Love the Place You Live: Mount Pleasant

Saturday morning, we woke up to sunshine instead of the expected rain, and decided to take a field trip.  I had read about Cline’s Antiques in Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, in the latest issue of Country Living and was itching to go.  It’s about an hour from our house, so we packed bottles of water and put on our tennis shoes and set out early. 

The drive was lovely and the company was my favorite. When we got to Cline’s, we were surprised by how many people were there. I think we were also surprised by the amount of… stuff, we’ll call it. Stuff everywhere.

Their website said, “this isn’t a fancy place” and they weren’t kidding.  Items were strewn about on the ground, in old barns, and tucked away inside 18 wheeler trailers.  To get into the trailers, there were several adventurous options- either a ladder or rickety stairs or maybe just a stack of trash to walk up. 

I was specifically hunting for chairs and, while there were plenty of chairs, we didn’t take any home.  There was lots of beautiful old furniture that just needs a little love to make it right and we were especially enamored with the cast iron animals.  We brought home a ram as a souvenir. 

I think that we’ll go back to Cline’s again, more prepared next time.  We saw people with gloves and boots who were really getting serious about finding the good stuff.  It’s like a treasure hunt there. 

After Cline’s, we drove into downtown Mount Pleasant to explore and eat. We lunched at Buddy’s Place, which was Mount Pleasant’s version of Jumbo’s. Loved it. Then we walked around and admired the lovely architecture and small town ambiance.Total steps taken: 9566.  And that was all before 3pm.

We walked by the Farmer's Market, which was three people sitting on a tailgate selling buckets of strawberries.   I felt so bad for them (and I love strawberries) that I resolved to buy some when we walked back, but they had packed up and left by then.

Steve and I kept finding similarities between Mount Pleasant and other small towns that we've visited and loved- Bridgton and Weaverville, to name a couple.
 

Exploring Mount Pleasant was such a fun way to spend a Saturday!  On the drive back, we talked about how far from home we felt, when we'd only driven 40 miles.



Did your weekend include any fun exploring?  Today I am sticking close to home again and taking care of the usual- laundry and sewing.  There are currently ten bags in various states of completion draped on all of our dining room chairs.  I'm hoping to make some progress on those so that we don't have to eat in the kitchen all week!

ps- Would you be a pal and vote for me in the Handmade Olympics today?  My summer tote is a finalist in Event 1 and I'd just love to win!