Weekend Recap...why not?

I'm loving reading about everyone's Memorial Day weekends... so I'm jumping on the bandwagon.

Here's my (very detailed) weekend recap:

Some of the girls out at Suede Supper Club in Mt. P

Friday night: Girls' dinner at Bambu, then out at Suede in Mt. Pleasant. I've only been to Suede twice, but I think I might already be over it. I hate that too because the space and the setup is pretty cool. I think a lot of it had to do with who was there -- lots of weird guys who had no qualms dancing creepily close to you and your friends even though the dance floor is pretty much empty...and drunk guys who gyrate dance (by themselves) all over the dancefloor, hitting one of your girlfriends, and spilling his beer all over said girlfriend's shoe. And yes, I somehow convinced his friend to buy my girlfriend a drink...even though it wasn't her drink that spilled, lol.

Janelle De Ment

Saturday: Took a two hour ballet class from Janelle De Ment, who used to dance for the Charleston Ballet Theater, but now dances with the Orlando City Ballet, at DanceFX downtown. It was an awesome class because she also teaches Yoga and had us spend the first 30 min. doing Yoga poses to warm up before starting barre. She also related yoga positions to ballet positions throughout the class - it was very interesting and a crazy workout at the same time.

Saturday night: Group of us went out bar hopping downtown - which we haven't done in a long time. Started off at the new Molly Darcy's. I really liked it there - plenty of space, plus an outside area. They had two guys with guitars singing funny Irish songs - I said, "Cool! It's like dueling pianos, but with guitars!" All of my friends stared at me and then laughed AT me... not with me. Oh well.

Next we headed to Market Street Saloon. WHHHHHHHHHYYYYY??? I'm pretty sure one of the guys in the group threw this one out and he somehow got all 10 or so of us up there in the bar without paying a cover (thank God!). For those of you not familiar with downtown Charleston bars, Market Street Saloon is a Coyote Ugly bar wannabe - i.e. girls in scantily dressed outfits dancing and singing on the bar. Bartenders are all girls - so yeah, try being a girl who needs a drink in that bar... and they tip themselves. One of my girlfriends demanded her quarter back from one of the bartenders who kept it. And they constantly pull the drunkest girls up on the bar to dance. This is a popular activity for bachelorette parties. Men - dirty, gross ones usually - sit right up against the bar and yeah... they can see up your dresses ladies. Eww.

Disclaimer: Ok, ok... I have to admit that only 3 or 4 years ago my best friend and I used to frequent this bar and we were some of those girls that would dance on the bar. However, in our defense, this was when the bar had first opened and it was filled more with locals and not as...er... WT as it is now.  And long before they started charging expensive covers and high drink prices...lame!

Some of us girls in Market St. - you can see Bachelorette behind us, lol.

Moving on... luckily we all wanted to get the hell out of there after one beer...so we made our way to a new bar on the East Bay strip called Mac's Place Pub & Grub. We actually liked this place a lot - maybe we're getting older?? It had plenty of space and the typical bar games - darts, Golden Tee, Buck Hunter, etc. We stood around and drank some beers and played some games... it's a decent 'chill' bar for sure.

Me trying to be cool in Mac's while relaxing
on one of their many black leather couches.

Next up... Brick. Whenever we go out downtown, chances are you'll find us in Brick. I'm not sure why this is the place we ALWAYS go when we go downtown... I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan -- and mostly because it's always packed and it's about the size of a hallway. I've never been a fan of bars where you're constantly being bumped or shoved as people make their way to the bathrooms in the back or back out of the bar at the front. So it's constant traffic in a bunch of packed in sardine people. Not to mention there's one bar with two bartenders - so getting a beer takes for-ev-er. It has a nice dart area in the back that's fun if you can get it...but other than that, I'm not a big fan. We had a beer or two at Brick and then headed home to rest up for Sunday...

Sunday: Last week there was a continuous debate between our entire group of friends through multiple message threads on Facebook.... Sullivan's Island or Folly Beach for Sunday's beach day. Most of us wanted to go to Sullivan's because it's such an easier drive (90% of us live in Mt. Pleasant..and I live almost on Sullivan's Island!), traffic isn't as bad, parking isn't nearly as bad, and did I mention it was closer? The Folly Beach proponents made the case that yes it's a pain in the rear to drive out to Folly, etc. BUT you can drink alcohol pretty much freely out there without concern of tickets.

We typically go to Sullivan's when we do beach days - well the drinking situation on Sullivan's...is... you can't drink any alcohol, or even have it, on Sullivan's Island beaches or you get a ticket with a hefty fine. We've actually talked to a cop before and from what we've been told, as long as you've disguised it (i.e. it's in a sealed cup that looks like something else, etc.) then the cops will leave you alone because you haven't given them cause. We also always worry about cops checking in the coolers too, but we have also heard that as long as you don't give them a reason to look, they won't - i.e. they can't just walk up to your cooler and look inside for no reason. So...we've always been fine on Sullivan's.

However, the Folly Beach proponents finally swayed us Sullivan's fans with the following arguments: a) we will have almost 20+ people in our group - meaning obvious pulling of beers out of coolers to poor in hidden cups b) it's a huge 'beach' holiday so the cops will be out in droves, and c) one of our friends just saw new signs posted all over Sullivan's Island that said, "No Alcohol. Minimum $1000 fine". This previously was $500... yikes!

So Folly Beach it was! We had to wake up early and get out there early to beat traffic and get good parking. We were making our way onto the island around 10 AM-ish I think... parking wasn't too bad, but traffic was already backing up. We sat in it for a good 30 min. Some of our friends who came out later sat in it for almost 2 hours!

The day consisted of consuming adult beverages, bocce ball games, cornhole games, bathroom trips to the ocean, and frying in the sun. Despite my numerous reapplications of suntan lotion and going up in SPF each time - I still managed to leave the beach a shade of red I like to call lobster.

Photo taken by my friend as my
fiance and I walked down her dock.

Sunday Night: My fiance and I picked up Willow from doggie daycare and took him home to sleep. Then a bunch of us Mt. P locals met at Kickin' Chicken for some dinner. Then my fiance, my best friend Jtay and I went to one of my other good friends' (and bridesmaid!) house on Isle of Palms. Her family's house is right on the Inter Coastal Waterway and they have a sweet dock setup. So we watched the sun set, drank another beer or two, chatted about bridesmaid dresses (my poor fiance) and then called it a night and headed home and went straight to bed. We had some friends who rallied and went out Sunday night... I really have no idea how they accomplished that. I really must be getting old!

Monday: After a marathon day on Sunday, Monday was much more domesticated and relaxed. My fiance and I took Willow to the dog park for about an hour - so many dogs there for him to play with, it was awesome! Then we took him home, bathed him and put him down for a nap (lol), then we headed out for lunch.

We decided to try out a new place in Mt. Pleasant that we haven't eaten at before - Papa Zuzus on Coleman Blvd. It's a small greek restaurant. We both had gyro's and they were super delish! My fiance thinks it might be his new fave place to eat in Mt. Pleasant. He loves Greek food.

Then we were super domesticated and went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and REGISTERED! Whoo hoo... it was overwhelming and fun at the same time. Thank God for the girl there that helped us out - she was a wedding registry expert on crack. And thank God for an older sister and Mom on speed dial... "Mom, do we want non stick or sterling silver? Or both...or what? or dishwasher safe...or...or.. ahhh!" "What pattern crystal do I need again?" "Thread count wha????"

We also picked out our china pattern - we weren't in agreement at first, but I was surprised to hear my fiance say "How about that one? It's festive - I like it!" as he pointed to.... a Kate Spade pattern??? Whaaat??? :) Good fiance! I had seen the pattern but didn't point it out to him because I was sure he wouldn't like it and think it was too girlie...but he liked it because it reminded him of the holidays - which is probably the only time we'll ever use our china... so Kate Spade Belle Boulevard it is! We also registered for some Spode Christmas china serving pieces so we can pull it out around the holidays to compliment the Kate Spade pattern.

Kate Spade Belle Boulevard China Pattern

Spode China Pattern

We've heard nightmares about registering with Target, so we're not going there - but we're going to do Amazon.com and Macy's instead. Has anyone registered with Amazon before? What did you think?

Then it was dinner, 48 hour Mysteries and Dateline on ID, and then bed. :)

Lol... quite the three day weekend, and I'm already counting down the days to this weekend for more beach time.

So..... how is your week going?