Making plans for a vacation, even just a little get-away, is enjoyable.  The vacation releases me from  the dilemma of preparing the next meal and Cliff, the clean-up of my messy cooking.  While on vacation, our biggest problem was which of the hundreds of restaurants in the Mount Pleasant/Charleston area should we hit.  When visiting the ocean, I want fresh seafood for lunch and dinner and weather permitting, to sit on a patio overlooking the water. 

 On the patio overlooking the inter-coastal on our first evening.  Temperature was beginning to cool down.

                                                    Shem Creek Bar & Grill.  Great seafood.
While walking around historic downtown Charleston we stopped at the Noisy Oyster for a fresh seafood lunch, walked again and stopped for ice-cream and rich creamy Italian gelato.  Another night we ate at Sticky Fingers BBQ which was across the street from our hotel.  Easy to get to for tired tourists.

Cliff sitting with his new friend, Waddy the frog, at the Charleston Tea Plantation, the only tea plantation in North America.  Other tea plantations are located in Asia, Africa, and South America.  The Charleston Tea Plantation sits on 127 acres on Wadmalaw Island.  We took the trolley tour through the plantation and toured the tea factory.  Tea grows on bushes that are harvested every few weeks during the growing season.  Pickers then walk between the hedges and by hand pull out the long weeds before the big green machine, which was custom-built by the owner, slowly trims the new leaf growth.  It then travels to the factory to be processed into black, green, white, or oolong.   Cliff was amazed by all the tea facts and remembers most of what the tour guide related during the 45-minute trolley ride and the 15-minute factory tour.  Avoid him at a party or function, because he is plethora of tea information ready to share. 

Also, on Wadmalaw Island nestled among the oaks is the Irvin-House Vineyards and Distillery.  The distillery is moving to North Charleston and the vineyard's new owners have changed its name to Deep Water Vineyard. 

This is Ida, Ida-Claire.  Ida roams the enclosed grounds and greets visitors as they walk through the vineyards.  She nudges and snuggles till you acknowledge her presence by petting and speaking to her.  Ida thinks she's a big dog.

I did the wine tasting, of course, while Cliff was served grape juice.  This was one of the most enjoyable wine tastings I've experienced.  The hostess told us how each wine differed while weaving in the history of the vineyard and Wadmalaw Island.  Muscadines are the only grapes that grow in the humid conditions of the Lowcountry.