Wednesday - May 8

Beautiful sunny day......we had breakfast and then Betty picked us up for a great tour of Charleston and surrounding area.    Betty and Kathy have known one another since 4th grade.    She and John still have a home in Bloomington and a beautiful home in the historic district built in 1816.    We stopped and saw the Angel Oak Tree - unbelievable and supposedly 1000-1200 years old and the largest tree east of the Mississippi.

Betty was our chauffeur to Mt. Pleasant, Sullivan's Island, Isle of Palms, James and Johns Islands and Ion.    It was a delightful trip learning so much about these wonderful areas surrounding Charleston and seeing all the beautiful homes.   We came back to Betty's lovely home and met their friends, Wayne and Jane originally from Bloomington and now in Summerville, SC.    We girls all went to Magnolia's for wonderful lunch.

Angel Oak Tree

 Claire, Kathy, Pat, Betty

Betty's beautiful blooms in backyard 

 Kathy, Betty, Claire, Pat, Jane

We girls had lunch at Magnolias - wonderful!    We said our good byes and BIG thanks to Betty and Jane and then off to check out King Street.    Lots of shops and found our way to Hotel Bennett which my friend Beth suggested.   It is only a few months old and they have a pink champagne bar - quite something.    It was such a nice day we went to the 9th floor and had Moscow Mules on the rooftop.

 Top of Hotel Bennett

Walked back to the Market Place and Claire bought a pair of shoes and then onto eat again....

tonight we dined at 82 Queen - very good.

Back "home" to the Ansonborough for some down time and sleep!!!