Sometimes you just have to do that tourist thing. Like, when you’re in New Orleans, you’ve GOT to go to Café du Monde, THE Café du Monde, the one in the French Quarter. Here’s why you have to go: The Original Café Du Monde Coffee Stand was established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. The Café is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It closes only on [...]
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As is often the case, I can’t say it better than some random person has already said it on Wikipedia: If you ask any New Orleanian where to get the best po’ boy in the city, chances are that you will get a different answer from each person. Po’ boy restaurants are a part of a person’s identity just like the neighborhood they grew up in. Once a person finds [...]
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“Y’all been here before?” the woman behind the register asked. Nope. She was being nice. We were looking around in confusion and hunger trying to figure the place out while eyeing the plates of oysters and shrimp in front of the other patrons. Clearly, this was our first time. We were lost and drooling and overwhelmed. There was a lot to take in — the very short menu board, the [...]
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First, is it lowcountry, low-country, or low country? I’m not sure. And this place isn’t technically in Charleston, it’s to the east, in Awendaw, SC. Close enough. And we were camping out there and this place was down the street. We had hoped to go to The Wreck of the Richard & Charlene, but they’re only open a few hours every night and we were in the mood for an afternoon snack. [...]
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When we heard about this place, we couldn’t believe our luck. Cheap, delicious French food in Charleston, SC? Fast & French (also known as Gaulart & Maliclet Cafe Restaurant) delivers affordable and tasty French and North African food from a tiny storefront on Broad Street near the shopping district of downtown Charleston. Every day, there’s a lunch special for $8.95; every night there’s a dinner special for $15-$16. Thursday nights are [...]
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Local shrimp, that’s what we wanted. They have them for sale in Charleston at the grocery stores. (Note: This area has the weirdest grocery store names in the country, Piggly Wiggly is one, Harris Teeter is another.) We prepared a “classic” Charleston shrimp boil — take the New England clam bake and substitute local, South Carolina shrimp. Or do the same with the Door County fish boil. The South Carolina [...]
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Driving around Charleston, we were constantly getting lost. The city is confined to a small peninsula and the suburbs are all linked by bridges and causeways, so one mistake means you may be stuck on a bridge to a new island. During one five-mile loop around the block, looking for our campground, I noticed a U-Pick strawberry sign. It took some time to convince Paul that this would actually be [...]
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Pies and Pints, damn you. We were just going to stop in Charleston, West Virginia (aka: the most northern city of the South, the most southern city of the North, Chemical Valley, The Capital City, Chucktown, Charly West) for the library WiFi, but we arrived a bit late, stayed a bit long, and needed a meal. I found Pies and Pints on the interwebs. Lisa and I strolled down the [...]
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Traveling with four people is hard when things don’t go as planned. If it’s just Paul and me, we’ll seek shelter in a library or hotel when hit with a series of cold, rainy days. But for a few days, we were traveling with my parents and, just like when they visited us in Chicago, I wanted to keep them entertained. It was like they were on my home turf, [...]
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Walking through the woods on Kelleys Island, Paul has his eyes on the ground. Paul always has his eyes on the ground when we’re walking through the woods in the spring. He’s looking for morels. We found one morel once, a big one, but we tragically left it in the fridge at our friend’s place when we headed back home from Madison…the fridge of our friend who hates mushrooms. Eyes [...]
Read moreWe sold, donated, and stored our possessions; quit our jobs; bought a van; and are driving around North America. We'll wander around, see what's happening, and write about it here.
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