Anyways, back to the birthday celebration! We went to dinner for his birthday, his choice of course, and he a good choice he made, The Oyster Bar! Oyster Bar is one of our favorite places, and November is a perfect month for oysters since the month ends in "r." What I love about the Oyster Bar is its laid back atmosphere (a long wooden rectangular high top bar with bar stools lines the restaurant and there is a trough in the middle where the guys shuck your oysters) and the exceptionally friendly staff who sucks your oysters for you. What could be better than enjoying oysters while watching someone else do the work? With our oysters we also ordered a pound of craw fish and Thomas ordered a cup of seafood gumbo and a side order of red potatoes, which I ended up help eating, oh well. And of course we couldn't stop there, we ordered another peck of oysters before calling it quits. The Oyster Bar's homemade cocktail sauce called "Mother Shucker's" is to die for and it's warm when they serve it to you, it's heavenly. The oysters were delicious and we had a great time together!
After dinner we had to have dessert to continue the celebration of course. Every year I've always made Thomas' a birthday cake, but this year I decided that wouldn't be a good idea since I knew we wouldn't be able to eat it all before it went to waste. So Cupcake to the rescue! During lunch on Wednesday I picked up two cupcakes, Red Velvet (one of Thomas' favorites) and Strawberry Cheesecake (one of the flavors of the day). We started with the Strawberry Cheesecake with the intentions of only eating one, but that didn't exactly work! So we ate the Red Velvet cupcake too and they both were excellent.
I don't have any pictures from the night because I couldn't think while trying to overcome my hunger pains, so you are just going to have to picture in your head the best oysters you've ever had and multiply it by 100 and then picture you favorite cupcake and imagine that's what we were enjoying, but better!
Fast forward with me now to last night. Every year part of Columbia's downtown known as the Vista, kicks off the holiday season with an event called, Vista Lights! Vista Lights is one of my favorite events in Columbia to celebrate the holidays. The city closes off several blocks of the main street that runs through the Vista so adults and children can walk freely in the street. Vista Light's is almost like a open house to kick off the holiday season with over 60 galleries, shops, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues open their doors for the evening to showcase holiday treasures. There are fire pits to roast marshmallows in the street, a bridal fashion show, lighting of the Christmas tree, lots of shops to see, and of course good food and drinks.
I am happy it was chilly this year because we been when it's been very, very windy and cold which was miserable and then we have also been when the weather has been so mild it was almost warm and that certainly doesn't make it feel like the holidays are near. So I would say this year was picture perfect! We sampled Blue Marlin's famous shrimp and grits which are unbelievably amazing, I had a glass of barbie wine while Thomas had a beer or two, watched the lighting of the Christmas tree, and we of course went in and out of all the galleries and shops while enjoying the entertainment in the street. We had an absolute blast and I'm sad it's over. Already looking forward to next year!
(Sorry for the poor picture quality, I forgot my camera!)I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Last home football game for the season, let's go cocks!!!
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