Our Charleston Trip: The End

At this point, does anyone still care? Well, I do; plus, I need the write-up to put in my photo album!
Mrs. B

19 May

Yesterday's weather did not improve much at all. We drove out to Folly Beach to see the place where the deed was done. It was rainy and windy so we only stayed long enough to snap a few pictures (Mark's expression is priceless in this one, I think!)

Anyway, back to Charleston. The weather was still awful so we went to The Charleston Museum and poked around there several hours. Then, we ended up at the pub next to the inn for a few beers (we've always meant to stop in here since it's so close to the inn; finally did it!)

We decided to have a low key dinner (read: not as expensive) so we tried a place on the corner of E. Bay called Southend Brewery. Well, it was definitely cheaper! Actually, it wasn't bad (but nothing to write home about). Read my review here. It certainly is an alternative to all the very expensive places. The beer was so-so, though and our waitress was out and out spacey.

We met the GM of the inn! She recognized me because she'd seen my Blog post "At the Vendue Inn" where I am sitting in the middle of the huge bed and said I felt like Edith Ann. That was sort of neat! We just saw her again this morning at breakfast; she asked "And how is Edith Ann this morning?"

So, today is our last full day here (until our next visit, of course!) We were planning on Ft. Sumter but the weather is still chilly and we don't have the right clothes for a 75 minute boat ride on choppy water. I guess this means we'll wander around the market buying gifts.

Dinner tonight at The Library (the inn's restaurant) at 7:30!

20 May

On our way home shortly; just time enough to finish writing about our visit.

Yesterday turned out fine despite not being able to go to Ft. Sumter. After our stint at the market, we ended up back at The Griffon (the pub next door; read my review here) and then hung around the room until dinner time. Very relaxing, almost TOO relaxing!

Dinner at The Library was quite good. I had a sweet pea soup; Mark had shrimp bisque. He had fish; I had a smoked pork chop. We split a peanut butter chocolate cake (a PIECE; not the entire cake!) The place was relatively deserted but I suppose it was a Tuesday night. Here is my review; we'd probably go back.

Then, back up to The Rooftop Bar for scotch and cigars.

So, onward home to our "kids"!

Here's my review of the Vendue Inn.

Until next time, Charleston!

Our Charleston Trip: Part Two

In case you are wondering why I do this (other than assuming that someone out there is vaguely interested in our travels), I also print the journal out and put it in my photo album with my pictures of the trip. Sorta kills two birds with one stone. Yes, I am ANAL! I know! Mrs. B

Sunday May 17th (Still!)

Spent the afternoon roaming. Got rained on (every time we come here, it rains!) Had a drink in the bar at Charleston Place (a great mint julep but the bar tender was bitching about having to be there on Sunday since he'd been there late the night before. He wasn't bitching to us, but, we could hear him complaining to a co-worker. Not very professional for such a (supposedly) swanky hotel. Personally, I much prefer the Vendue Inn and all it quaintness).

As we typically do when we are here, we wandered around Charleston great street market getting ideas for b-day gifts for The Kid and my mom. We also found a cigar shop (which made Mark happy); took a few artistic shots of some of the city's churches, and walked back to the Vendue Inn in the pouring rain. The worst thing that happened was my sandals and feet got wet, which caused the leather strap to rub against my foot and make some ugly sores. I ended up walking barefoot (and tossed the sandals in the trash can when we got back to our room. They were 2nd hand, anyway, and lasted longer than I thought they would!)

We're now having a relaxing time in our room playing some cards and thinking about heading down to the daily wine and cheese reception in a bit.

Monday May 18th

The weather has turned rainy, windy and chilly with me here with no shoes other than sandals and flip flops and nothing much warm to wear. So, I'm not sure what we'll do today. Right now, it's just around 10:00 am and we just came back from breakfast. Frankly, both of us are a bit bleary-eyed; last night was a late one!

Dinner at Trattoria Lucca (read my review here) was terrific (I can't understand why some of the other reviews on Trip Advisor are so awful!) I'm really glad we chanced it. It would be interesting to try it again when we could order off the menu.

We got back to the Vendue Inn and went up to the Roof Top Bar (there had actually been a LINE to get into it Saturday night; apparently, it is a hot spot in Charleston for tourists and locals alike) and had a drink and a cigar. There were four very young 20ish kids sitting next to us; the girls chair dancing away to AC/DC and one of them doing (what we dubbed) "The Sprinkler". Ask Mark to demonstrate next time you see him! It was hilarious!

We got back to our room, soaked in the tub, drank wine, played cards, "etc."

The only bad thing was some very noisy people down the hall were having a party, maybe? Whatever...extremely rude to behave that way in a $300+ a night place. Mark yelled at them and called the front desk. They finally shut up.

We may venture out to Folly Beach today or a museum, or both, or neither! Not sure where we are going to eat dinner, either. Lots of options, obviously!

Our Charleston Trip: Part One

Well, it's only been 3 weeks since we got home, better late than never. Hey, I HAVE been otherwise occupied! I'm not posting any pictures since you can access them from my picture link.

Mrs. B

17 May 2009

Here we are back in Charleston (it's been four years!) and back at the Vendue Inn. This time, we are in #256, which we are pretty sure is next door to the first room we stayed in in 2004. In any event, it's a lovely room. The bed is so comfortable and incredibly high. There is even a foot stool to use!

We left home around 10:00 am yesterday and enjoyed the drive down in our new car. We stopped in Lumberton NC for lunch at a Ruby Tuesday. Thankfully, we had a far better experience this time than we did in Indiana several years back (that, truly, was the dining experience from hell). Ruby Tuesday must be trying to set themselves apart from the likes of TGIF, Chili's and Applebees as the decor looked decidedly different than before; more now like a (somewhat upscale) steak house (a la Ruth Chris or Flemming's). Anyway, the food was fine; I had a salad because I was anticipating looking smashingly slim in my red dress later on that night but I did indulge in a mojito. Mr. B was very happy to have a tall Sam Adams and a buffalo chicken sandwich.

We made it to Charleston around 3:00 pm. As always, it was hopping! Lots of people roaming around and the usual bikers (for some reason, every time we come to Charleston, there appears to be a biker rally).

After sort of unpacking (which meant basically we hung a few things up and put the toiletries in the bathroom), we went across the street to the main part of the inn for their daily afternoon wine and cheese reception. Everyone who works here is extremely friendly. One of the managers, Jerry, talked to us quite a bit and kept bringing us more wine and offered to bring us some cheese, fruit and crackers from the other room (we elected to hold out for dinner at SNOB).

After talking to Jerry about our dining plans (and the fact we only had a RSVP for that night at SNOB, leaving three other nights), we ended up making RSVPs for tonight (Sunday) and Tuesday. Tonight will be a new Italian place that I'd read about in Gourmet magazine and Jerry confirmed it was quite excellent. It'll be "family style"; no menu. Whatever it is, it is. Tuesday we opted to make an RSVP at the Vendue Inn's restaurant The Library. We've never eaten there and figured we may as well give it a try since everything else about the Vendue Inn is generally positive.

BTW, Jerry is a relatively attractive man in his mid to late 30s. He came to Charleston from New Jersey many years ago (although he was not at the Vendue Inn when we came in 2005). At one point, he mentioned his fiance, however, he kept hovering around us and coming back to chat; and, as I said, offering to bring us wine and tid-bits. Mark's Gay-Dar went up so let's just say Jerry was not coming around to butter ME up :-)

After a bit of a rest in our room, we got gussied up for SNOB. The Red Dress. YEY! Looked good!

They were great to us at SNOB, as always. Read my review from Trip Advisor by clicking here. They had "our booth" for us (although we did have to wait a bit in the bar since the diners there before us were taking their own sweet time paying the bill) and brought us complimentary flutes of champagne once we were seated.

After dinner (and feeling quite full), we decided to walk to the waterfront park (right by the inn) to smoke a cigar and swing on one of the many porch swings on the pier. It was a lovely night out, although turns out a storm was brewing! It woke me up in the middle of the night; Mark didn't even hear it; probably because we'd had a long soak in the tub, more wine and he was one sleepy dude after all of that! Not to mention, this bed; it's like sleeping in clouds (I stole that line from another guest who wrote it in the register).

We're having a slow start to our day today. We just got back from breakfast (it's no longer a buffet; probably the only disappointment regarding the changes the new management has made to the inn) and are trying to decide what to do today. Probably just roaming! Dinner is at 7:30 pm.

Yesterday at Folly Beach

Yesterday's weather was pretty stinko so we opted to drive over to Folly Beach to see the spot where the deed was done four years ago. Luckily, on that day, the rain and wind stopped and the sun came out and it was lovely. However, it did not do so yesterday so we didn't stick around that long, just long enough to snap a few pictures of the beach, the water, and us.

Although I don't look great in the one of us, I am willing to post it here just so y'all can see Mr. B's expression. I crack up every time I look at this picture! Although I am pretty sure he was just grimacing against the wind and rain, one could pretend that he was thinking some poor married man thoughts!

Meaning? When we were out walking around the market the other day, we saw two tee shirts that I found very amusing. One had D.A.D.D. across the front with "Dads Against Daughters Dating" underneath (Mr. B said that was "ok")

and the other was of the stick figures you see on bathroom doors. They were done up in wedding clothes. The bride figure had a huge grin on her stick face while the groom was looking a tad unhappy. Underneath the picture, it read "Game Over".

Mr. B didn't find that one so funny, but, now, whenever I see this picture of him, I'm gonna think that was what he was thinking! Ha ha.

Anyway, the weather is not that great today, either. We'd planned on going out to Ft. Sumter but I'm not sure I could tolerate 75 minutes in a boat on choppy water with the wind blowing my hair all over creation. So, next visit (and there will be one; we love this place too much to not come back).

So, shopping, yey! And, dinner tonight at the inn's restaurant, The Library.

Home tomorrow, y'all!

Mrs. B

Mint Julep!

One of my Facebook pals (and high school classmate) suggested we have a drink in the bar at Charleston Place (a very swanky hotel; Mr. B said he stayed there with his ex and The Kid once and it was EXPENSIVE).

So, here we are in the bar. Very clubby; lots of leather and books. The julep was well done (I've had some that are quite awful). Mr. B drank SC beer.

The only reason I'm on-line right now is that is the weather has turned nasty. It's raining, it's windy and it's coldish. Guess who only brought sandals and flip flops to wear? Nary a pair of socks, even! So, we're in the room now, hanging out. We might venture out in a bit to a museum or drive out to the beach we were married on. We'll see!

We are having a wonderful time! Dinner last night (family style at an Italian restaurant called Trattoria Lucca) was amazing!

Mrs. B

Our Anniversary

Here are a few pictures from last night. The first is in our room at The Vendue Inn and the 2nd is at SNOB for our anniversary dinner. We had the same booth we had on our wedding night. They gave us complimentary champagne, too. The food was wonderful, as always. It was a very special and lovely evening!

We're enjoying Charleston and each other!

As a side note, when we were packing up yesterday morning, I found Pete in one of our suitcases.

When we were unpacking at the hotel, I found one of Pete's toys in the suitcase :-)

Mrs. B

At The Vendue Inn

Me on the monster bed in our room. I feel like Edith Ann. I had to use a step ladder to get on it. I am not kidding!

Mrs. B

Charleston Tomorrow!

Finally! We are leaving tomorrow (our 4th anniversary) to head down to one of our favorite places for four nights; Charleston SC. It's a special place because a) it's where we went on our first vacation together back in 2004 and b) it's where we were married in 2005 (well, technically we were married on Folly Beach NEAR Charleston).

Our wedding day on Folly Beach, Charleston May 16 2005

Anyway, we are staying at the same place we stayed at the other two times, Vendue Inn. And, we'll be eating tomorrow night at Slightly North of Broad (SNOB), which is where we ate on both our first night in Charleson in 2004 and on our wedding night a little over a year later.

Our first time at SNOB together April 2004

I'm sure we'll also eat at a few different places that we've not been to (one of my Facebook friends asked me to take a picture of us having a drink at the bar at Charleston Place) and I want to go to Fort Sumter. We'll probably visit Folly Beach as well, but, that's about all we've got planned; we usually don't go overboard in the planning department.

We were originally going to drop Lucy off at the kennel (Triangle Vet) tomorrow morning but I got to thinking that would be a lot of driving around (in the opposite direction of where we want to end up), especially since we want to leave by 10:00 am or so. I called a few weeks ago and they said they could accommodate her one night early.

I drove her (and her Santa) over there around 1:15 this afternoon. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, she started hopping around in the back of the car. She gets SO excited whenever we take her there (which goes a long way, I can tell you, in abating any guilt I may feel for leaving her there).

This time, I asked to see where she'll be hanging out. So, they took me on a tour (she'd already left me).

When we can (which is almost all the time), we pay extra to have her in a run. In essence, it's like a cage but it's quite a big bigger, both width-wise and length-wise. They are several of them out there all next to one another. So, the dogs can visit but they are separated. If it's cold, they bring them all in at night (it's definitely not cold).

Anyway, there were a lot of dogs out there! All very excited and happy and barking away. Lucy didn't see me looking at her because they were busy getting her situated but I could see her; running happily about, tail wagging, big smile on her face, barking her head off.

The Kid made a comment to her dad the other night that Lucy is probably happier there because she doesn't "get yelled at all the time". In all honesty, that's probably true, to some degree. She probably doesn't get yelled at, period; and, she gets to bark, pull on the leash, jump up on people; you know, all the stuff she is not allowed to do at home.

I left and went on my way, feeling good that our girl's gonna have her own little vacation, too.

As for Pete and Lily, Uncle Jon and Aunt Shannon will be stopping by daily to see how they're doing.

All bases covered; we're ready to roll!

Mrs. B