Monsanto takes us to Charleston, SC

As much as people may complain about Monsanto , I quite enjoy this agricultural company.  First of all, they employ Bestie and help pay the bills around here.  Second, they take Bestie (and his favorite companion - ME!) on trips periodically.  These trips are a working vacation so don't think they are squandering money (they are actually very fiscally, environmentally and educationally responsible).  Monsanto believes in a balance between work and family and includes spouses as much as possible in order to increase employee satisfaction and productivity.

Anyway, Bestie and I headed out to Charleston from different locations.  Bestie has been in St. Louis all week at Monsanto HQ for a meeting and I had been at home, but our flights met up in Atlanta.  Well, actually that was the plan.  Delta Airlines did their best to make me late.  Engine trouble in Little Rock led to arriving late in Atlanta.  With only 3 minutes to make my flight in Atlanta I was a running fool through the airport, but I made the connection and flew into Bestie's arms  - then we sat on the airplane for 2 hours because of, you guessed it, engine trouble! Gotta love Delta and their old aircraft.  No worries, we played with a new app (see pic) and did a lot of reading!  At least we were together so we could catch up on the week and hold hands like newlyweds.  Notice Bestie's facial expressions below.  He is besotted with me and I with him.

Arriving LATE in Charleston we were starved, but most restaurants were closed by this time and we were NOT going to Waffle House.  The Concierge at the Charleston Place Hotel (thanks Leah!) call The Leaf and they agreed to stay open and feed us.  This was some great food and just set the stage for the rest of the weekend filled with GREAT Southern cooking.

The Charleston Place Hotel was wonderful and beautifully decorated for Christmas.  What a treat!

The next morning, Bestie had to spend time working registration, so I got out and saw some of the sights in Charleston on a quick run.  Again, the concierge was extremely helpful and provided me with a map for a quick run that passed several beautiful spots and provided a relatively flat course.  The weather was perfect and the sights glorious!

For those who don't already know, Charleston (Fort Sumter) was where the War of Northern Aggression started, so there are tons of cannons and balls (he he) all over.

Bestie had a break to take me to lunch so we went to SNOBS (Slightly North Of Broad).  This was a recommendation from our bartender at The Leaf and the food turned out to be wonderful.  

The great thing about Charleston, SC is that it is such a walkable city and that is just what we did after lunch.  I said it was because we could use the exercise but it was really because Bestie looked so good I wanted to show him off to this town and let them know I get to take him home with me!

For those of you who don't know Bestie, he thinks about four things, in no particular order - sex, bikes, Razorbacks, and boats.  Walking along the river/bay area was the perfect afternoon for him as long as we also noticed bikes, talked about Razorbacks and then had sex when we got back to the hotel.  Yeah, my life is so terrible.......(smile).

More of our adventures in the next blog post.  Life with an empty nest just keeps getting better and better!