After all of the hype and hoopla in the news media, the actual weather we experienced on our long weekend in Chucktown, as some locals refer to Charleston, was anticlimactic (or should that be anti-climatic?).
We never saw rain, although it was windy and cool enough at times to make us glad we’d brought jackets and sweaters along.
Our modern and spacious room at the Hilton Liberty Club was quite luxurious, with a variety of electronic enhancements that we sometimes found more irritating than helpful.
The automatic drape openers were easy to operate, but we experienced problems just trying to turn the main room lights on and off.
The little TV set in the bathroom mirror was a novelty gimmick to us and we didn’t use it.
While the bathroom shower was majestic, we experienced problems trying to adjust the temperature and choose which of the three heads we wanted to use.
Embarrassingly, we had to call for help the first morning when neither of us could figure out how to turn the darned thing off. An old saying, “hicks from the sticks,” immediately came to mind.
The friendly maintenance man who responded to our call patiently demonstrated the solution: turn the lower faucet hard counterclockwise.
He also showed us how to turn the fancy rheostat room lights on and off. Hint: be patient as it takes longer than a regular switch.
The hotel is upwards of a ten-minute walk from the French Quarter, a pleasantly touristy area lined with some of the city’s best-regarded restaurants. Another time we’d consider a hotel right in that neighborhood.
This is a Hilton Vacation Club property, but there were no efforts during our stay to sell us a time share, for which we were grateful. The posted checkout time is 10:00 AM, but the front desk offered us 12:30 PM, which was helpful to us, considering our homeward AS 787 flight wasn’t scheduled to depart until 7:20 PM.
There’s no shortage of good restaurants in the French Quarter, although there’s a certain sameness to many of the menus. In fairness, most tourists are probably looking for just such local fare.
Think she-crab soup, fried green tomatoes, red rice, grits, and shrimp for example. We felt some hometown pride to see that our northwest Dungeness Crab was a feature on some menus.
The service was universally friendly, you-all, and the portions so generous that we reluctantly left food on our plates most meals.
Our opening lunch was at the Charleston Crab House, where we first noticed Dungeness Crab on the menu.
Apparently nobody knows for sure how the famous deep fried ball of cornmeal batter got its name. French nuns in Louisiana called them “croquettes de maïs.” Others call them corn dodgers or even the prosaic “cornmeal dumplings.”
To most southerners though, they are “hushpuppies,” alternatively spelled “hush puppies,” the first known use of this sobriquet being in 1899.
They’re traditionally savory, with onion often added to the batter. While they’re commonly served as a side dish to seafood or barbecue, we savored them as an appetizer slathered with honey butter.
One of our daughters was an editor at Southern Living Magazine in Birmingham Alabama for several years, and you can find their authoritative recipe below.
https://www.southernliving.com/recipes/hush-puppies
Our mains were shrimp for Kathy and redfish for Brian, both with carrots and both tasty, even if Kathy discovered she doesn’t particularly like red rice, despite its vaunted nutritional value.
On the other hand, Brian relished his smashed potatoes.
Late that night, we enjoyed a “light” dinner at Pelato, a small-plate “Brooklyn style” Italian eatery currently rated by Trip Advisor as Charleston’s number one restaurant.
Incidentally, we took Ubers throughout our visit and found them reasonably priced and readily available. Some of our more interesting vehicles included a big Ram pickup, a Jeep, and a GMC Yukon.
We shared four small plates, starting with a mozzarella caprese, featuring warmed mozzarella on top of chilled Kumato tomatoes (a brown Spanish hybrid) with a touch of balsamic reduction.
That simple concoction was Brian’s single favorite dish of the trip. Sometimes less is more.
Next, after consultation with our hardworking server (just imagine advising diners on putting a menu together and then delivering an average of four or five orders to each couple all night!) came Arancini, those tasty little rice balls.
Our penultimate order was meatballs Al Forno, accompanied by an outstanding red sauce.
When asked her opinion, our friendly young server suggested the vodka pasta as one of her favorites.
That turned out to be a very large portion of Radiatori Vodka, radiator-shaped pasta simultaneously delicious and filling, especially at this point in the evening.
In a heartbreaking moment, we had to relinquish the plate without finishing it. Back to one meal a day for us!
The next morning found us at the South Carolina Aquarium, less than a ten-minute walk from our hotel. It’s not a large facility, but we found it well worth a two-hour visit.
Among its features are its Sea Turtle Care Center. They treat ill and injured sea turtles and return them to the ocean, making use of an impressive medical facility that includes an operating suite.
They’re also the custodians of a flightless bald eagle whose injured wing had to be amputated. They regularly take it outside for fresh air and a look at the outside world. What a magnificent bird it is.
We did manage to get in two to three miles of walking every day, enjoying, for example, the chilly waterfront…
…and the U.S. Customs House, the construction of which was started in 1852, interrupted by the Civil War, but eventually completed in 1879, a fine example of Early Republic architecture.
We finally hit a barbecue joint for lunch, Poogan’s Smokehouse.
A serving of corn bread was too much to finish in this land of large portions.
Our sandwiches were okay, but we do have our own smoker and do pretty well at home.
Kathy was impressed with the rib that topped her “sampler sandwich,” and Brian liked the house-cut chips that came with his pork belly sandwich, but couldn’t possibly the family-of-four size portion.
We also walked through the famous Charleston City Market on a cold and quiet Sunday afternoon.
Monday we stored our luggage at the Hilton and took an Uber to another well-reviewed establishment, Frannie & the Fox, located in the Hotel Emeline.
We decided to stretch the lunch to two courses, given that our CHS-SEA flight didn’t depart until 7:20 PM.
Foiled again! Kathy’s rich and delicious squash soup was a large bowl, not a cup, and Brian’s Caesar Salad covered a dinner plate.
We split a pepperoni pizza, and even that was way too much.
It was a scrumptious pepperoni pizza with a beautiful crust, another culinary highlight of the trip, and we did finish it.
After that, we decided to walk back to our hotel to pick up our luggage.
Once there, we called an Uber and were transported to the airport by a friendly young immigrant from India.
The Charleston Airport is a modern facility that was very quiet today. No doubt a lot of flights were canceled, but we fortunately are on a flight that goes back and forth non-stop between two cities, and both airports are open.
Whether we make our connecting flight to Bellingham is another story, but we’re not worried either way.*
This has been an enjoyable three-day weekend trip, if you count our actual time on the ground in Charleston, but it’s been a pleasing getaway, topped by good luck with the weather.
We’re only home a few days until our next one.
*Update: It’s not a pleasant feeling to hear your name called at an airport, along with “We’re closing the door in one minute and no re-opening it.”
We just barely made it. If our luck continues, we’ll be snug at home in our own bed within next hour.
