from 80 to 45 in ten miles (and soccer stuff)

Kendall & I have been in Charleston, South Carolina this weekend for lots of soccer. (Thankfully) it ended at noon for us as we missed being in the championship game by one goal. Otherwise, we'd still be on the road at this time. And in the rain.

I haven't been to Charleston since I was about 12. What a cool little place. Buggy, but pretty. Love the historic district, I want to go back with more time to spend. And better shoes. And, appropriate clothing :)

I picked Kendall up from school at noon. We drove to Raleigh to pick up her team mate and very good friend, Ella. Ella's mom, Lissah, was to be my roomie for the weekend and car mate, but her toddler fell ill, so she sent Ella with me and she stayed behind with Kooper. We made excellent time and rolled into the hotel at 5:15, just in time to freshen up and head out to dinner with the Hunt family. We drove to the historic district for dinner at semi-famous Hyman's Seafood (featured in Southern Living Magazine at least four times!). I must've ordered the wrong thing, because I was unimpressed. But, I've heard good things about it. I may try it again in the future if given the opportunity and try something different.

We were upgraded to a two bedroom suite at our hotel, so I put Kendall and Ella in a room together and had my own space, plus a living room and kitchen. And, a free breakfast each morning.

We played a Saturday morning game and tied 1-1. Kendall scored for our team. We went back to the hotel to "relax" for a bit...read: have the girls air out their stinky little feet and prevent them from wearing themselves out before game two. We grabbed some subway and headed back to the fields for a picnic with Georgia and her dad, then proceeded to get whipped by a very good classic team (level up from our challenge level) 5-0. Their footwork, agressiveness and attack of the ball was fun to watch, even though they were kicking our booties. We played sub-par which didn't help, but credit to them for excellent coaching and playing.

The girls went swimming (in the OUTDOOR pool) for about an hour, then got cleaned up for our night on the town. We headed over by shuttle (three shuttles to be exact) and dined at Bocci's Italian restaurant and then proceeded to the waterfront to start our guided ghost tour!! As we walked the four to five blocks, the girls, all 14 of them, were singing, at the top of their lungs, Ke$ha's "we are who we are". It was kinda cute.

The ghost tour was slightly disappointing. I wanted real ghosts. Not too-long-stories by a creepy dude with shifty eyes. Lots of walking on uneven cobblestone paths in dansk shoes. Not super-easy. We were all whipped when it was over, and piled into the hotel's free shuttle back to the hotel. The girls were out within 15 minutes of getting their jammies on and I was about five minutes behind them. Thankfully, we got to sleep in this morning! Our game wasn't until 11:15 :)

With it being superbowl Sunday and the fact that we had a 4-5 hour drive home, I secretly didn't mind if we didn't play in the championship. We had to win by scoring 3 goals while the other game had the team we tied Saturday loosing to the team that beat us. Well, they tied and we scored two, so that put us out of the championship. We hit the road at 1, drove for an hour where we had plans to stop for lunch with Coach Linwood and his clan at this place that supposedly had the "best fried green tomatoes in the southeast". Blah! Mine are ten times better.

We made the remainder of our journey home and as we approached the NC/SC border, the temperature went from 80 to 45 in a matter of 20 miles. No kidding!! It also got windy, drizzly and yucky. It was to start storming in SC around 2, so I feel like we probably missed some of that by being able to head out earlier.

We got home just a little bit after the game had started. Speaking of started, I am getting ready to start laundry and the shower. My bed is gonna feel so very good tonight!