Last weekend, my mother was in town so we decided to try out Five Loaves Cafe
in Summerville. The restaurant is in a refurbished home. It is soooo adorable!!
It is hard to tell but the smaller lights hanging down from the boards are mason jars. They are sooo cute in person. Someone make me one of these fixtures for my porch!!
The inside of the restaurant is airy and bright. I am so obsessed with the tables and chairs. Where are they from, Five Loaves?! Want! Need!!
They post the specials for the day in a cool way:
We ordered some drinks and I got the half Arugula Salad for lunch. It was much bigger than I anticipated!!
My husband and I shared a Ricotta Cheesecake with Raspberry Puree after lunch.
It was delicious. The thing I like best about Five Loaves are the menu options. The sandwiches and salads all come in half or whole sizes so it's really easy to mix and match without breaking the bank. I think my half salad was just under $5!
Have you been to Five Loaves? What is your favorite item on the menu?
My husband had the day off on Tuesday so we decided to take our dog, Bailey, to the beach for the first time. We usually go to Sullivan's Island so we headed there.
We got there around 10:30 and,unlike the last time we were there, there were not any dogs around. Weird.
Then two women walking by were like, "Do you have a tag for your dog?" I was like, "Uhhh..what kind of tag?"
They said you had to register for one and to watch out because a cop was coming.
As a former law enforcement officer, this made me laugh. I am not scared of police officers.
My husband and I walked right over to the officer who was coming down the beach in a golfcart.
I said, "Those ladies said I need to watch out for you because I don't know about having tags on my dog?!"
The officer laughed and said they had a new law that went into effect May 1st that all dogs on Sullivan's Island - even visiting dogs - have to be registered ($35 plus you have to show proof of rabies vaccination and home insurance should your dog attack someone while on Sullivan's). Furthermore, no dogs are allowed on the beaches from 10am to 6pm. Fines for all that? Around a grand.
They are currently handing out little flyers with the new laws so we didn't get fined. The officer was nice and told us that Isle of Palms, just down the road, allowed dogs all the time.
So...Bailey's first beach trip lasted about 5 minutes....
We made the short drive over to Isle of Palms (IOP).
There is such a big difference in the two. Sullivan's has the big fancy houses on the beach and IOP is more touristy, with condos and restaurants (and bathrooms nearby!!).
We easily found a parking spot ($6 for the day in a lot)
and headed to the beach.
Overall, Bailey was really good and had fun. She didn't like the crashing of the waves sound and would throw her head back and try to run away. We kept her on a leash the whole time (I believe during the hours we were there, it was leash only) and would have even if they were able to run around. I don't trust her walking from the car to the house off a leash yet! #PuppyProblems
Yesterday my husband and I took a little trip out to Sullivan's Island while the kids were at school.
It is so nice to be close to the ocean. We didn't go out to the beach nearly enough last year so we have decided to make it more of a priority this year. I could sit and watch the ocean all day.
There is a storm brewing off the coast so it was VERY windy. Check out our towels after we stood up!!
We hung out near Station 18 1/2. Love this shot I got with the lighthouse in the background!
After some beach time, we headed over to Poe's Tavern for a burger (husband) and some mahi mahi tacos (me).
This was our second time eating at Poe's. The good was great. I was really impressed with the huge chunks of mahi. I get mahi tacos at another place downtown and there is usually not much fish in it.
After lunch, we made a quick stop at Trader Joe's.
They had so many pretty flowers. I wanted all of the tulips but I ended up getting some gerbera daisies because they tend to last a lot longer.
Have you been on any day dates lately?? Where'd you go?
This was all last weekend (and one day in the past week) because this past weekend, I didn't do much but take my son to his soccer game and hang out in our backyard!
We started out our weekend by going to Sullivan's Island and Fort Moultrie as soon as my son got out of school. We had never been to the Fort before. It is super easy to find and very inexpensive ($5 for a family).
The Fort sits right on the water so we walked down to the beach. We saw lots of jellyfish!
Down the road from the Fort, in either direction, there are two churches that are so pretty. One looks like it might be a house now (first pic below), not really sure... anyone know?!
On Saturday, we headed down to Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant to see the Budweiser Clydesdales.
I remember seeing them as a kid and they used to let you pet them. Not anymore though but they are still cool to see.
This was our first trip to Desano so we tried the Margherita D.O.P. My son was a little unsure of the pizza at first because it is cooked in a woodburning oven. After his first bite, he said, "Why does the pizza taste like this?". He ended up eating several pieces though so you get use to the different taste.
After pizza, we relaxed for a little bit and then I took my kids and my daughter's friend to the Charleston RiverDogs baseball game. It was Bill Murray Tune Squad Jersey night so we got there early to make sure we got one.
We had so much fun at the game. I forgot how much I love going to baseball games. We will definitely be going more. If you haven't been, go!! Ticket prices are very inexpensive and they have lots of great promotions. Tuesdays they have date night which is $20 for two tickets, 2 tacos, 2 drinks and nachos. How great is that?!
We didn't do much on Sunday and had a pretty quiet week. My husband was off on Wednesday while the kids were in school so we decided to head to Wannamaker County Park and go pedal boating.
This was so much fun. We saw lots of baby turtles and one cute baby alligator. We did the hour rental and went around the lagoon about 3 times. Very inexpensive date - $1/each to get into the park, $5 deposit for rental (which you get back) and $6 for the hour.
What were you up to this weekend?! Leave me a link if you blogged about it so I can check it out :)
Yesterday I spent so much time on my review of Dead Wake by Erik Larson that I never had the chance to do a weekend update.
Friday night we stopped by our new favorite (and close) Mexican restaurant, El Jalapeno for some fajitas and one (very strong) margarita.
On Saturday morning, we had to wake up at 5:15 to head up to my daughter's school to catch buses to her chorus competition at Carowinds.
Luckily they were singing at 10:15 so we were able to spend the rest of the day on rides.
We got to ride the new Fury 325 that just opened last month.
It drops 325 at an 81 degree angle and reaches speeds of 95 mph. It was pretty cool but my favorite was the Nighthawk. You sit down and then they lower you onto your back so for parts of the ride you are face down over water, etc. Check this video (not mine-found on youtube) out (skip to 2:37 to see the ride actually start):
The park was super crowded because of the chorus and band competitions but we managed to ride 6 roller coasters before heading home around 7 pm.
My husband and me:)
The bus ride back was uneventful until we pulled into the school parking lot. Before the bus had even opened its doors, I felt a stabbing pain in my leg where my bag had been sitting (for the entire duration of the bus trip which makes this even weirder) and there was a wasp or hornet on my leg! My husband quickly brushed it off my leg and I started scratching back and forth at the red mark on my leg (because I had just learned that you're supposed to scratch at my son's field trip earlier in the week to Bee City!! ).
I have never been stung in my life so part of me was waiting to go into shock or something. My leg kept throbbing so we walked to the car and I was able to see the stinger still in my leg so I scratched some more and finally got it out. When I got home, I iced it and took advil. It is now three days later and it itches more than anything around the sting site. It also has a small rash around it today, which is apparently normal from everything I have read (hopefully...right?!).
Sunday we were back up at 6:30 to get ready to head to Starbucks and then Target for the Lilly sale. I took my daughter and her friend and we arrived around 7:05 am. There were about 20 people ahead of us and not long after about triple that behind us.
Target was nice and brought people coffee.
The doors opened right at 8 and people quickly filed in. I was only after a scarf or two so I immediately headed to those and was lucky to grab the two I wanted. At that point, there were only two other people there including a guy who was taking a bunch of them. That really annoyed me because I'm sure they ended up on ebay.
Then I headed over to the women's section which wasn't crazy yet so I grabbed a pair of pineapple sandals in an 8 hoping those were what Meg wore because I knew she was wanting a pair and was waaaay back in line at her Target. Five seconds later the section looked like this:
I then found my daughter and her friend. They had gone to the girls section and my daughter managed to get a pair of pants, shorts and a dress in her size.
Meg texted me back and size 8 was her size (yay!!) so I ended up buying those and these two scarves:
I guess I would say my experience wasn't as bad as other people's but I expected it to be crazy so made sure I got there early. I overheard some people say they had items grabbed out of their hands but I didn't witness any awful behavior.
If you weren't able to get anything, google "Lilly for Target giveaway" because I have seen several popping up!!
How was your weekend? Did you get anything Lilly? Are you so over hearing about Lilly or wondering what the fuss is all about? :)
About a month ago, I received a copy for my review of Dead Awake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson courtesy of Blogging for Books
I was really excited to read this book because I have read a couple of Larson's other books and they were excellent. Dead Awake certainly does not disappoint. If you are not familiar with the Lusitania, it was a British luxury ocean liner that was sunk by a German submarine (U-boat) during World War I. Despite being a history major, I really didn't know a whole lot about the Lusitania beyond my brief description above.
Dead Awake follows the lives of passengers and crew immediately before, during and after their trip aboard the Lusitania (if they survived). It also follows President Wilson and the U-boat commander who ordered the strike on the Lusitania.
One of my favorite things about Larson's writing is that he always manages to sneak in some funny lines when tackling such serious subjects. When discussing how a German codebook was obtained by Russians after they found a dead German holding the book, Larson writes about the German: "...it was probably the codebook that killed him: it was large and heavy, 15 inches by 12 inches by 6 inches, and contained 34,304 three-letter groups used to encode messages." (Page 78)
The imagery in the book is really amazing. I could picture being in New York when the Lusitania left the dock. I could imagine the children jumping rope on deck, what it was like in the staterooms and what everyday life aboard was like. I could imagine the passengers watching the torpedo heading toward the ship and the panic that ensued afterward as people tried to save their children and themselves.
That is the thing about Larson's book: you know what is going to happen but that doesn't make it any less shocking. His "characters" are all real people and through a stunning amount of research, he brings them to life so you find yourself rooting for them to be safe in the end.
I enjoyed this book and would certainly recommend it, especially to those interested in history!
If you're interested in buying Dead Wake by Erik Larson, you can purchase it here
or at a retailer near you :)
As noted above, I received this book for my review courtesy of Blogging For Books. All opinions are my own.
Yesterday my son's class took a trip out to Bee Cityin Cottageville, SC.
Bee City is a honeybee farm, petting zoo and nature center.
It was cold for April (55) and a little rainy but that didn't stop us from having lots of fun checking out and feeding all the animals.
For $1-3 you can pick up different foods for the monkeys, birds or large animals (llamas, horses, cows, etc.).
They have a cool aviary where you can go feed the birds. My son loves doing this, having done it at the Miami Zoo a couple of times. I don't mind being in there but I am not a fan of the birds flying all around my head. Feels like I'm in a Hitchcock movie!
Aaahh, the llamas.
First they spit a little bit on my son and then spit food all over the other kid I was watching. I did what any good chaperone would do: laughed until I cried (the food was all over his face, y'all)...and then helped him clean-up with the wipes I brought along.
All in all, it was a fun time and we will definitely go back since my husband didn't get to go.
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