Happy Follyday

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/April 1, 2018Weather: 60s and sunny to 77 and sunnyStates: South Carolina to North CarolinaCity: Folly Beach to RaleighMiles: 290Hours Driving: 4 hrs 15 min

Hotel: Marriott University Medical Center



Restaurants: Hominy Grill



Last night, I decided that I wanted to change our Easter plans. We had been into Charleston twice and it isn’t easy to get around there. I didn’t feel like going back there this morning. We decided to go to Easter mass at a small church in Folly near our house at 9 AM. We packed up the car and left the Morocco. It was a nice church filled to the brim and out into the garden. We got there early and got a pew. The priest was funny and a little odd. He reminded Paul of Jim Carrey. He had a really good homily. I’m glad we changed our plans.

We decided to try to find a place to eat on the fly. Before we left church, we had to give a tour of our van to a family from DC who saw us last night all lit up. They loved the van. I think they had 5 kids and an aupair (?). Is that what we are calling the cute young girl smiling among the brood of littles? They were very nice. We hit the road to Raleigh with little hope of a reasonable Easter meal outside of Cracker Barrel. Before leaving Charleston area, we detoured to the north side of Charleston where the locals play (and eat.) We started begging Siri to find us a nice Easter brunch. Restaurant one...closed. Restaurant two...open but Siri struggled to get us there. We wound around and around and landed in front of this darling little restaurant called Hominy Grill. The name led us to believe the owners may not have teeth but much to our surprise, it was a trendy little local spot with people spilling out onto the street with boozies in hand. The trail of people led into a pretty little patio. I was not hopeful that they were taking walk-ins. They were! With only a 30 minute wait in beautiful weather, the perfect parking spot and a Bloody Mary, Fantastic. Inside, the restaurant was darling. Same feeling as Egg Harbor (Emily) in Naperville, IL. I had a soft shelled crab Benedict of sorts. Delicious. They had heirloom buckwheat pancakes with peach sauce, bread pudding french toast and Paul had breaded fried pork loin with cheese, chili and a fried egg on a brioche bun. Shame, shame and he loved it. So changing our plans made for a great morning anyway. You have to be prepared and plan but you also need to have some room for change and have patience.

Now, we are on our way to Raleigh, NC where Paul used to do his financial seminars for Earnst and Young. He was Duke University’s top speaker. They only wanted him to come. I went with him on multiple occastions. Duke is a nice campus. We are only their for the night. It is supposed to be warm so we are happy.

We checked in to a very nice Residence Inn on Duke’s medical campus. Paul and I left the kids at the hotel to go in search of food to bring back. Paul wanted to reminisce about his time on Duke campus so we drove the campus and got out by Duke chapel. We walked to the center and their were kids everywhere eating and hanging out. I guess the weather just broke here. It was 81 when we arrived and 70 in the evening. There were all kinds of restaurants in the student food area (whatever that is called) and it was beautiful on the campus so we called the kids and told them to meet us downstairs in 10 minutes. We took them back to campus for dinner. Everyone chose their meal and we ate outside. The kids wanted to eat on these table swings. I set my food down and hopped into the swing and in one motion hopped right out. It took me one second to realize that I would vomit immediately if I ate on that swing. I was dizzy for five minutes after getting off. I get motion sickness so easily. Having dinner on campus was an unexpected event. It was perfect. We walked the campus a bit too. Lovely. The kids enjoyed it, too.

What a great day today from beginning to end. Happy Easter!

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Comments

[Kara]

Looks like you are having a fabulous time!!!

[Ginny Pauwels]

Family Pic
Cute family picture. The sunshine and church reminded me of when we used to go to Florida every Easter. Sunny today here, but NOT warm! Sounds like you are having a great trip.

[Ginny Pauwels]

Bread Pudding French Toast
That looks delicious. Wish you could bring some back to Michigan!