Charleston, January 7-9

Charleston, January 7-9

The drive from Fayetteville to Charleston was uneventful (read boring), and we arrived in Charleston mid-afternoon.  The Charleston Residence Inn is a really nice hotel.  The lobby is wood paneled and quite formal looking, and the rooms are spacious.  Minnow got to visit the lobby and the hallways.  The hotel offered soup and salad in the evening, so we decided to stay in for dinner.  We were fast asleep when the fire alarm went off at 2 a.m. and it took the management nearly 2 hours to fix the problem, while people wandered around the lobby and the doorway areas.  (At checkout, they waived out pet fee to make up for the inconvenience.)

Wednesday morning our tour bus picked us up at the hotel at 10 a.m. and we set out to see downtown Charleston (the historic area, the battery and a visit to the Heyward-Washington House built in 1771).  Meanwhile, Minnow had a play date with Amanda, the owner of Happy Pet Sitting Services. He even went joyriding in her car!  Our tour was well organized and informative, and left us looking forward to further visits to Charleston (Charleston Tours).

For lunch, we went to California Dreaming, a seafood restaurant near the hotel (chili and peel and eat shrimp.  Guess who had which??!)

After much research, we decided to go to dinner at the Peninsula Grill (ranked #3 of 712 by TripAdvisor).  It turned out to be an excellent choice--beautiful setting, outstanding service and great food.  Maryanne enjoyed the rack of lamb while Siegfried had the filet mignon.  Their house special, coconut cake, was a fitting end to a superb meal (and I don't even like cake!) 
Amanda joined Minnow for an hour while we were in town--he's one spoiled dog!