough for fine dining.

Taco Boy got good reviews on the Find Me Gluten Free app and tacos are always good.

The restaurant was noisy, but our waitress was great. She said we’d be safe with anything that wasn’t fried and just to choose corn tortillas instead of flour. There were several different kinds of tacos to choose from and only a few had anything fried in them that we had to avoid. Brian and I each chose three tacos and loved every bite of them all.

We also ordered a starter of Mexican Street Corn that was crazy good! I’m going to have to find the recipe. Normally I am NOT a fan of corn on the cob…. I pretty much hate it. (Why eat food that is just going to get stuck in your teeth and make you insane when you can buy it already sliced and in a can?!?) By some strange coincidence I’ve gotten corn of the cob twice this weekend and suddenly I’ve decide I love it. Yep, I’m weird like that.

We found the pretty houses on Rainbow Row. They’re pretty and all….. but they look a lot better on the postcards.

We also found the Pineapple Fountain in Waterfront Park.

We had a wonderful time in Charleston and we’ll definitely be back!

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!

I cannot believe that I haven’t posted anything since December! Of course, I haven’t had much free time since December either. My hubby and I run a renovation/design business and we’ve been crazy busy…. which is awesome…. and crazy. Last month I noticed that we had four, whole unscheduled days in the calendar…. in – a – row!! I blocked them off and refused to let Brian schedule anything over them. We were taking a vacation… whether he liked it or not!

Charleston, SC is only five hours from where we live and I’ve heard my friend rave about the city forever. Brian and I’ve never been to Charleston so we decided that it would be a great place to spend a few days walking around, eating and spending quality time together.

Food, of course, being a top priority, we planned for the drive north to land us at Tybee Island’s Crab Shack right at lunch time.

Low Country Boil & Crab Legs

We’ve eaten at the Crab Shack twice before and loved it. There is a huge patio/deck area under these gorgeous trees. It’s beautiful…. and swampy and just fun.

Brian and I ordered the Low County Boil for one and added a pound of crab legs. We told our waitress that we were gluten free and asked her to help steer us away from anything that would make us sick. She didn’t seem super GF knowledgeable, but we’d eaten there twice before and we just ordered the same thing. She did mention that someone had told her that the sausage in the Boil might not be GF (so go check! Ugh!) but I don’t eat it anyway and Brian was willing to risk it. She rattled off the ingredients in the house-made cocktail sauce and included worcestershire sauce which is generally not gluten free. (There are some out there though, so it’s not necessarily not gf, but I wasn’t willing to risk it.).

By evening we’d made our way to Charleston and we were ready to do a little bit of exploring and hunt down more food.

The Find Me Gluten Free app had good-ish reviews for The Obstinate Daughter… and honestly, I just liked the name.

I called ahead to make sure they still had a gf menu and tried to make reservations, but they were already booked for the night. They suggested that we could eat at the bar or patio if we didn’t want to go on the waitlist. (So make reservations if you plan to go!)

The staff were all great, knowledgeable and polite, and the food was delish! There were some GF ‘small plate’ options, but honestly, I was already focused on the pasta dishes and don’t remember any of them.

Brian ordered the Cavatelli (fennel and sausage ragu, parmesan) and I ordered the Bavette (lobster, shrimp, tomato, onion, garlic, parsley, chili flake).

The person that brought our food to the table wasn’t our server, which always makes me nervous, but before I even had a chance to ask he named each dish as he sat it down and said that gluten free pasta had been substituted for the regular pasta.

After dinner we walked a few blocks to the beach to burn off all the delicious pasta that we’d just narffed. The beach was beautiful with its white sand dunes and tufts of sea oats, but I’m relieved to say that I like my beach at home better. (Brian was super relieved too because he doesn’t want to have to move again for a while!) I’ll admit that I am jealous that they seem to have sand dollars. I’ve collected a lot of sea shells and other bits from our home beach, but I still haven’t found a whole sand dollar. I found pieces of sand dollar on the Charleston beach, but still not a whole one.

After all that walking (haha) we went in search of dessert. I’d read reviews for Republic Ice Cream which was located just a few blocks back from the beach. I didn’t even take a picture, I was so disappointed with the whole place. Yes, the lady knew about celiac and she said that the ice cream was GF, but that the cross contamination from the cookies and cream (the ONLY non-gf ice cream) was super high. I might have taken the chance, (I mean, what are they doing? Throwing ice cream around the freezer?!) but I got the impression that she really didn’t want me to eat the ice cream. She kept suggesting the soft serve ‘to be safe.’ Brian ordered a soft serve (blech!) sundae and I just skipped the whole thing. I wasn’t wasting calories on soft serve.

Day one of vacation and half a ton of food consumed and already we feel a bit more rested and like ourselves. We have more adventures planned and more foods to sample tomorrow!