Greenville, You Cute…

Hello and happy Thursday!

Well, we’ve been home for over a week, but today I’m recapping our few days in Greenville, SC over spring break.

I’ve shared many times before, but by the time spring break arrives, I’m usually too tired to do much for break. Also, Travis is pretty busy this time of the year, but a few days away is always nice.

We usually try to go somewhere close enough to drive, and often times, we go somewhere new (to us). I like that we are showing our kids a variety of places and mix in activities with some downtime as well.

We’d stopped in Greenville on our way to the beach a few years ago, and Travis always wanted to go back and check it out. We have friends who went for a few days last year, and they enjoyed their time there as well.

To me, it seems that Greenville is when Asheville and Charleston collide. There’s the charm of Charleston and the outdoor activities and attractions similar to Asheville.

We had awesome weather three of the four days. Travis had planned ahead, and I’m glad he realized that many of the smaller restaurants and even some shops are closed on Mondays.

Here’s a recap of our trip:

Saturday:

One thing about me is that I hate being rushed to leave the house. So, we all slept in on Saturday, did regular Saturday activities like picking up the house and getting some chores done, we packed and hit the road a bit before noon.

We stopped at Jimmy Johns before getting on the highway. We hit some traffic, but arrived at our hotel around 5:30.

We relaxed a bit, and there was basketball on, so Hayden watched it while Travis figured out dinner.

We went to Kitchen Sync for dinner. It was busy, but we checked in online, and barely had to wait for our table.

Hayden got a hamburger, Travis and Hadley had pizza, and I had the shrimp scampi. We even indulged in dessert!

Once we got back to the hotel, we just hung out a bit more. Perks of having big kids now…they hung out in the room while Travis and I got a drink at the hotel bar. That being said, we were all in bed by 10!

Sunday:

On Sunday, it was nice to sleep in. Travis and I even had our coffee in the lobby while the kids slept a bit more.

There was Another Broken Egg nearby, so we went there for breakfast. I wanted to take the coffee mug home with me!

Then, we went back to the hotel, called the bike place, showered, and packed up. We stayed at a Marriott the first night. Since we knew we were arriving later, we stayed at a hotel right off the highway with food nearby.

We drove a few minutes downtown to our hotel for the next two nights. We parked and walked to Reedy Rides to pick up our bikes that we rented for four hours.

Like my coffee mug, my bike was just my style! (my favorite color)

FYI: The downtown area of Greenville is very walkable, dog friendly, and has many trails.

The Swamp Rabbit Trail is 22 miles long, and that’s what we stayed on for our bike ride. Before we hit the trail, we did bike a bit downtown. It was so pretty.

Then, we made our way to the trail.

I’m assuming that given the amazing weather and the fact that it was a Sunday, the trail was busy. There were so many people out jogging, bike riding, and walking their dogs.

Along the way, there were signs pointing to various destinations, a few restaurants and other attractions.

Well, once Hayden saw that Furman University was only 6 miles away, he wanted to go there. Travis had already planned on taking the kids there the next day for a track workout, but Hayden wanted to see the purple track. 😆

So, off we went.

The campus was so pretty. We parked our bikes, got Gatorade out of the vending machine, and sat by the lake for a bit.

Then, we found the track.

The kids ran around for a bit.

Then, we started the 6 miles back to town.

We stopped at Southernside Brewing Co for a few apps and a beer for Travis. It was pretty crowded, but we parked our bikes, found a table, ordered using the QR code, and we had our food in less than 10 minutes. We were impressed (and thankful since we were so hungry)

We returned our bikes around 4:00. We had ridden over 15 miles that day! Then, we walked back to our car by the hotel. We stayed at Embassy Suites Greenville Downtown Riverplace, and it was so nice and convenient.

We checked in, relaxed, showered/freshened up before hitting up the cocktail hour. We’ve stayed the the Embassy Suites a couple of times, and Travis is now a big fan due to free cocktail/snack hour and free breakfast!

The kids joined us and had a few snacks, and then we headed to dinner.

We went to Soby’s which was highly recommended. Travis had planned ahead on Open Table, so it was nice to walk right in and have a seat. Y’all, we were so tired…and hungry. The food was great, but we did have to wait a bit to get our food. Thankfully, the app and bread basket held us over.

The walk back to the hotel was pretty.

The Embassy Suites has “Up on the Roof” that’s a restaurant and roof top patio. Even though I was tired, Travis talked me in to hanging out up there for a bit. We knew the weather was going to be colder the next day, so we went ahead for a nightcap.

Again, we were all asleep by 10! We were tuckered out!

Monday:

Monday morning, we slept in before breakfast.

The temps went from 80 to 60, and it was a rainy day.

After breakfast, Trav and the kids went to run at Furman. I hung out for a bit in the room, but then decided to get some steps in. I went for walk around the town…and visited some of the areas we’d walked through at night.

I was gone about an hour. Once they returned, we decided to get lunch. This is when we really noticed how much is closed on Mondays. We did go to an outdoor place called Gather that has different food trucks. They also have heaters on the patio, so even though it was colder with some rain, we enjoyed eating outside. Hadley got an acai bowl at one place, I ordered a grilled cheese at another, and the boys got hamburgers and fries. Not every place was open, but we still had plenty to choose from.

If we’d stayed another night, we would have come back here for dinner and just hang on Tuesday.

Then, we walked around a bit. Hadley’s friend had told her about Blueberry Frog Frozen Yogurt, so of course we had to stop there. It was delish.

Then, we walked around and hit up some shops.

Once back at the hotel, we relaxed for a bit. Trav and the kids went out and walked around a bit more. Since I had already done that in the morning, I stayed back, read my book and took a nap.

Then, we made plans to go to Top Golf, and we had a good time. It’s fun to go when it’s darker outside, and the sun was setting just as we got started. We had a few apps while we played.

Then, we stopped at Iron Hill Brewery for dinner. Honestly, it was just on the way back to the hotel, and we knew the men’s championship game would be on. They had lots of good food choices though.

We got back to the hotel around 10:00, finished watching the championship game and went to bed.

Tuesday:

Again, we slept in a bit (it was nice that we slept in on this trip rather than be rushed in the morning).

We went down to breakfast and then got ready for the day. We packed up and left around 10.

We drove outside of Greenville to a trail Travis found. It was just a two mile loop that included a few waterfalls.

The weather was beautiful, and it was a good hike to get some steps in before being in the car for five hours going home.

The only family photo of the trip, but it was a good one. Thank goodness for Hadley and her selfie skills.

We got back on the road and near Asheville there was a White Duck Taco. We love going there when we visit Asheville, so it was a good stop for lunch.

We enjoyed our lunch outside before getting back in the car for the ride home.

So many times when we are on a trip, we just get up and head home. I’m glad we took the time to ease into the day, take a scenic drive, and sprinkle in one more activity and great pit stop for food.

We got back home around 6:00, and of course we were all excited to see Homer.

I was thinking back through our spring break trips, and we’ve been to Hilton Head and KC, but we’ve also been to Knoxville, Asheville, and Nashville…and now Greenville. We apparently love a “ville.”

It was the perfect little getaway, and I bet we’ll visit again in the future!

I don’t think I will have a Friday Favorites post tomorrow, so I hope you have a great rest of your week and weekend.