September Highlights:

My parents officially moved to Charleston this month so I spent a lot of time helping them settle in and generally having family time. Fred also gets to hang out with his cousins Rory & Fae so we have a lot of pack life photos!
September has both my Dad & Cousin’s birthdays, so we were able to surprise dad with a visit from my cousin so we could all celebrate together.
- My cousin and I also went to see Sierra Ferrell right here in Charleston to celebrate her birthday and had a fantastic time!!
I had a busy month for work, including traveling to a few different site visits out of sate. Fred stayed home with my parents and I flew out to a few different cities to inspect some engineering things. Check below for a bunch of airport & lounge thoughts.
- First trip was a combo of Providence, RI & Boston, MA. I flew up to Providence for the first day, stayed overnight to enjoy the river walk (see the full Providence post here), drove up to Boston, and then booked it to the Boston Airport after work to get back home.
- Second trip was to a site south of Chicago. I had a flight out, overnight near site, and a flight back the next day. Sadly the only spot to have a sit down meal near my hotel was at an Olive Garden… so that trip wasn’t exactly noteworthy or deserving of a travel post. Let’s just say the highlight was landing back home in Charleston.
Monthly Silent Book Club Charleston meetups at the Library & All My Exes bar in Avondale / West Ashley.
For everywhere noteworthy I ate this month, check out the Charleston Eats - September 2025 post

Family Time

I stitched this custom backgammon board for my mom a couple years ago (yes that’s needlepoint), and we finally got it out of a moving box after the parents settled in. For a while we had to make due with my travel set but now the real gaming can begin! Mom and I have been playing since I was little, so we reach for this often.

Fred is living up that pack life with his cousins… but still wants to be an only child most of the time. Rough life kid, you’ll have your own space back soon!

Birthdays & Sierra Ferrell

My cousin loves Sierra, we saw her 2 years ago at a festival here in Charleston so when we found out she had a concert on my cousin’s birthday it was an immediate ticket purchase! We brought some friends & had a great time!!

Silent Book Club Charleston - Monthly meetups

We met twice this month, first at the Bees Ferry West Ashley branch of the library, and then at the bar All My Exes in Avondale / West Ashley. Such a fun mix of events, check out the Instagram page for some bonus events in the next few months!

Charleston Eats September 2025

Click for the full post

Work Travel - Aka Airport Lounge Reviews

I did a lot of travel this month for work, so I went through the following airports & lounges. I have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card, so I get access to all Priority Pass lounges and the Sapphire Reserve lounges as well. It makes traveling so much easier and less hectic when you can just pull up, grab some snacks & a beverage, and chill with free wifi. They don’t always work out, but when they do, they’re **chef’s kiss**

Airport 1) Charleston CHS Airport - Lounge: The Club at CHS

CHS is my home base airport and I love how small it is. It makes for quick security checks and means I can have a pretty short time between leaving home and hopping on my flights. CHS only has one general “The Club” lounge which I use all the time when I’m traveling out of my home base, and they always have sweet staff and nice food selections.

Random travel note - I have been doing a lot of work travel where I’m only gone for one or two nights. But I need things like a hard hat and work boots and my work laptop... and I have to walk around a lot. Sometimes overhead bin space can be at a premium, so when I’m not in need of the extra rolly-bag space, I go with a duffel. My trusty floral le sportsac has been with me for years and is so much easier to shove into an odd leftover spot in an overhead bin, even if the gate agent is turning away rolly bags. So if you’re going on a short trip, ditch the wheels and grab a small duffel. It’s worth it!

Airport 2) Philadelphia PHL Airport - Lounge: Chase Sapphire Reserve Lounge

My layover airport on the way up to Providence put me in Philly, which gave me the chance to test out my first Chase Sapphire Reserve lounge. It was gorgeous. The whole place was massive and had a great variety of rooms including the dining area, a game lounge, a bar, and a few other spots. They even have a spa!? Sadly they weren’t open until 9am (I was there too early), otherwise I could have gotten a facial. Who knew the airport could be so relaxing?? *Makes note to return soon

Airport 3) Providence PVD - No lounge visit, just a cool full sailboat to greet you upon arrival as I was heading to pick up my rental car. I had such a fun time in Providence, check out the full post here for my riverfront recommendations.

Airports 4 & 5) BOS Boston Logan & Layover at DCA Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport

I was a bit short on time when I got to BOS after my second site visit of the trip, so I just had time to grab a quick meal and go to my gate. Loved the cool tree-like architecture in Terminal B though!
Same thing happened at DCA, I had to switch terminals but since I had eaten earlier in the evening I just grabbed an iced tea to go and made my way to the gate. Bless my headphones for keeping me enveloped in nice tunes the whole time.

Airport 6 & 7) Baltimore BWI & Chicago MDW Midway - Lounge: The Club at MDW

On the way up to Chicago from Charleston I used my favorite CHS lounge again, and then had a pretty quick layover in Baltimore so no lounge action there.
On the way home I had a nice direct flight from Midway back to Charleston and I was planning on spending a couple hours in the lounge there to get some work done after my work site visit. Sadly, and this can happen with later in the day flights…. the lounge at MDW is pretty small and they had a waitlist. A 115-135 min waitlist.When I only had 2 hours before my flight. Needless to say I sat down at a food court restaurant / bar and grabbed some food and waited for my flight out there instead of trying to get lucky for an earlier lounge spot.
I did end up getting a text notification about 30 mins before my flight that I could go in, so I did. The biggest thing for me in a lot of these lounges, other than the free food & bev, is the use of single person bathrooms. If you want to change after a long work day on site into comfier clothes or if it’s that time of the month for ladies, having a personal space to decompress for a few minutes and get changed can be so so helpful. This lounge had lovely large bathrooms so I got changed into comfier pants, got a last adult beverage before the flight, and managed to grab a handful of starburst for my pocket from the snack bar. Sometimes all you need is a starburst in your pocket for later. Win.

This was definitely an out-of-the-norm month for me work travel wise, but it was fun getting to see so many airports and get out of the home office a bit.

Random house updates:

A LOT has been happening this month. The major reno has finally really kicked off. The asbestos walls / ceilings are all gone and we are down to studs. Framing throughout had been fixed / altered where desired. All the exterior wood work and trim has been repaired and painted. Plumbing & Electrical & HVAC are kicking off. BIG PROGRESS!!!
Brought my parents to see it now that the asbestos is gone 😅 Needless to say they were very impressed (and a little scared) of the progress since it meant all the walls were gone.