In September we did a quick getaway to Charleston, SC. We took the time to plan out our trip to see the most. We are down to the week of and there is a tropical disturbance in the Atlantic ocean that is projected to make landfall somewhere along the east coast around South Carolina. We didn’t think about the fact that we were traveling during hurricane season. We discussed not going, but our hotel had not called us to cancel, so we decided that we’d venture on. Afterall, it would not be the first time we’d been on the coast during during a tropical disturbance. We were in Sandestin, FL during a tropical depression for a work related trip. We have driven to Savannah, GA in the after effects of a tropical storm. So off we go!

We head East thru Atlanta. On the way Jeff gets a call and it is from our tour company and they canceled our city bus tour. They left a message about the cancelation, but didn’t say why they were canceling. We started wondering if it was because of the weather, had things gotten worse since we left home???? We looked and everything was still the same so onward!!

We stopped for lunch in Thomason, GA at a restaurant called Hogie Joe’s. We found it on yelp. It was a couple miles off the interstate in an older area of town. The food was good. I had the Bulldog Burger and sweet potato fries. The description said that it was a burger topped with our famous melted spicy pimento cheese and bacon crumbles. The burger was good, but to me the pimento cheese didn’t have a whole lot of flavor, maybe it was the fact it was all melty. Jeff went with a regular cheeseburger with no extras added and regular fries.

We got back to the interstate and ventured on. We talked about how this drive had been different than going to Savannah until we got to the last leg and it is the same as Savannah in that the interstate you take is long and boring!! We finally made it to the city. We got to the Mill’s House Hotel where we were staying and our map directions told us to turn beside the hotel, but guess what the valet parking was in the front. So we ended up driving around the city and navigating some of the odd streets to get back to be able to pull into the front of the hotel from the direction that we came in. We got to see a little bit of the city and to experience some of their funky streets.

Since we didn’t yet know our way around we decided that we’d eat at the restaurant in the hotel the first night. So we changed clothes and went downstairs to Iron Rose. It was sort of fancy and pricy for not a lot of food, but that is normally how it is when a restaurant is in a hotel. We had an appetizer of kettle chips with charred onion Creme Fraiche and blue cheese. I got the roasted black grouper with pea tendrils, plum tomatoes and spring onions. Jeff has the CAB (certified angus beef) Burger with cheddar and fries. After dinner the cafe in the hotel that had gelato was closed so we found that Poogan’s Porch which was just across the street had a chocolate cake with ice cream. So we walked over and the 3 hostesses at the front were not at all friendly. Jeff told them we wanted to get dessert and they sent us over to the bar. The bartender was really nice and asked if we were going to eat it there, but there were no seats in that area so we got it to go. We get to the room and we don’t have ice cream, maybe because we got it to go. The cake was multiple layers and really rich. We ate on that dessert for several days. We did not go back to that restaurant that week after that not so warm welcome.

Day one was a wrap and we were ready to get to venturing on day two!!