I had thought last night before bed about getting up early and going for a beach walk, but I didn’t sleep well, both due to full stomach from Bubba Gumps, and the room heater not cycling on and off properly. Warm enough, but too loud. When I finally did get up about 8, I had a quick cup of hotel room coffee, then dressed up layered with the warmest clothes I had and got out to the beach, and IT WAS COLD. And Windy. I walked both under and on the fishing pier taking a few pics.
When I came in, we all went to breakfast downstairs in the hotel restaurant BLU about 930, where it was not crowded, and service was decent. I had Eggs Benedict, which was just right in amount, and coffee. Wendy had her first Shrimp & Grits, which was gluten free.
We then packed up and checked out about 11, and headed back downtown Charleston to go thru the market and ultimately have lunch. Picked up a few things in the tourist oriented market, then as we got more and more chilled again, made our way over to the Noisy Oyster Seafood Restaurant for a late lunch about 130. It wasn’t full, but they were limiting tables to not overburden the kitchen, so we had to wait about 20 minutes for a table. They could have at least seated us and told us we’d have to wait, but it was still worth standing for some great food. I had a fried oyster and bacon Po Boy sandwich. It was falling apart when I tried to pick it up so ate it with knife and fork. It was excellent but could have been larger(not that I needed it). Wendy had a Lowcountry Boil, which was gluten free but wayyyy more than she could eat. Potatoes, shrimp, sausage, onion, corn on cob. More than she could handle. David, Karen & I helped her a little.
After lunch we drove out of town heading back to Aiken with a stop on James Island to see the Angel Oak, a 400 year old Oak tree, quite large and amazing in its stature. Can live to 900, so they’ve blocked and braced parts of it to hold it together. A wonderful tree worth seeing.
YouTube Video (8.5 min) https://youtu.be/TVp-VunH868
We got back to Aiken right about 6pm. After supper, we watched Laurel & Hardy March of the Toy Soldiers on Netflix. Hadn’t seen that since I was a kid. Karen didn’t remember it, but I remember watching it numerous times in Church, after an evening potluck when the adults would have a meeting and the kids all went to one of the classrooms for a movie.