Getting some soul food in Charleston, SC - $20 trick works here too

We made it to Charleston, SC last night. It's really great to be traveling with John for pleasure as opposed to work. Stress? What stress? Never heard of it.

Except for a few minutes at our hotel...upon arrival. Travel Tip #1 - remember who booked the trip. John books 98% of our travel arrangements. But for some reason which we now know is not only Mother's Day but also the local college graduation - hotels were pretty booked up downtown. So, I spent some extra time online surfing for the best deal + location. Only, I forgot. And when we arrived at the King Charles Best Western on Meeting Street and asked for Caldwell - the hostess told us she didn't have us booked.

"We probably booked it under Expedia," John said.
" Or Hotels.com," I added. We only book through Expedia or Hotels.com. Or directly I thought - but then they would've had us.
"We booked this months ago..." I said, fulling losing faith in online travel booking procedures. John wondered where we'd end up since the whole town was full up.
"Might you have reserved this under a different name?" Molly suggested.
"Jennifer Leo?" I questioned hopefully.
"Yep, we have your room," said Molly. "And you booked through Orbitz."

I started chatting to her about the reasons I chose this hotel. And asked her about the recent renovations. Apparently they only had 30 rooms redone so far.

"And if I slip you a $20 can we get one of those new rooms Molly?" I smiled. "Worth a shot, John - hurry," I dictated pointing to his wallet - "it works in Vegas."

Molly didn't mind. We'll get moved to one of the new rooms on Saturday for the last two nights of our trip. That was her first availability.

So - SOUL FOOD.
The best way to give your soul exactly what it needs is to go home. There are some people in this world that  make me feel like I've come home the minute I'm in their presence. That's how we felt last night.  We had dinner at Johnny and Hayne's and couldn't have started the trip any better. They just had twin boys, 2 months old, and when we arrived Johnny had one in a sling and one over his shoulder making parenting look easy as pie.

Our friends  might have the only mid-century modern house in Charleston and I walked around the house drooling, mentally taking notes at what we might be able to copy from their expert design efforts.

Classic music was playing, steaks were on the grill, and veggies from their CSA delivery were all prepped.  So, you see, this isn't the kind of soul food you were thinking of - this is good loving, hanging out with great friends, an occasion that doesn't happen often enough.

And right now I'm starved again - so I better go find something to eat.

CURRENT: Charleston, SC
NEXT: Las Vegas, NV (May 12)

Comments

[rebecca]

we stayed there a few years ago, before the renovations. had a miserable room that shared a wall with the elevator well. ugh. and the bathroom was tiny. hope your experience was much better. love charleston though, good shopping and food, too. enjoy!

[John]

Hotels.com belongs to EXPEDIA and EXPEDIA is a scammer. Thye tried to scam me once (click on my name to read about my case).

Read more cases at: http://www.expedianews.com