Friday, August 9, 2013

Vacation in Greenville, S.C.

My husband and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary by taking a trip to Greenville, S.C.  It's about 3-3 1/2 hours from where we live and it made a great compromise-not too close and not too far (since we were KID FREE).

Here's a recap of our long weekend.  I'm going to do a separate post of our food--seriously.

Thursday--we arrived a little after 3.  We stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott in downtown.  Y'all, this was a great hotel.  After resting for a little bit, we ventured out into the downtown area.  We went to Falls Park and then up and down the main street (aka Main Street) looking for a place to eat.




And then we walked more burning off our delicious meal!!  At one end of downtown, there was live music and that was fun to enjoy.  We also walked to Publix to have some snacks in the room-oj and breakfast bars were a must for M.




Friday--I met a Twitter/FB/blog friend for breakfast. It was nice to finally meet her in real life and she is as sweet as can be.




After breakfast, M and I went to Anderson, S.C. I worked as an intern in the Belk there about, oh, 14 years ago.  The mall looked much the same-especially the Sabarro whre I ate lunch or dinner at least 2 days a week.  After the mall (and a little shopping--hello, UT orange sweater at JCP for $4.99), we drove to Clemson, S.C.  When I interned, I actually lived in Clemson, so we went by the condo I stayed at that summer.  The years have not been kind to that development and I'm pretty sure my parents would have vetoed leaving me there if it looked that way then.  After a condo drive-by, we went to the Clemson campus.  I have a confession.  That summer I lived there, I didn't have a computer, so I would go to the Clemson campus library and use the ones there to email my boyfriend (now husband).  I'm pretty sure you were supposed to be a student to use them, but I guess I looked the part.




After lunch, we went to the S.C. Botanical Gardens.  It's right there at Clemson and I remember it being really beautiful.  Unfortunately, a lot of the trails were being worked on, and we weren't able to walk them.  But the butterfly garden was open and beautiful.






After Clemson, we went back to the hotel and rested--it was mighty warm outside!  Afterwards we ventured out into downtown once again.  More live music and some browsing after dinner.

Saturday--After breakfast in the room, we went to the part of Main Street was closed for a Farmer's Market on Saturday morning.  It was nice walking through and seeing the fresh produce--especially the peaches.  We didn't get anything other than coffee, but we liked the people watching.
After the Farmer's Market, we decided to drive back to the Anderson area to visit Jockey Lot.  Jockey Lot is a flea market, they promote themselves as a "the South's biggest and the World's Best Flea Market!"  Honestly, flea markets aren't my thing--I just hate seeing poor animals in cages in the heat being sold.  And I question how safe the OTC medications are that people sell by the truckloads.  It took everything in me not to turn over the car seats to see if they were near their expiration date (or past).  I guess it's buyer beware.




After a brief stay there, we went to Paris Mountain State Park.  We did a pedal boat ride and a hike walk around "Lake Placid."



 


When we finished that, we went to Furman University.  I had never been there, but it was so beautiful. As we drove in, there was a wedding party having pictures made in a grassy area.  Think they met there?




Then back out into downtown for dinner.  And a walk to Publix for a lottery ticket.

Sunday--We left Greenville right after breakfast in the room.  After a quick stop for coffee downtown, we headed to pick up the kids.  On the way, we stopped at a roadside stand for some delicious S.C. peaches.  They are huge this year due to the rain.  And they are so good!!!




If you are looking for a great place to visit, consider Greenville, S.C.  I was not paid to visit or given any special perks while there.  We just really loved our visit and I wanted to share.

3 comments:

  1. Oh I just love Greenville!!! We want to take M sometime soon!

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  2. Glad you guys had a great time. It was so great to finally meet you in person!

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  3. So glad you two got some time away! Looks like it was a blast.

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