The morning was cold (39 degrees,) and overcast. Lola (our GPS) was acting up this morning. It’s amazing how reliant on technology we were, as none of us could remember how to get off of the island of St. Simons without Lola.  She finally came around, and we were on our way.  Next stop was Jekyll Island. We spent an hour walking through the historic village area shops and taking pictures of the Jekyll Island Hotel, rated among the top 500 resorts in the world by Travel & Leisure.We then asked Lola to show us the way to Charleston. We were about 190 miles away. There was a lot of road construction for the first hour, and another long stretch of road where the speed limit was 45, so the total ride took about 3 and a half hours.

We arrived in Charleston at 4:45 p.m. Our home for the next three nights is the Francis Marion Hotel. I have to say that at first glance, Charleston was not what I expected. We didn’t see much since it got dark shortly after owe checked in, so I’ll reserve more comments until then.

From the research we had done online, one of the restaurants we wanted to try was Virginia’s on King. It is a two story restaurants with brick interior walls and dark wood decor.  A medium size bar in the back had several flat screen tv’s.  The menu is packed with Southern classic cuisine.  We once again ordered various appetizers and 2 dinners between the three of us, so we could taste as much of the dishes that are unique to the South.

As appetizers we ordered Fried Crawfish ($6.00,) Fried Pickles (4.99,) Pork Sliders ($7.99,) and Corn Fritters($4.99.)  For dinner we had the fried country steak and the fried chicken, each for $13.99 with your choice of three sides. The prices were reasonable and the portions generous.  As sides we tried macaroni and cheese, Hoppin’ John, red rice and sausage, stone ground grits, blue cheese cole slaw, sweet potato fries and fried okra. They also served us brocolli corn bread which was quite good.  We have no negative comments about the food, although some of the items like the fried pickles or crawfish would not be something I would order again….not because of how they were preapred, but for the mere fact it isn’t something I would want to eat again.  The highlights of the meal were the country fried steak, grits and mashed potatoes with gravy.  Total meal was $62.

Day two is coming to a close, and we want to make note that we were able to eat at two great rertaurants for under $30 pp. We skipped lunch since we were full from a large breakfast, but we could have stayed under Rachel Ray’s $40 per day even adding in lunch…not bad!

Foodie Road Trip Day 2 is a post from: TasteForCooking

We drove another couple of hours and arrived at St. Simons Island, which is the largest barrier island in Georgia, roughly the size of Manhattan.  After checking into the King and Prince Resort, we wanted to take advantage of the hour of daylight left to see the Pier Village.  There is a main road that is lined with quaint shops and restaurants. At the end of the road is a pier. Large oaks shade a playground and picnic area. Visit the St. Simons Island Visitor’s center. You can join a trolley tour of the island from this location daily at 1:30 p.m.  Photograph the St. Simons Island Lighthouse, which was built in 1872, and is one of only five surviving light towers in Georgia.  The light from the house extends out 23 miles to sea.  You can climb up the 129 steps for amazing views of St. Simons and Jekyll Island.

We decided to eat dinner at Barbara Jean’s, which has been featured in Southern Living Magazine for their crab cakes.  We tried the dirty rice ($3.99,) She-crab soup ($4.99 for a cup,) crab cakes, a shrimp burger and the grits. There are 3 of us splitting all of this food by the way. The meal began with home-made corn and pumpkin bread served with whipped butter – yum! The crab cake was excellent.  The she crab soup ($4.99 for a cup) and shrimp burger were good, but the highlight of dinner was the Shrimp and Andouille Sausage cheese grits. Wow! Did I mention I don’t like grits, and had no interest in tasting them? What a mistake that would have been.  It was delicious.  The grits were so creamy. The shrimp were grilled to perfection and there were plenty of andouille sausage and scallions.  Every bite was full of flavor. This is one recipe I can’t wait to come home and try to duplicate. The service was great, but I must mention the restaurant was not full.  Prices were reasonabl,e as we paid about $50 for the 3 of us. I would certainly recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting St. Simons Island.

Tomorrow we’re off to Charleston, South Carolina.

Foodie Road Trip Day 1 is a post from: TasteForCooking