Monday, August 15, 2011

Weekend Recap

It looks like the new trend in blogger-land is to recap your weekend activities... and so I am jumping on the bandwagon and following suit. Here goes...

Friday night was intended to be a wild ladies' night -- almost all of our guy friends were in Cancun this past weekend for my fiance's Bachelor party. So all of us ladies decided, "While the mens are away, the ladies will play!" and Friday was our designated night to do so.

We started the night off with dinner and drinks at the new Basil in Mt. Pleasant -- and unlike other Charleston area restaurants, eh hem, our expectations were met and exceeded!

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Parking wasn't fun though because Basil doesn't really have their own parking lot (something they probably should have figured out maybe?) so you have to park in the limited parking along the street OR in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot about a block away - which is where I parked and it really wasn't a bad walk. Basil should work something out with Piggly Wiggly and offer valet parking - I think that would be awesome.

A few of us got there early and headed upstairs to the bar area that has a nice wrap around porch with couches, tables and flat screen tv's. This is going to be an awesome happy hour location come cooler weather. As soon as I sat down a waitress was out there to take my order and promptly brought me my glass of house Chardonnay - which was delish.

When most of us had arrived, I was sent down to let the hostesses know our party was there -- we had a reservation at 8pm, but we let them know about ten minutes prior we were there, just in case we'd have to wait. We actually expected to have to wait even with a reservation because they were packed! However, when I let the lady know we were all accounted for and ready when they were, she said, "Oh! Your table has been ready - come on down!" So I scurried back upstairs, grabbed the rest of the ladies, and we were quickly seated at a nice long table.

The food was delish! I have never had Thai, so I was pleasantly surprised. We started with bottles of wine (of course) and several apps -- we had a coconut soup that was pretty good... but it tasted like a warm pina colada to me, and I think you can only have a few spoonfuls, not a whole bowl. My description of a warm pina colada actually kept a few girls from trying it, lol. Oops.

We also had the stuffed shrimp which was SO good. It came with a sweet and sour sauce that was pretty good too.

And we ordered a few Fresh Basil Rolls -- which are wrapped in rice paper, which I noted made the rolls look like a certain male body part... but despite the appearance, lol, they were very good... but I avoided the house sauce that came with it because several girls were gulping down their water after tasting it, telling me to not go near it because it was so spicy.

I am not a spicy food connoisseur. I order mild salsa at Mexican restaurants (which, I don't even like Mexican food because most of it is spicy) because the salsa they put on your table is too spicy for me. I know... everyone says I'm crazy, but for some reason I just can't handle spicy food. So when I ordered my Pad Thai at Basil, I was pleasantly surprised that I could order it with no spice at all.

I didn't get a picture of it, but it was very, very good! I haven't had Pad Thai ever before and it tastes to me like pasta with peanut butter mixed in... lol... but it was good! And the portion size was great -- I ate half and was full with half to take home (that may or may not have gotten eaten late night later in the night).

So I definitely recommend Basil (in Mt. P!) if you get the chance to go - but a reservation is a must!

After dinner, several of the girls went home (lame!), two headed off downtown (we should have followed),  and the remaining five of us tried to rally for a girls' night out. And then there were five....

We just couldn't get motivated to go downtown and two girls actually said they'd probably go home if we went downtown... so we decided to pick a place in Mt. P to just have a beer, let our food settle and then decide on the best place to go out. For some reason we picked Hatchell's Tapas bar in Towne Center. Ugg..why did we pick there? The whole place smelled like a bathroom...for real. It was so gross. And there were three people working there: two girls on their phones texting, standing around, and one guy bartender who was awful.... I ordered a beer, handed him a $10 and watched as he held onto my money and had conversations with patrons instead of giving me my change. Finally got my change. We quickly finished our beers and were trying to get the heck out of there because the smell was so bad, so one of my friends asks the bartender to close her tab. We then proceed to watch the bartender fix other people's drinks, talk, etc. while we just sit there staring at him... he finally heard us saying, "Uh... any day now please?" and finally came over with her tab. Geez! Needless to say we won't be going back there any time soon.

One of the girls then left us to go to the Windjammer to meet up with some other folks to see a concert (she didn't get to bed until 3am, we should have followed)... And then there were four.

We. must. move. on. We tried to rally...we really tried...

The last fun night we had in Mt. P. started with a quick stop at Art's Bar for shots...so we decided to try and recreate that momentum by going to Art's on Coleman Blvd. Art's is fun and random. It's either dead or it's packed. It was pretty dead when were were there, but the live band (forget the name) was really good. We had a few beers, took that shot, sat outside and talked... and next thing we know it's almost 1am. For some reason we just couldn't get motivated to go anywhere else -- so we all agreed that while we tried to make a valiant effort, wild girls' night just wasn't in the cards for us. So we all agreed to call it a night.

Can't remember what it was - something cherry lifesaver maybe?
Fell in love with my friend's Michael Kors purse and wanted to steal it - it matches my outfit! I want it!!
We did take some fun pictures at Art's though...including our own makeshift photo booth. Turn your camera timer on, balance on top of Bud Light bottle placed on top of the bar, lean back and pose. Ha!

The rest of the weekend was pretty lazy....Saturday was quality beach time on Sullivan's Island, followed by a matinee viewing of The Help -- it was great! Totally met expectations, did the book justice, and would definitely see it again!

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After the movie we went to Los Arcos for dinner where I had my mild salsa and a chicken quesadilla, the only Mexican menu item I will eat. Since my fiance and his friends were living it up in Cancun and posting pictures to Facebook, we decided to post one of our own... hey, if he's partying with Mexican girls, I can party with Mexican boys, right? Lol... these waiters were good sports.

To go box says, "She misses you Bradley". Friend posted to Facebook and tagged my fiance. :)
After dinner I was excited to head home, put on my PJ's, and snuggle up on the couch with my Willow dog. Sunday was a day of cleaning out closets, trying to get organized and cleaning -- trying to get ready for all of the company coming in town next weekend.

This week is officially the last week I will be a 20-something... ahhh!! My 30th birthday is Sunday. This coming weekend brings family and friends in town for an Alice in Wonderland themed girls' shower for me (YAY!) and then my big birthday bash at Local's in Mt. Pleasant Saturday night -- if you're a 'Local', consider yourself invited. The theme is "Saying Goodbye to the Roaring 20's" and we're all dressing up as Flappers and Gangsters. :) I can't wait!

I hope you all had wonderful weekends as well... time for me to get back to work. I will try to be better about commenting on your posts today... Cheers!

10 comments:

Laura said...

Very cute theme idea for 30th bday!

Beth said...

what a fun way to say goodbye to your 20's. can't wait to hear how it turned out. wish i was a "local" so i could come. :(

Lindsay said...

LOVE basil's pad thai...i am pretty much obsessed! i saw the help too! i thought it was wonderful!

Carly Messmer said...

I love, love, love Basil! I can't wait to try out the new Mt. P. location.

Also, happy early birthday!

Holy City Chic | Megan said...

I love Basil! I can't get Brandon to go with me because he has the palette of a 5yr old & much prefers chicken nuggets to a nice meal. Last time I went (with a friend, obvi), we ordered the fresh basil rolls & had a good laugh at their appearance & texture, too! Glad I'm not the only one who found them strange -but tasty!

Happy early birthday! Oh, and I just read your blogger re-cap. Made me even that much more sad that I couldn't go! Hate that Social wasn't very pleasing. Guess we will have to pick a different place for next time!

Holy City Chic | Megan said...

by blogger re-cap, I mean Charleston Blogger Meet-up Re-cap! I'm sure you figured that out, though :)

Erica said...

Can't wait to try the new basil! I didn't know they were open until this morning. Very cool. Cute pics of you and the ladies. I'm not a big Hatchell's fan either

Rebecca said...

I love pad thai!! next tiem see if they have pad cee ew its my absolute favorite thai food!!

Samantha said...

Your birthday theme is amazing! Such a cute idea!

Kim @ keller-creative said...

I love Basil. I always get the yellow curry or pad thai. The coconut soup is also amazing. Unlike you, I could eat a whole trough of it.

Love the the birthday theme idea. So, so, so cute.