I just got home an hour ago. This isn’t going to be a glowing review but keep in mind that I was there by myself and I’m not much for fancy food.
I didn’t think so much of Kevin but maybe he was a little frazzled because he was so busy. The Holiday Inn as a whole was fine. Especially for as cheap as it was compared to the other downtown places. They really will go out of their way to make sure everything is just right.
I got there around noon on Thursday. I would have gotten there at 11:30 but I took North Meeting by accident and got a little tour of the non-historic part of town. After I checked in and got settled I told Kevin I’d been told that I must try some she-crab soup and he sent me to 82 Queen. Unfortunately, he hilighted my map to turn the wrong way off of Meeting onto Queen. Of course that was after I started out from the hotel in all three wrong directions before I got going the right way. So eventually I ended up at Waterfront Park. I wanted to take a dip in the fountain with the kids soooo bad but I restrained myself. The porch swings there are great!
I found the Italian Ice people to be much more pesky than the basket ladies. I was never spoken to by a basket lady but every freakin’ Italian Ice cart I passed…“would you like a free sample?” I escaped without buying a basket but succumbed to the Itialian Ice at the park because I was dying of thirst and I wasn’t acclimated to the heat yet. It did hit the spot.
I finally made it to 82 Queen and while I didn’t love the she-crab soup, I did like it and I ate it all. I wasn’t expecting it to be as thick as it was. After that I made my way back on King and did a little shopping. I learned real fast to walk on the shady side of the street. I don’t know how many times I stumbled over the bumps in the sidewalks but every time I saw someone else do the same thing I felt a little better.
I got back to the hotel and my feet were killing me. Between the hot pavement and all the walking I had a quarter-sized blister on the ball of my right foot. That meant I couldn’t walk anywhere in sandals for the rest of my visit.
The Schooner Pride was pretty cool. It’s not as big as it looks in the picture. Because of the incoming high tide and the current from the rivers the engine was running most of the time but they were able to shut it off on the return trip. The captain wasn’t overly friendly but the crew (Brian and Joe) were fun. We made it back to shore just as the fireworks (from the baseball game?) were going off. I think this was probably much better than a standard tour with a boat packed with people.
While I was waiting for schooner time I visited the aquarium. I’ve never been to an aquarium before so don’t have anything to compare it to but this didn’t seem like much. Or maybe I’m just not that interested in fish. There’s one huge tank with a bunch of larger fish swimming around (including two smallish sharks) that’s pretty neat but I felt sorry for them for having to swim around in a circle all day, every day. I felt sorry for the horses pulling the carriages, too. I saw one whose eyes just looked dead and the poor thing was standing there on three of its legs. I couldn’t bring myself to take a carriage ride after I saw that and I sure wasn’t going to ask a pedicab person to haul my fat ass around town.
I don’t recommend the River Vista (I think that’s what it’s called) restaurant at Fountain Walk. I came in at the tail end of lunch and after I ordered found out that they’d given me the previous day’s menu. They gave me the right menu and they’d run out of what I wanted, which I totally understood. Nothing else appealed to me and I’d gotten the hint that they were done serving lunch so I ordered a burger & fries at the bar, which took over half an hour to arrive. The fries were limp and cold. The burger was dry and not much warmer. The bun sucked and wasn’t even toasted. I had to ask for silverware (which I needed to apply the condiments from the condiments cups). I ate about four bites of the burger and it was so dry I couldn’t eat any more. So I sat there and waited for someone to walk by so I could get my check. Finally the girl that waited on me asked if I was ready for my check. I told her yes and she said she’d go take care of it. Five minutes later I peeked around the corner into the dining room and there she was, sitting at a table with everyone else on staff, eating lunch! Maybe if you go there at a normal time for lunch or dinner it’s ok but I wouldn’t go back there.
At Old Towne Grill (I think that’s the name of it) they have a chicken-lemon-rice soup that’s really, really good.
One day I drove down to Hominy Grill for breakfast. I must not have ordered the right thing because I didn’t see what the big deal about this place is. Decent food at a decent price though. And I ate all my grits. Since I had the car out and had gotten a feel for how to get around, I drove up to the park at the battery. That was nice (and not stinky like waterfront park). I walked along the walkway there and walked around the neighborhood a little. The houses are gorgeous. Not many people around though.
I think that was the day I went back to my room and decided to take a little nap at 3:00. I didn’t wake up until 8:30!
The farmers market was small but nice and there was a Spoleto-related art show going on, too. Most of the tomatoes were still hothouse tomatoes but I did find one vendor who said she’d just started picking her field grown tomatoes that week. (I just planted mine the day before I left.) And now I’m kicking myself for only bringing three home with me. As soon as I finish this I’m off to the store for bacon & bread for BLT’s.
I hope it doesn’t sound like I hated your city. I really did enjoy it. I think I would have had a better time if I hadn’t gone alone and hadn’t gotten that blister on the very first day.
