Sweet Valentines

We had a great time celebrating Valentine's Day in the Hurst household this year. After the awesome concert, of course, John took me out for our Valentine's date Sunday night since he gets too busy at work during the week. He came home from work Sunday afternoon with a dozen yellow roses (my favorite!) and a bottle of wine. 

Roses: perfect way to start the evening. 

Then he took me to High Cotton steakhouse for dinner, a very nice restaurant in town we've been dying to try. He went all out on this one! I mean it's one classy joint, they scrape the crumbs off your white tablecloth between courses. Fancy! Even better, the steaks we ordered were delicious!

This is a picture from their website. I wasn't going to bust out my camera during dinner after all. 

When we got home from dinner, we had the red velvet whoopie pies I made earlier in the day for dessert. I got the recipe off Pinterest (you can find it here) and they were heavenly. Mine weren't quite as red because I ran out of food coloring. Oh well!

Red velvet whoopie pies with cream cheese icing

And to add to the Valentine's Day sugar fix, my sweet Momma ordered cookies from the Charleston Cookie Company and had them delivered to our house on Valentine's Day. Believe me, they are just as delicious as they are cute! Mom sure knows the way to my heart!

Thanks Mom and Larry! We love you!

 I hope your celebrations were just as sweet!

 Happy Valentine's Day!

Wanna Be Your Crystal Baller...

For Valentine's Day this year, I got John tickets to see Third Eye Blind in concert as an early present. When I saw they were coming to Charleston the week before Valentine's Day, I just couldn't resist surprising him. 

The concert was Wednesday night at the Music Farm, which is right off the main strip of Upper King Street. For you Okies out there, the Music Farm is to Charleston what Cain's Ballroom is to Tulsa. So we were excited to see our first show there since we had heard so many good things! And by we, I mean me, because John hadn't heard of it until that night :) 

But he was really excited when I gave him the tickets! He's been a huge 3EB fan since he was a kid and has never seen them live. So I knew this one was on his concert bucket list. 

And the concert was amazing! They played lots of their old songs and I was glad since I didn't know any of their new stuff. I was glad to hear "Motocycle Driveby," "Crystal Baller" and of course "Semi-Charmed Kind of Life," which they saved for the encore. 

Overall it was just a great date night going out on Wednesday night (I know, crazy!) and dancing and singing together and having a good time. 

Love my Valentine!

Ice Ice Baby

A couple weekends ago (I've lost count, that's how long I procrastinated this post,) John and I went to check out the South Carolina Stingrays---Charleston's very own hockey team! One of John's co-residents is a booster for the team, so she invited the residents to come out on "Pack the House Night" when tickets were just $5. I'm no hockey fan, but I rarely turn down $5 entertainment on a Saturday night.

Go Rays!

 The game actually wasn't that bad. Our team won and there was one really good (kind of scary) fight! We had a few drinks, spent time with our friends and got to watch this act of awesomeness at halftime....

Oh yeah, he's juggling fire! 

But by far the highlight of the night was the look John sported to the game...

All stache, baby.

 Yes, he shaved off his beard, leaving only the mustache, and kept it like that for about 3 days! The first night, it was funny (and actually fit in pretty well at the hockey game!) After that, it started bugging me that my husband looked like a 40 year old trucker. But hey, if he wants to experiment with facial hair, so be it! Thankfully, it's gone now!

Two Weekends of Good Food

What better way to celebrate being back in Charleston after the holidays than eating our way around town? The past two weekends, that's exactly what John and I did. Way to start those New Year resolutions huh? I promise we eat healthy homemade meals during the week :) Here's our latest food adventures in three rounds:

Round One: Folly, Folly, Folly

Last weekend after painting the Folly Boat, we couldn't miss a chance to eat breakfast at our favorite Folly Beach eatery-- Lost Dog Cafe. John's Aunt Elaine got us a Lost Dog gift card for Christmas, which we couldn't wait to use! Thanks for the great breakfast Aunt Elaine!

Early Saturday morning at Lost Dog

I got the banana bread french toast-- pretty much dessert. But so delicious!

Saturday night we celebrated birthdays with the residents at Bowen's Island, also on Folly. I've heard great things about the oysters at Bowen's Island since we moved here, so I was excited to try it out. What the restaurant lacks in style (it's pretty hole in the wall) it makes up for in authenticity. Situated right on the water off the beaten track of Folly Road, you order and eat your meal on the top story of the building while the oysters are roasting below. 

Shot of the outside of Bowen's

Inside, John ate up a whole tray of roasted oysters while I stuck with the fried chicken. 

After Bowen's, a night out on Folly wouldn't be complete without a stop at Surf Bar.

Playing Truth of Dare Jenga at Surf Bar. Pretty hilarious!

Round Two: Restaurant Week

Sunday night, John and I finally took part in Charleston Restaurant Week. Many cities have these nowadays, but if you're not familiar with them, pretty much you get to eat at some nice places you couldn't afford otherwise. Restaurants have fixed menus offering three courses for $20, $30 or $40.

Our Restaurant Week choice was Oak Steakhouse--- John chose it because it was one of the only ones that had filet on the menu. And let me tell ya, the filet was awesome! As was everything else we ordered!

On our way to our Oak. I had to take pics beforehand because I felt awkward busting out the camera in a restaurant with a dress code :)

The outside of Oak Steakhouse. What a fun night!

Round Three: Taste of Folly

Last weekend we headed back to Folly Beach---apparently we just can't get enough. After voting in the Republican Primaries Saturday morning (bonus points if you can spot my teeny tiny "I voted" sticker), we went to check out Taste of Folly. Center Street, the main strip of Folly, was closed off and restaurants had tents set up along each side. At the tents, you could order some of the restaurant's best dishes (usually on a smaller scale) for pretty cheap! Great way to try a lot of different dishes from different places. There was also some live music to complete the street-festival like atmosphere.

Eating my $1 slice of pizza from Woody's. Yum!

John enjoying a mini cup of She Crab soup-- a Charleston classic.

Lastly, we had to get a treat from Tokyo Crepes. This cute little food truck is set up down on Folly Beach most days of the week. I bugged John about stopping there all summer long when we were coming and going from the beach, but we never got to. John and I ate crepes in Curacao on our honeymoon and every since then, they've kind of been our thing.

The Tokyo Crepes food truck. You know the best food comes out of RVs.

Strawberry Dream = delicious!

Now back to those resolutions....

Bucket List: Paint the Folly Boat

Today I got to cross off one of the things on my Charleston Bucket List! This morning, we woke up early, put on our grungy clothes and painted the Folly Boat!

Here's the back story on the Folly Boat: On the drive down to Folly Beach, there is a landlocked row boat sitting off the side of the road. The boat washed up here during Hurricane Hugo back in 1989. When no one claimed the boat, locals turned it into a Folly Beach landmark by painting it to greet all beachgoers. Because of its close proximity to Folly Road, the only road in and out of Folly Beach, the painted boat has become a free-for-all billboard. Nowadays it has a new painted message almost everyday, from birthday wishes and farewell tributes to silly phrases and advertisements. It's legal to paint the boat. The only catch is your message is likely to be painted over as soon as the next passerby decides they need to proclaim something roadside.

To see what other people have painted, check out the Follyboat.com website for a full gallery of pictures. Some people are really creative!

But this morning, it was our turn to have our message on the boat. Our couple friends Connie and Daniel both have birthdays this week. So Connie asked us if we would help her paint the boat for Daniel's birthday and surprise him. He's turning 30 after all--- this is a pretty boat-worthy birthday.

The before picture of the boat. First we used white paint to erase the previous message. The previous message was also a birthday message though, so we left the "Happy Birthday" part. Less work for us!

Just so you can get an idea of how many times this boat has been painted. Look at all those layers!

Connie is about 7 months pregnant, so John and I were in charge of the spray paint. This was the best part! Who knew vandalism was so much fun?

Connie handled the white paint like a champ.

John decided polka dots would be a nice touch. Daniel loves polka dots after all....

Me and Connie with the boat.

Me and John on top of the finished product. I think the 30 is the best part. What do you think?

Apparently we weren't the only ones who discovered a newfound love for vandalism. Everything around the boat was painted too. These trees and some pine cones on the ground-- now multicolored.

The street in front of the boat. Once you start, you just can't stop.

And of course, we had to leave our own mark, too (on the back of the boat.)

Beach Day...in January

One reason I love Charleston....

Going to the beach in January! 75 degrees!

Sure, I was wearing shorts and a cardigan instead of a bikini, but you still can't beat the vitamin D in the middle of winter! No matter what time of year, laying by the waves reading a book is my very favorite spot to be. Hope 2012 provides even more of this!

Happy 2012!

We rang in the New Year in Tulsa this year, during our weeklong post-Christmas vacation. For the second year in a row, we spent the night with my family, racing into the New Year!

Mom, Larry and I all ran in the 5K, which started at 11:45. The midnight fireworks went off when we were about halfway through with the race, meaning we literally raced into the New Year.

Here we are with our cheerleaders, John and Sarah. Family tradition for a second year in a row!

Last year, we finished Mom, Larry and then me. I came in about 32 minutes last year (I wasn't in great running shape, give me a break!)

But this year... we finished me, Larry and then Mom! I finished with a personal record, 26:44! I came in 4th in my age group (so close to getting a medal!) and 18th out of 318 women overall. I couldn't be happier!

Mom finished first in her age group and Larry came in second in his. Way to go team!

Me and my Momma! I love running with her! One of the best parts of my trip home.

Happy 2012 everyone!