Joint Jaunt

A Special Edition of Jodi's Jaunts, co-authored by Jodi & Sarah Solovy

Sarah and I have been talking about a girls’ getaway to Charleston for about three years and it was well worth the wait. In the spirit of our shared mother-daughter experience, we have decided to collab on a new limited series, which we’ll call Joint Jaunts. Welcome to our inaugural essay! (Our first mother-daughter excursion five years ago was the topic of my very first blog and the reason I named my Substack Jodi’s Jaunts).

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The Sites

It is quite literally impossible to resist the charm of Charleston. You already know there’s little I enjoy more than a city rich in history. But add to the mix world-class cuisine and shopping, with the clip-clopping of horses hooves providing the steady rhythm of background music, and Charleston quickly rose to the top of my list of must-visit cities. On our first day, Sarah and I conquered the entirety of the colonial/historical district. We breezed down Rainbow Row, with the cobblestone streets and pastel-colored row houses; browsed through the impressive City Market and bustling French Quarter; strolled through Battery and Waterfront Parks along the Harbor, and posed for the obligatory picture in front of the Pineapple Fountain; and stood in the dark shadow of the Old Slave Mart and pondered the enormity of what once took place behind the gate. It was also on this day that we took the Old South carriage ride, which honestly, as touristy as it sounds, was the highlight of our day.

We were ecstatic when our tour guide, Don, and his horse, Curtis, took us away from the overcrowded parts of the city and into the residential areas where we saw centuries-old mansions South of Broad, proudly displaying their Carolopolis Awards. Mom’s favorite part was seeing a Little Free Library outside one of the homes, (she was later upset that we didn’t drop a pin at its location so we could return to put a copy of her book inside) and mine was when Don made fun of her for asking what the importance of the “haint blue” paint was after he proclaimed that he already explained it.

In addition to the carriage tour, we signed up for a ghost tour. Charleston takes special pride in its haunted past, so we were super excited to get spooked. To say the least, we were both disappointed. To kick things off, Mom quickly became skeptical when they didn’t provide the guaranteed bottle of cold water upon our arrival (if you didn’t know, she’s HOT blooded). But that was just the beginning; we spent more time giggling at the highly specific, kindergarten-level rules our guide repeatedly laid out for us than at his self-proclaimed “spooky” stories. The highlight of the tour came in the final minutes, when he shared that the spirit of Edgar Allen Poe’s Annabel Lee roams the graveyard of the Unitarian Church, looking for her lover. But my true highlight was actually after the tour, when we stumbled past a nightclub, and the bouncer invited us inside for a “mommy daughter dance party” as we were taking our 20,000th step at the end of a long and hot day. We both replied with a resounding, “No,” but I enjoyed being able to blame it on the fact that she’s old as a cover up for my own exhaustion.

 

The Food

Arguably the most important part of any trip: the food. I took this part on as a minor research project while planning our itinerary. Day one was all about Southern Charm. Our first meal was at Poogan’s Porch, located in an old (and we later learned haunted) home, consisting of pimento cheese fritters, Meeting Street crab, and chicken and waffles. Later, we stopped to get pralines as a mid-afternoon snack from River Street Sweets. Mom was obsessed. For dinner, we headed to Fleet’s Landing. While we waited for our table, we sipped on cocktails facing the waterfront. There, I was drawn to a cute little turtle paddling below us, while Mom was fascinated by the Carnival cruise ship about to embark on “a grand adventure” (her words). We shared crab bruschetta, she-crab soup (a Charleston-must!), and the low country seafood pasta. Yum x3.

Day two we stopped at Miller’s All Day for breakfast sandwiches: I got the hot honey chicken BEC and Mom got another Charleston classic, fried bologna and eggs. Then we topped it off with the largest cinnamon roll I’ve ever seen. That night, we knew we wanted to get raw oysters, but our planned restaurant wasn’t open on Sundays – so we had to pivot. When Mom Googled, “raw oysters near me” and a place called “Hyman’s” came up, she knew that’s where we’d be heading. Even after we were told there was over an hour wait, the two of us just couldn’t turn away when we saw the Israeli flag flying proudly over the front door and when the owner Victor came out with a pre-packed bag of food for a local homeless man. We finally got our raw oysters, sitting at a table that Neil Diamond dined at, and I learned something about myself that night: I don’t like raw oysters. And no worries that the line for ice cream was too long that night;  Mom promptly reminded me that we still had pralines at the hotel.

 Day three was Callie’s Biscuits for breakfast (sausage, egg and pimento cheese sandwich and three mini biscuits: cheese and chive, cinnamon and blackberry jam), and Obstinate Daughter, which Mom talks about below.

Our last meal to send us home was at Lewis Barbecue. Mom really didn’t want to go here because she doesn’t like BBQ, but once my friend Maddie (Mom’s most trusted foodie) said it was her top Charleston rec, Mom was sold. We may have smelled like smoked meats on the entire plane ride home, but it was 100% worth it. And at the airport? Mom wanted pralines.

 

The Shared Experience

As I stated at the top of this piece, it’s impossible to resist the charm and delight that is Charleston. Yet, I found that my favorite parts of our journey were those that we stumbled upon by fortuitous accident, as so often happens during travel. Before we even left, Sarah asked if we could spend our second day shopping on King Street. This street, we learned during our carriage ride, the King named for himself because it is the highest street in the city and hence the best when the rest of the city floods. So it seems only natural that all the choicest shopping would end up there. But we had the added good luck of being there on the second Sunday of the month, which is aptly named “2nd Sunday on King Street,” when the city closes the road to traffic and it becomes a huge street festival. As we shopped up and down King Street for the entire day, we were enchanted not only by the renowned local shops, such as Candlefish, the Impeccable Pig and Grit & Grace, but the many stalls set up by local artists and artisans. It was an expected delight!

On our last full day, we thought it might be nice to venture outside the city, take the Water Taxi around the Harbor and end up on Sullivan’s Island. Since the chef at The Obstinate Daughter was a semifinalist for the prestigious James Beard Award, that was our ultimate destination for the day. But on our way there, we learned there wasn’t much to occupy us on the island since it’s mostly residential. So we made a game-time decision to head to Isle of Palms further up the coast and stumbled upon our second unexpected delight. We ambled along the shoreline, touching the warm Atlantic water with our fingers and collecting seashells on the sublime Carolina Coast. We headed up to the rooftop bar of Coconut Joe’s overlooking the coastline, and I experienced a moment of pure gratitude. How lucky was I to be here with my daughter, who’s more like a bestie than my child, sipping Pina Coladas (only the best drink ever invented), and gazing out at the ocean on a perfect, breezy afternoon in the Carolinas? Simply, the luckiest.

When I look back on trips like this one, the memories that stick with me the most are the times when we were laughing together. Or should I say laughing at something Mom just did. Like when she read her map incorrectly and walked us to the water taxi stop that was 30 minutes away rather than the one that was down the street, or shouting out all the historical answers on our carriage tour as if she was trying to impress her crush during 7th grade Social Studies, or putting on three pieces of snoring-prevention paraphernalia each night before bed. Getting to have 1:1 time with my mom for three straight days isn’t something I get anymore. So to me, that’s what makes these trips so special. 

We were both a little sad to return back to our normal routines. I commented to Sarah how the ordinary feels so disappointing when you’ve just experienced the extraordinary. She agreed. It was an extraordinary three days of mother-daughter bonding. And it’s totally okay with me if she was laughing at me more often than with me. There is absolutely nothing better than just being together, exploring new territory, learning new things along the way, and making memories that will last us both a lifetime. So, here’s hoping that this is just the first of many installments of Joint Jaunts as we travel together around the world.