Day 5: Learning to tell time / 3 mini restaurant reviews

Colin has always been an early riser.  I blame that on his mother.  She's always been afraid she was going to miss something and perhaps that has rubbed off on her son.  Enough of this third person stuff, it's hard for me to complain too much about Colin getting up with the chickens when I'm not so different myself.

The one exception I make is for vacation.  Colin, the exact opposite.  In fact after 3 days of 6 - 6:30 wake times, something had to be done.  My poor mother was on the receiving end and got to spend her mornings listening to Oso and Mickey, as she tried to go back to sleep.

I decided it was time for Colin to learn to read the clock and to implement a wake-time, similar to a bedtime.  I told him he wasn't allowed to come out of his room until the first number on his clock was a 7.  He seemed fine with it.  I wasn't sure what to expect but anything was better than 6am!!

The next morning I felt him breathing down my neck bright and early.  He asked if it was 7 yet.  I hesitated to roll over and read the clock because I feared what it would say.  6:05!  Back to bed he went.

I had pretty much written off the possibility of ever getting sleep past 6:30 by this point.  The next morning he proved me wrong!  He came in about 7:15 and he was so proud of himself that a) he had slept that long and b) that he had successfully read his clock.

Success!  Since then 7am has become a magical time.  Even now that we're home, he'll ask if it's 7 yet when he gets out of bed.  7 is much more manageable than 6, so I'll take it!

****

Poe's Tavern - Sullivan's Island - This is very popular place for people staying on Sullivan's, IOP, and Mt. Pleasant.  Both young and old come here to get their drink on and chow on some pub-style food.  The burgers were good, nothing noteworthy, but good enough.  Their main focus is clearly the bar scene, seeing as how 2 of the walls in the front of the restaurant were dedicated bar space.  One interesting note regarding the menu.  One of the items was a fish sandwich that was to be the fresh catch of the day.  Our waitress informed us she wasn't even going to tell us what it was because a couple of people had it earlier and it wasn't very good.  I appreciate her honesty but I've never had someone be quite so frank in regards to a menu item.

Monza Pizza - Charleston - I believe I first read about this pizza joint in Rachael Ray's magazine.  It's right on King Street and has the typical King Street size - tiny.  They have done a great job with the interior of the place.  Lots of exposed brick, an open kitchen, and a huge chalkboard on one entire wall displaying the menu and specials.

The salads were very large and luckily I had read that on someone's blog.  We all split a salad, the Monza Chopped Salad, and that was fine.  We also decided to order 2 pizzas and split those amongst the 4 of us as well.  The shrimp one with pesto (Vanwall Special) was my favorite but the pepperoni and mushroom (Count Louis) was good too.  The crust was cracker-thin and while the pizzas were good, there wasn't really anything special about them.  All of the pizzas are cleverly named after race car drivers, which was totally lost on me, but interesting nonetheless.

Charleston's Cafe - Mt. Pleasant - One of my favorite breakfast places!  I could have gone back several days in a row and never tired of the food or menu selections.  An interesting tidbit I discovered about this restaurant is that it was the former Bookstore Cafe, formerly on King Street and that Wes and I went to 3 years ago!

A few highlights from our meal.  Wes raved about the Corned Beef Hash and he knows his hash!  I loved the Three Grain Pancakes.  I like convincing myself food items are better for me than they really are and since these had 3 grains, they were healthy.  Right?  And the sweet potato biscuit was more like a dessert.  I wanted another one or twelve of those.  They also had whole wheat biscuits and if and when we ever go back, I want to try those.  The waffles with all the berries and whipped cream looked sinfully delicious but even I put a halt on things like that for breakfast.

The location is very unassuming so don't pass it up based on looks alone.  It's in a strip mall and sometimes those hole-in-the-wall places are the best.  Just ask Guy Fieri!

One more review in the pipelines and then it's time to get back to reality.