Every fall, my dear friend Joy and I try to get together. We’ve done our whole families together, we’ve done just the moms + kids, and this year…we did just the Moms! And it was a WONDERFUL weekend. She lives in the Charlotte area and I live in the Dayton area, and it’s about an 8 hour drive between the two of us, which can be a LONG trip. So this year we just picked a spot that was kind of halfway between the two of us- and we landed on Charleston, WV! Neither of us had ever been there except for driving through on the highway, but it was the perfect weekend for two tired Mom’s to get away.
I left Friday around lunch time and thoroughly enjoyed my 3 hour drive. It was a beautiful day with smooth rides, gorgeous clouds and a really interesting podcast to listen to!
We had zero plans for the weekend, so I pulled up ChatGPT and asked it to give me an itinerary. My prompt was: ‘two tired Moms are meeting in Charleston, WV for the weekend. We do not want to hike and we aren’t interested in bars/night life. We like to be outside and we would love to shop, but don’t want to spend a lot of money’. And Chat gave me a whole itinerary. I then asked for specific restaurant recommendations, and it gave me that, too! Wow! If you are ever traveling somewhere, I highly recommend using ChatGPT to give you an itinerary. I had tried googling “things to do in Charleston” and I literally couldn’t find anything from google!
We arrived, got settled into the cutest Airbnb and then went downtown for dinner. We ate at Hale House, and the food and service were great! We did not like the table we were seated at (it was literally right against the hostess stand, so everyone who came in was practically breathing down my neck), so we moved to the bar. Can’t say I’ve ever eaten at at bar before, but it was a great experience!
We headed back to the Airbnb and drank old-lady tea and chatted until 10pm or so, then headed to bed.
I didn’t sleep in very late, but I did stay in bed until 9 or so. We slowly got up, showered/dressed and got some breakfast at the Airbnb. I worked on some of my prep for parent/teacher conferences.
Around 11:30 we decided to head out to a Farmers Market. The Farmers Market was cute, but nothing exciting and we were done there in about 30 minutes. We didn’t want to drive all the way back to the Airbnb, and we weren’t quite ready for lunch, so we decided to find a thrift store nearby….
We tried to stop at two locally owned thrift shops, but couldn’t find either one of them, so we opted for the local Goodwill. And boy, did we find a treasure trove! They didn’t do half price tags, which I was bummed about, but they did have a ton of great clothes and a lot of name brand items, too. Both Joy and I found a TON of clothes.
After thrifting our little hearts out, we realized it was almost 3pm and we hadn’t even had lunch yet! We picked a little hibachi place nearby and waited until they opened at 3 to go in. The food was kind of cold, and I’m pretty sure it made me sick that night, so that was no good. Zero stars, do not recommend.
We headed back to the Airbnb and did a clothes try-on. We were laughing and having a blast. It reminded me so much of when we were roommates in high school (boarding school) and we would borrow each other’s clothes all the time.
We started a load of laundry (because, responsible adults!) and then sat out on the patio and read our books for an hour or two, chatted about life, ate some snacks and then I wasn’t feeling well so I went to bed.
I got up around 6:30 the next morning, showered and packed up my stuff so that I could be on the road by 8. I needed to get back in time for my kids cross country meet. I still wasn’t feeling great and wanted to be back in the comfort of my own home!
We stayed at the cutest Airbnb- I seriously loved it. The neighborhood wasn’t great, but once we got inside the house it was perfect and cozy and the owner was SO attentive to all the little details. I would absolutely stay there again!
My drive home was so foggy for the first hour or two! I listened to this podcast- and it’s absolutely WILD. I couldn’t stop listening!
And that’s a wrap on our girls trip! Have you ever been to Charleston? Do you have any friends from high school that you still see or get together with? Do you have any girls trips on your radar?
I have not been to Charleston but I do still get together with friends from high school. Not as often as I would like because we are all spread out. For our 40th birthdays we all met in Colorado this past March. 😊
That sounds like a wonderful girl’s trip (aside from the possible food poisoning!).