Our last couple days in Charleston were spent finally showing off downtown to Andy. Our first stop was a visit to my favorite spot in the city, the Calhoun Mansion. Seriously, if I ever strike it rich I will be buying this house. So of course we had to take the tour so I could show it off to Andy. I’ve blogged about this house before, which can be read here. It still remains my favorite house in the world. Luckily, Andy loves it, too. Which is great because now when we are rich there is no reason why we can’t have it.

Since it was already fairly late in the day and very hot once we were done with the Calhoun Mansion, the rest of the afternoon was spent just walking around the battery and looking at the various monuments around the part. One of the monuments was for the USS Hobson, an American naval ship that was built in Charleston in 1941. The monument was erected to commemorate the sinking of the Hobson during an operation in April 1952. All 176 members of the crew were killed.

Day two of our travels around downtown Charleston started off with a carriage tour around downtown. If Andy hadn’t been there we may have skipped it as I have bad luck with these things. Prior to this, I’d been to Charleston twice and both times gotten the same tour. Even worse, it was the worst tour of the four they do. Luckily, we were able to get a new route, this one taking us along the battery and around some of the prettiest houses in town.

After meeting Joe for lunch, we continued our last day in Charleston with a stop at the military museum. This is just a small museum tucked into a corner across the aquarium, but it was still packed with stuff and very interesting. The museum starts with an exhibit about the current wars in the middle east and takes you back through every war our nation’s military has ever been a part of. My favorite part was when we got to the Revolutionary War as it gave us yet another opportunity to make fun of Andrew and how his country lost the war. We even got a photo of him pouting by the exhibit. When we finished there we took a quick drive to a park by the ocean where we walked down the pier. This was really cool as we happened to see a group of dolphins swimming around. First time I’ve ever seen a bunch of them in the wild, but they were too quick to get any photos. Which is no big deal as it still makes an awesome memory.

After this it was time to make the final mandatory stop in Charleston, which was dinner at Coast, my absolute favorite restaurant. I’ve written about Coast a few times, including my last visit there in which I had the daily special of the amazing lobster. This time around, though, I went with my favorite dish: Lobster and Crap Au Gratin. It’s lobster and crab meats along with parmesan cheese stuffed into half a lobster shell. So yummy. And so awesome of Nicole and Andrew to constantly put up with my love of this restaurant even though neither of them eat seafood.

Somewhere along our escapades downtown we also made a stop by the doggy bakery. This is exactly what it sounds like: a bakery that makes treats for dogs. I always wanted to go in there but since I don’t have a dog I never needed to. This time around I decided to go in anyway and even picked up a couple treats for Brodie and Willow.

And thus concludes the Charleston portion of my summer of fun. Our final morning we met with Joe for lunch then took a trek to Cupcake for cupcakes. Then it was time to say goodbye to Joe and head to the airport. The goodbyes continued with Nicole and Andrew. This is always the worst part. While I knew I’d be seeing Andrew in a few weeks when he got to San Diego, it was much harder to say goodbye to Nicole, who I won’t be seeing for awhile. One day I won’t have to say goodbye anymore because I’ll be able to finally live in Charleston, in my favorite city and around two of my favorite friends. Until then, though, I’ll have to settle with these visits.

Next stop: Comic Con.