Charleston: part 1
On Friday L and I drove to Charleston, South Carolina for a fourth of July getaway. We prepared for the 5 1/2 hour car ride with some creative reading material and a bulging iPod.
Along the way we stopped for dinner at a chain restaurant and found ourselves caught up in a sad comedy of errors. Our waitress was weeded and overwhelmed (even though the restaurant wasn't particularly busy), and her manager's apology was socially awkward.
Restaurant Manager: How's everything tonight?
Sabitathica and L: (lying) Fine thanks.
RM: Good, good... (he grows quiet)
Sabitathica & L: (waiting)
RM: So, are you, um...
Sabitathica & L: (waiting)
RM: (falls silent and stares distantly into the space between Sabitathica & L)
Sabitathica & L: (look at each other)
RM: Is your... um.
Sabitathica & L: (look back at RM)
RM: Are you the people who haven't received their appetizer yet?
Sabitathica: Yes.
RM: Because I didn't know if it was maybe that other table.
Sabitathica: No, it's us.
RM: Oh, okay, because I wasn't sure.
Sabitathica & L: (look at each other again)
RM: Heh, well, what happened was, um, apparently the kitchen dropped it on the floor...
Sabitathica: Oh.
RM: And, heh, yeah, well we didn't think you'd want to eat it after that...
Sabitathica: (looks at RM)
RM: Heh... so, yeah...
In the alternate ending to this dialog, this is the moment when I stood up and half-nelsoned the manager into promising to attend a customer relations training seminar.
We changed hotel rooms three (3) times on Friday night before we finally settled on one. Does this make us high-maintenance? Aaron, the desk clerk, assured us it did not. But then, his nametag boldly claimed he was the Kwisatz Haderach, so I'm not sure how much weigh to give to his opinion.
We took photographs and drank EVIL wine. A very fun night.
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Next morning we left the hotel and moved to the Cannonboro Inn, a carefully furnished bed and breakfast L found for us on Ashley Ave.
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Having settled in, we explored Charleston:
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Episode 12b: How to recognize different trees from quite a long way away. Number 1, the Larch...
It began to rain, so we lounged in the b & b until the weather passed, then headed to E. Bay Street and walked the pier:
Dinner at Social, which has a good wine selection (I had the 2005 Domaine Montpertuis Cuvée Counoise from southern France) and a tasty crème brûlée.
After dinner we drove to the beach on Sullivan's Island. It was late - approaching midnight - and the shore was deserted except for a group of girls hunting for hermit crabs.
