Read This!: Moloka'i

By Alan Brennert

Last year I read Alan Brennert’s book Honolulu.  Moloka’i seemed to get more acclaim but when I read was it was about, it didn’t really appeal to me.  But then, as I ended up really liking Honolulu, I decided to give it a try.

Rachel Kalama is a young girl living on the island of Honolulu when it is discovered that she has contracted leprosy.   In the late 19^th century (when this story begins), those who tested positive for leprosy were sent to a “colony” on the island of Moloka’i.  As a result, Rachel is sent there alone while her family is left to face the impact of the prejudice and fears of their neighbors.  Determined that one day she will be cured and will get to leave the colony, Rachel never gives up hope even as death surrounds her and the people she loves are taken away. 

Before I started this book, I didn’t know much about leprosy or Hansen’s Disease (its modern name).  After some research on Wikipedia, I was surprised to learn that it is a bacterial infection and doesn’t make your body parts fall off (like the nuns said in school).  That is a secondary effect to all the nerve damage.  Today, Hansen’s Disease can be cured with some antibiotics which is kind of nuts considering what victims were subjected to and now they can just take a pill and call it a day.

Either way, I thought this story would be depressing with not much going on which is why I didn’t choose to read it at first.  But, I was wrong.  Rachel’s leads a very full life, almost “normal”, even if she is imprisoned on Moloka’i.  On top of this, there is an emotional element which stems from the death and despair around her.   I confess I liked this book better than Honolulu and would recommend.

PS Also interesting to note: On Moloka'i's website for tourism, it discusses how it was a colony for Hansen's Disease.  I thought this was somewhat amusing since most people probably don't know that Hansen's Disease = leprosy.  But, if they put "previously the site of a leper colony" on there, tourism may diminish.

Mad Men - The Day After

Well the Mad Men Season 5 premiere has come and gone. So was it worth the wait? I have to say I think it was. I really enjoyed the premiere and it set the table for another great season. Mrs. put it best when she told me that you know it’s good when you watch it for over two hours and after it's over you still wish there was more.


SPOILERS ahead!

We got answers to most of the lingering question from my previous post:

- Season 5 picks up in June 1966 right after the Memorial Day holiday. Which means we’ve moved ahead about 8 months from the Season 4 finale. I for one am glad they didn’t move too far ahead.

- Don and Megan are indeed married and living in a posh Manhattan apartment. No kids (yet), but Don does seem to have at least partial custody of Sally, Bobby (another new actor?), and Gene. Only time will tell if Don can be faithful in his latest marriage. In a way Don isn’t Don (which Peggy pointed out) in this new happy newlywed state. One thing that should help is working in the same office with his new wife and going to work and then leaving for home with her. Much less likely he’ll end up lying to her about a late client meeting while he’s off with some new love interest.

- Yes Joan has had the baby (loved the name!) and it seems like Roger knows it’s his, right? I mean I know Joan told him she was pregnant with his child last season and he must have known she didn’t go through with the abortion (you know since she had a baby and all), so he must know. I’m pretty sure that was an admiring look he gave the little one when he was holding it.

- SCDP doesn’t seem to be rolling in cash yet. As Ken put it, the firm is “stable”, but they need to pick up some big clients soon. And it does look like Cooper is back, or at least back to sitting around without an office doing nothing. And it seems like Pete and Peggy are basically the stars of the show now, continuing the theme we’ve seen in past seasons of out with the old (Roger, Don) and in with the new. It will be interesting to see where this goes this season.


Some of my favorite moments from the premiere:

Loved the scene when Joan visits the office with the new baby, especially 1) Roger saying “there’s my baby” but meaning Joan (but of course implying something else), 2) Megan telling Peggy, when she’s left with the baby and asks what she should do, to just leave it on some church steps. Ouch. Now I’m of the opinion that this was an innocent remark by Megan and don’t think Don revealed Peggy’s secret to her, but either way, ouch, and 3) Pete’s face when he walks into the room with Peggy and the baby and their whole awkward encounter where Peggy tries to get him to take the baby.

Peggy’s quote about the newly happy Don, “I don’t recognize that man. He’s kind and patient.”

Pete becoming the new Don complete with the train ride in from the suburbs, a “trophy” wife he’s starting to resent, a baby, and even a house that looks eerily like Don’s old house (this is where Mrs. goes on a rant about all suburban houses looking the same). And note that after Pete gets home late he goes into the dark kitchen and does a shot – well, a handful of cereal at least.

The whole surprise party really, but especially Roger and Jane’s interactions. They really could be the ghosts of Christmas future for Don and Megan couldn’t they?

Pete tricking Roger into going to a fake meeting with Coca-Cola at 6am in Staten Island. Bravo Mr. Campbell, bravo.


Other random thoughts:

No Betty or Henry in this episode. Wonder what the state of their marriage is. And no Faye, but I still think we haven’t seen the last of her.

If the premiere is any indication it looks like this season will have the civil rights movement front and center. It will be interesting to see how this affects SCDP and if the old guard, like Roger, can get on board with the changing culture.

And thank you Mad Men for having Megan serenade Don with that “Zou Bisou Bisou” song. It’s stuck in our heads! Get it out!

Mad Men - Season 5

After seventeen long months, the wait is almost over. That’s right, Sunday is the two hour(!) premiere of Season 5 of Mad Men. But has it been too long? Do we even still care about Mad Men? In the intervening seventeen months, Mrs. and I have plowed through three seasons of The Wire and two seasons of Downton Abbey, so we haven’t exactly been starved for great television. Do we really want to have to commit every Sunday night to Mad Men again? Well, I can emphatically say that yes, we still care. And I would be lying if I said I wasn’t overly excited about the return of Don Draper, Peggy Olson, and the rest of the gang. So what can we expect?

The lingering questions:

1) In what year will this season be set, and why is this such a secret? Each season the first question is what year will it be and each season I’ve managed to find out before the premiere. But I haven’t seen anything yet for Season 5, so I guess it’s going to be a surprise. I doubt they’ll skip too far ahead, but with so many unresolved issues (Don’s wedding, Joan’s baby, the state of SCDP) I want it to pick up right where it left off. But in true Mad Men form, my guess is that we’ll fast forward a year or eighteen months. Hopefully there will at least be some flashbacks to what happened in the interim.

2) Are Don and Megan married? Do they have kids? And seriously, are they married? With such a spontaneous engagement, why do I have the feeling Don may have had some second thoughts. My guess is the wedding was either called off or at least put on hold. Mrs. agrees and is even predicting a Don-Betty tryst in Season Five.

3) Joan and the baby. Well, I’m sure she’s had it (assuming we’re moving ahead a bit), but does it have a head of silver hair? And does Roger know the kid is his? I assume he must, right? Is Greg home from the war (assuming he made it back – and I’ve reversed course on this and assume he will)? Does he have any suspicions? And is Joan now a stay at home mom? How is the office surviving without her (Roger in particular)?

4) What is the state of Sterling Cooper Draper Price? They were struggling with the loss of Lucky Strike, so have they turned it around or are they still trying to fight their way back to the top? Has a large client come in to take the place of Lucky Strike and save the day? Is Cooper back in the fold? How high up the chain has Peggy moved? And is it going to be Sterling Cooper Draper Price Campbell?

5) Are there going to be some new characters introduced? It’s been so long I can’t even remember the new characters from Season 4. Heck, I feel like I need to watch all of Season 4 again just to refresh my memory about what happened, it's been that long.

6) How old is Sally going to be? If Season 5 picks up shortly after we left off in October 1965, then more time will have passed in real time than on the show and this could spell trouble for the younger actors as they get older over the next couple of seasons. At some point it’s going to be like Ian Ziering playing a high-schooler at the age of 34. And what trouble is Sally going to get into this year? That girl is headed for trouble.

7) And finally, will Don’s past continue to haunt him? Betty knows the truth, but his secret is probably safe with her, unless her childishness gets the best of her after another fight with her ex-husband. Has Don told Megan (assuming they wedding has gone off as planned)? I mean, he’s not going to go into another marriage with a bunch of lies hanging over him, is he? And what about Faye Miller? Don did tell her the truth, so is that going to come back to haunt him? I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of Faye.

I feel like before the beginning of every season of Mad Men my first thought is, “well it can’t possibly live up to all of the hype.” Before Mrs. and I dove into Season 1 we were skeptical it would live up to the rave reviews and recommendations and it exceeded them. Then we assumed Season 2 would be a let down after the greatness of Season 1. Wrong again. And then we thought there was no way the show could keep up the high standards it set for itself. But Season 3 and 4 were both stellar, and in fact Season 4 was probably the best yet. So after the seventeen month layoff and all of the anticipation the buildup is again making me wonder - is it all going to be a let down? My guess? The show will once again surprise us and take it's place back on top as the best drama on television. Luckily, only two days until we find out.

The Worst Hard Time

“Ike Osteen’s life spans the flu epidemic of 1918, the worst depression in American history, and a world war that ripped apart the globe. Nothing compares to the black dusters of the 1930’s, he says, a time when the simplest thing in life – taking a breath – was a threat.”

Timothy Egan’s The Worst Hard Time is the story of those who survived The Great American Dust Bowl of the 1930’s. Starting in the late 1800’s and continuing throughout the early 20th century, farmers ripped apart the land leaving the topsoil exposed. This slow destruction of the native grassland and the severe droughts that followed resulted in the land taking flight and depositing dust throughout the Great Plains, affecting the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, parts of Colorado and Nebraska, and much of Kansas, for nearly a decade. I have to admit it’s an event in our nation’s history that I knew little about and one I don’t remember covering in any of my history classes. Mrs. and I saw a special (I think on The History Channel) about The Dust Bowl, also known as the “Dirty Thirties”, a few years back that was made at the same time this book was published and it intrigued me. So when I saw this book at a Borders end of existence blow out sale I scooped it up.

The best part of the book is that Egan tells stories. He traveled to the Great Plains in the early 2000’s to sit down with survivors of the environmental disaster and it's their stories that he relates. Ike Osteen, from the quote above, is one of those survivors who was just a child at the time, but will never forget the difficult life that followed the start of the dust storms. The dusters, as they were known, destroyed crops and made earning a living almost impossible, and because it was during The Great Depression, leaving their home to find work elsewhere wasn’t an option for most people. It was fascinating to read how daily life was affected. People had to sweep dust several times a day to keep it from piling up in the house. They had to keep damp sheets over their windows and doors, wear masks to keep the dust out of their lungs, and take extraordinary measures just to protect the few small crops they needed to provide food for the family. And this lasted for years! One story that stuck with me was how one woman described how she couldn’t set the table or put food out at dinner until everyone was ready and seated because even it that small window of time dust could contaminate everything. And I think our house is dusty now! I don’t think I would have survived. I would have been sweeping until I passed out from exhaustion.

My one critique is that because Egan tells the stories of several different people in various parts of the country, it was occasionally difficult to keep track of everyone and where the story was taking place. In the end it really didn’t matter because it’s more about the stories then who the people specifically are, but it was something I noted. And although I’m sure this is more because of their scarcity than anything, I would have liked to see more of the pictures. There are some good pictures throughout the book of the dark dust clouds rolling in, and dust burying cars and houses.

The Worst Hard Time was a really good read overall and it was an event that I got to learn more about. I would definitely recommend checking it out.

Next Up: Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo

Editor's Note: Book challenge book:  A weather event is central to the story

InStyle Figured Me Out

Recently, I did the "What is your decorating style?' quiz in InStyle magazine (March 2012).

It told me my decorating style was "Romantic":

When I read this I laughed out loud because minus the 18th century poetry, it was dead-on.

I made Mr. read it.

His reaction, "Do they have a camera in here?"

LOL.

Creepy.

Tourney Time

The NCAA tournament is in full swing and of course my brackets are all duds. Believe it or not, Tournament time is pretty popular in our household. Despite her usual complete indifference to sports, even Mrs. fills out brackets and gets into the spirit (at least a much spirit as she can muster for a sporting event). Little known fact: Mrs.’ second ever entry on this blog was about the NCAA tournament. I’ve copied it in its entirety below:

Dear Kentucky

Thank you for losing your game tonight and thus ruining any chance I had for winning the only sporting event that I can get into aside from the Olympics.

Now that blog entry was due, at least in part, to the fact that we started the blog during March Madness. And the line “the only sporting event that I can get into aside from the Olympics” should be taken with a grain of salt, because by getting into a sporting event, Mrs. doesn’t actually mean watching any of the games. What she means is that her competitive streak comes out and she’ll organize her family’s pool, occasionally check to see where she is in the standings, send e-mails taunting others if she’s ahead of them, and then start e-mail chains that eventually morph into e-mails that have nothing at all to do with college basketball.

Me? Well, my “favorite” things about the tournament are:

1) Watching very little college basketball throughout the season, and still spending hours analyzing my picks as if that will somehow help. Mrs. spent 5 minutes (maybe less) on her picks and our brackets are in similar shape.

2) The David over Goliath upsets. I mean, who didn’t like seeing Duke lose to Lehigh?

3) Being legitimately surprised when a 12 seed I picked loses to the 5 seed. I mean, the 5 seed should win, but it still amazes me that my complete hunch didn’t pan out.

4) Trying to come to grips with the fact that there's no way to predict what will happen. My upset picks were complete guesses. If I win it will be because I was lucky, not smart.

5) Rooting against Duke.

Through my tried and true formula (which clearly doesn’t work) of picking a winner based on how many legitimate NBA players I think they have, I went with Kentucky (the #1 overall seed – way to go out on a limb, me) to win it all this year. Mrs. (who’s obviously been burned by Kentucky) opted to hitch her wagon to Kansas. She almost had a scare tonight as Purdue took the Jayhawks down to the wire. Well, she didn’t have a scare because she was watching the news, but the Jayhawks really had to sweat it out. If Kansas does lose though, prepare for another blog post from Mrs. Assuming of course someone informs her that they lost . . . and she remembers that she picked them to win . . . and she hasn’t lost interest in the whole tournament thing already . . .

Happy St. Paddy's Day!!!

Mr. claims to be 100% Irish and is big on St. Patrick's Day or at least bigger than me whose only Irishness is her name.

So with that in mind, I had been planning to make Irish stew today but with 80 degree temps, forget it.  To celebrate the holiday, I told Mr. that we could have two treats instead.  If you'll recall for Lent, Mr. and I gave up treats during the week (having only one treat on Saturday) which is a major sacrifice, not as big as giving them up altogether but we are only human.  So two treats makes the day twice as special.

We got our first treat earlier today at our dealer:

It is yellow cake with chocolate icing.  Yum.  Word is it is supposed to serve four but it will just serve us two later on tonight when we have our teas.

One treat bought and one to go, we headed to what I had been looking forward to eating for weeks.  The Mint Oreo Blizzard, special of the month at Dairy Queen.  I kept saying I would wait until St. Patrick's Day to get one because they are green and fit in with holiday fun.  

After lunch, we headed over to DQ to wait in line for 15 minutes as we looked at all of the mint Oreo ads around the store and outside of it to finally get to the head of the line.   I could barely contain my excitement when:

Mr.: We would like two Mint Oreo Blizzards.

Girl working: We don't have mint.

WHAT THE *&()@#*()!(@)#!)*@#*(@!#(*@#!*@!*#(*(@#!*)*(@#!*)(#@!*@#!*?

Needless to say I was not pleased.  They could have at least put it on their signs that they were out or, I don't know, not put them up. I am tempted to write to DQ and complain.  They get a lot of our money and frankly this is unacceptable.

I didn't want some non-festive substitute so we spit on DQ and went in search of another green ice cream sensation.  

Ruling out Baskin Robbins mint chocolate chip because BR was slightly out of our way (like a block), we decided to try another ice cream parlor making our way through waves of people with ensembles of green, some of whom could have been passed out in the gutter.  It was 1PM.

Ice cream shop 2 had no green ice cream.   Damn.

Not giving up, we went to the grocery store and got Ben and Jerry's Mint Chocolate Cookie ice cream. 

Now, I had made the assumption that any mint ice cream would be green.  But alas:

Big sigh...

I ate it anyways as I put to bed my dream of a green treat on St. P's Day. 

The only saving grace was that I was able to eat it out of a green bowl.  

Actually that is a lie, it was Ben and Jerry's ice cream so I would have eaten it and licked the bowl clean regardless of the color.

Jupiter and Venus Conjunction

In case you haven't heard, there is a Jupiter and Venus conjunction going on.  Tonight should be the best display of it.  However, last night Mr. and I were out walking and when we saw them in the sky:

Me: Hey!  Look there are Jupiter and Venus!
Mr.:  Uh that is not.
Me: Yes it is!
Mr. (side-eyeing me): No, it's not.

I will save you from the perils of the following conversation but Mr. was subjected to a nice lesson about the planets and how Venus is the brightest thing in the night sky (among planets and stars at least) etc. etc. etc. based on my two semesters of astronomy in college.  I will confess that my co-worker has posted a pic of Jupiter and Venus a few days ago so I was already in the know.

We rarely see even stars because we are city folk so I was quite excited over this and snapped a shot with my phone:

Venus is on the right, Jupiter on the left. 

So go out tonight and see some planets!  Don't say you didn't know.

Read This!: No Wind of Blame

By Georgette Heyer

I decided to take a break from “heavy” books and read a Georgette Heyer.

This murder mystery centers on who killed Wally Carter as he walked over to his next door neighbor’s house. Some of the suspects include: his melodramatic step-daughter, a faux Russian prince, the money-borrowing, cranky neighbor, the brother of girl Wally got “in trouble”…. The list goes on and only Inspector Hemmingway can figure it out…

I enjoyed this book like I do all Georgette Heyer mysteries although I will concede she lost me with the science behind the murder. A little far-fetched…

Charleston Eating

Mrs. did a great job of recapping our Charleston adventures. But one of my favorite parts of vacation is finding new places to eat and enjoying a good meal, so here’s the good and the bad of our Charleston dining experience.

Breakfast

As Mrs. mentioned in her Charleston review we had free breakfast at our hotel, and I would recommend the Wentworth Mansion if for no other reason than the free breakfast. Each day they started us with a fruit plate and sweet rolls (along with our prerequisite hot tea), and then we had a choice for a main course. Mrs. was a big fan of their rice flour pancakes and I had several of their daily specials (blueberry pancakes, almond French toast, spinach and tomato omelet). A really nice way to start the day – I highly recommend a big free breakfast.

Lunch

Our lunches were less than exciting, but they did provide a couple of stories from the trip. On our first full day we went to Fort Sumter (as covered in Mrs.’ blog) and then the aquarium. Since the boat dropped us back off at 1:30 and we were right by the aquarium and didn’t want to have to come back, Mrs. did a quick search on her phone and discovered that the aquarium had a café (score!), so we decided to just eat there. After buying tickets we headed in and, stomachs growling, made our way directly for said café. Well, the Sea Turtle Café as it’s known turned out to be nothing more than a movie theater-like concession stand (I think it even had oversized boxes of candy) with a high school aged girl working behind the counter serving hot dogs and pizza (ugh). We were kind of stuck at that point, so we opted for the pizza, which best we could tell was just slices of a DiGiorno frozen pizza that had apparently been cooked several hours before. The lesson – don’t expect much from the “café” inside of a city aquarium.

Day two we spent all day at the plantations, so lunch was at Magnolia, which was the only one with a place to eat. This was a slight step up from the Sea Turtle Café (emphasis on slight), with a small wooden cabin serving as another concession stand of sorts. We each had a hot dog, a chocolate chip cookie and an iced tea. It really gave us a glimpse of how 18th plantation life was.

Sunday (day three) we finally had a sit down lunch, but Mrs. felt sick shortly after we ordered (it couldn’t have been the plantation hot dog, could it?), so we ended up getting to-go boxes and eating the rest of our lunch in the sun-room at our hotel with complimentary sweet teas (not too bad).

On Monday before we left for our flight we did go to a little Greek restaurant where we had gyros that were pretty good. It was a pleasant surprise, but alas, I don’t have the name of the place. I think it was on King Street if you’re in the neighborhood.

Dinner

Ok, the real reason for this post was to rank our dinner experiences. Planning ahead, we picked out these places and made all of our reservations before even leaving for Charleston. A first for us, but it worked out much better than wandering around a strange city, hungry, tired, and getting on each other’s nerves. We had four dinners and I’ll rank them in the order we’d recommend each establishment.

Blossom – We both agreed that this was the best meal we had in Charleston (although I’ll admit I never had a bad one). Mrs. really wanted a salad so she started with the iceberg wedge salad with blue cheese dressing and I ordered some fried calamari that we shared as well. For the main course Mrs. ordered the oven roasted mahi mahi, rice pirloo (something different for her to try) and shrimp (I ate those) and I went with the daily special of sea bass and root vegetables. The fish was perfectly cooked, if not a little over salted (a theme we found at all of the restaurants), and I although I don’t usually eat turnips and beets, they were surprisingly good. For dessert we got teas (surprise!) and a peanut butter blondie with ice cream. Definitely recommend Blossom if you’re in town.

Hall’s Chophouse – Our last dinner in Charleston was at a place Mrs. picked out, Hall’s Chophouse, a really nice steak place. We started with beefsteak tomatoes with sweet onions and basil vinaigrette (pretty average overall). And then of course we both went with steak for the main course (Mrs. – filet, Mr. – NY strip), with a side of mashed potatoes to share. I also kicked it up a notch and got my steak “Oscar style”, with crab, asparagus and hollandaise (hey, it was in honor of the Academy Awards later that night – or at least that’s what I told Mrs.). Alas, a huge meal like this left no room for us to try dessert (boo). One funny thing about dinner here is that it was a really friendly place, with the owner (or manager or something) Tommy Hall greeting us when we came in and asking if we wanted to have a drink at the bar before going to our table. And then the hostess was chatting us up on our way to our table and our waiter gave us his life story, and well everyone was friendly and southern and what not. But the best was after we paid and left our table and walked out the door I felt a presence moving quickly behind me and it was none other than Tommy Hall, who must have seen us leaving and ran out onto the sidewalk to say goodbye and make sure we had a good meal. So points to Halls for being welcoming and of course for a good (if not pricey) meal.

Magnolias – When I first picked this place out as a destination we were originally going to go on Saturday, but we couldn’t get a reservation (must be popular!), so we instead went on Thursday night. Perusing the menu prior to our trip I had picked out the fried chicken with mashed potatoes, cream corn, collard greens and biscuits and gravy (a big southern feast). But once we were there Mrs. also settled on that, so I went in a different direction (I don’t like to get the same thing) and ordered the Seafood (scallops, shrimp, and lobster claw meat) and Grits. Turns out I made the wise choice as Mrs. liked, but didn’t love her meal. I on the other hand really enjoyed mine and I even got to try fried spinach, which was served on top. We also ordered fried green tomatoes (when in the south) to start and finished the meal with teas and a peanut butter bread pudding with chocolate ice cream (the dessert was average). The moral here is if you’re in Charleston and heading to Magnolias, go with one of the seafood dishes.

Muse – And finally we have Muse, a Mediterranean restaurant. This was located in a historic house in Charleston. We started with a Greek platter of hummus and baba ganoush along with toasted pitas, marinated olives and cucumber salad. I’m not sure I’d ever had baba ganoush and had to look up exactly what it was (mashed eggplant), but it was pretty good. Mrs. went a little boring ordering the penne pasta with chicken for her meal. I think she described it as “eh”. I went with a house specialty, the crispy sea bass, which was described a whole sea bass deboned, lightly breaded and then flash fried. What I (and Mrs.) didn’t expect was that it would come as a whole fish, head, tail, scales and all. The man at the table next to us had ordered it as well, so we got a glimpse shortly before mine arrived. It was actually decent, served with white beans, spinach and peppers. It’s just a little weird having a fish stare at you before you dig in. We also had enough room to share teas and a chocolate torte cake. However, this did lead to one problem as instead of bringing us each a small pot of hot water for our teas (as all the other places did), our waiter brought each of us a small (and it was small) tea cup of hot water. The horrified look on Mrs.’ face told the story. Mrs. immediately got on her phone to find the nearest Starbucks, and after leaving Muse, we stopped by Starbucks on the way back to the hotel for some emergency backup caffeine. We got there just in time.

Charleston (Part 2)

Sunday

We had left our walking tour of Charleston until our last full day.  I downloaded a free Charleston walking tour app to my iPhone which helped us determine what sites we wanted to see and charted our course.  But here is how our day started:

Mr. was showering and getting the large bathroom all steamy.  

Because we were in a rush, I decided to bust in and start beautifying.  However, the mirror was foggy so I left the door open to unfog it.   Bad idea.

It set the smoke alarm off.

When it didn’t stop, we called the front desk.  I was praying the sprinklers wouldn’t go off.

After we got off the phone:

Mr.: WHAT IS CAUSING IT????

Me: It’s from the steam.
Mr.: No, it isn’t.

Me: Yes it is.  We had this happen all the time when we were kids because the smoke alarm was right outside the bathroom door. 
Mr.: Our smoke alarm was outside the bathroom and never went off.

Me:  I don’t know what to tell you.


The alarm caused the fire department to be dispatched which resulted in a fireman coming and inspecting our room.  Embarrassing.

The fireman and the concierge agreed with me about the steam so for once I was right.

Unfortunately, we were heretofore known as the Smoke Alarm Room by the workers at the hotel.


Sigh.  Never ever a dull moment.

Post le petit dejeuner (aka breakfast), Mr. and I headed on our walking tour which included various old houses and some parks.  We had planned to tour the Aiken-Rhett House after lunch, but alas, due to my ability to always have a stomach ache, we ended up going to our hotel and lounging until dinner.  Mr. didn’t seem to mind so I was OK with that.

Here are some mansions at the Battery.  Dare to Dream....

And the famous "Rainbow Row"

Monday

We had thought we might tour the Aiken-Rhett House on Monday because our flight wasn’t until late.  Alas, we were tired and kind of done with touring around so we lounged in our room until check out time and then went to lunch.  After that, we took off home. 

Final Thoughts:

Hotel

We (I) chose the Wentworth Mansion because the rooms looked like they had a ton of character and, if I haven’t mentioned it before, I like old houses.

Mr. and I did not shell out for one of the more expensive suites because this was supposed to be our “cheaper” vacation and once I saw our room, even though it was impressive, I told Mr. we must be in the old servant’s wing (ha ha) because it was slightly less opulent than the really expensive suites.

We loved our room.

It had a fireplace in the bedroom AND one in the bathroom!   This fact induced me to take my first bath in about 10 years in front of said fireplace.  Unfortunately, baths gross me out so it didn’t last long because I just kept thinking about germs once I got in.

Our room also had a small porch off it.  Yeah!  I love outdoor seating!  We had some nice sits on that porch, relaxing.

The WM provides a very nice complimentary breakfast (love when hotels have this) and they offer various refreshments (like the sweet tea) throughout the day.  Parking was also free.  The staff was incredibly helpful and nice.  In fact the only drawback was that it was a slightly off the beaten path but Mr. and I are both city folk and big walkers so we didn’t really mind.  

Taxis

For the most part, Mr. and I walked everywhere but two different nights for dinner we called a cab because it was raining and I was in heels.  We didn’t have exact change for either taxi and they looked at us like we had three heads when we asked for it.  Who are these people?  We were not trying to pay with $100 bill.  It was a reasonable amount we were asking for back.  I have a mind to complain to the taxi company because it was ridiculous.  Too bad for the driver that got a 45 cent tip because that was all the 1s we had.  Maybe he should have some change next time.


Talkers

Now, I like to think we are friendly enough, at least Mr. is, and we (he) don’t mind the occasional small talk with strangers.  But this trip was filled with people who would not stop talking to us. 

On the plane to Charleston I took the middle seat.  An old lady with a flowered sweatshirt sat beside me.  Ladies who are over 45 ALWAYS want to chat with you.  I do not want to chat so I immediately pull out my book and start reading hoping they will take the hint.  This lady did until we got closer to landing when she started chatting about how we haven’t had a bad winter and stuff about gardening and mums and what have you.  I just said “Yeah” and nodded and moved on.  

We escaped from her and got our first taxi driver in Charleston.  Mr. is our appropriated spokesperson so he got subjected to talking to this guy and all of our other subsequent taxi drivers for the duration of the trip.  They were ALL talkers.   Ugg.  

I already covered our car rental guy.

On our Fort Sumter boat return trip, an older lady started talking to me about my camera and where we were from etc. etc. etc. for almost the whole trip.  We were tired and hungry but suffered through. 

On our return flight home, I made Mr. sit in the middle and lo and behold another older lady made her way next to him.  Chatty McChatterson.  It only got worse after she ordered a beer.  Poor Mr.  He really took one for our team on that flight.  She didn’t get the hint from our book reading. 

So finally, we arrived back home and I said to Mr., “I am glad to be back, at least the taxi driver won’t talk to us here.”  I jinxed us.  :(

Charleston (Part 1)

Mr. and I just got back from a whirlwind weekend in Charleston.

Much like our New Orleans trip, this one consisted of a lot of old house viewing and eating.

I will let Mr. describe the eats but I will walk you through our adventures.

We arrived on Thursday but didn’t do much besides lounge at our hotel and go to dinner.

Friday 

Mr. and I began our site seeing on a 78 degree day with a visit to Fort Sumter. Mr., not a Civil War scholar, kept calling it “Fort Sumpner”. Side-eye. (I am not sure if this was better or worse than my constant “You sank my battleship!” when we toured the Missouri on Pearl Harbor.)

Anyways, to get to Fort Sumter, you need to take a boat which takes about a half an hour and delivers you to FS for an hour, then takes you back. Mr. who gets motion sick driving around Pittsburgh with its turny roads and hills, quickly put on his Sea Bands so as not to leave it to chance. The boat ride to and from was eh. It was windy and they gave you some history on the way there. After we arrived, I thought an hour was ample time to not only see the bits and pieces of the Fort but also to go to the gift shop, usually my favorite spot at any historical site.

Next up, because it was right there, Mr. and I went over to the South Carolina Aquarium.  We got a $1 off because I am a AAA member.  Go me!

I think we need to stop shelling out big bucks to see aquariums. While it had its moments, I expected more for the cost. I, at least, thought a dolphin or a big shark would sail by but alas…

After the aquarium, Mr. and I happened by the Joseph Manigault House so we decided to do the tour. Hooray! (Sometimes I have the best husband in the world because he encourages my historical homes obsession by suggesting homes to visit like this one.) This tour was great because they let you take pics (no flash) and the house had some interesting history. I loved some of the colors used for decor and the staircase.

Staircase

Dining Room

Saturday- Plantationing Day! 

We rented a car which was the longest experience of my life. It took us 40 minutes to get our car from arrival at the rental place to departure. Someone was being helped when we came in. There was one person in line in front of us. And then there was us. We noticed things move slower in South Carolinaand that people LIKE TO TALK. Ugg.  The guy (only worker) talked our ear off while we tried to get the car, took us outside to have us select a car, talked to use some more about his kids, talked to us even more about who knows what?  Honestly, I don’t mind friendliness but enough is enough.  Give me my damn car and let’s go.  We had a big day planned and it wasn’t supposed to start with an hour spent at the car rental place.  Vent over.

So starting out about an hour after we expected due to the car rental debacle and a trip back to the hotel for a bathroom break, we headed towards Drayton Hall.

Drayton is the oldest, unrestored house in America.  It has no plumbing or electricity.  Construction started in 1738 and took four years.  Everything was done by hand.  There was no furniture or anything in the house and you weren't allowed to touch the walls because the paint was original.  But, they let you take pics.  Here are some:

Room used to entertain

Staircase.  All the woodwork was handmade.

Drayton also has some grounds to walk through which we did, including a marsh walk.  I was slightly scared an alligator would come up and get me but we made it through.

Our next stop on the plantation tour was Magnolia which is just up the road.  Magnolia has extensive grounds which are covered in gardens.  We toured the gardens before our house tour and it took maybe 45 minutes.  I think the gardens would be much more impressive in the summer when everything is blooming.  They were still pretty nice.

The house tour was eh.  You could not take pictures and due to the original house being burnt down (twice), the house was not that old.  Kind of disappointing.  We thought about doing the swamp tour they offer but due to the hour, we didn’t think we would be able to get it done before they closed so we skipped it.

After we were done plantationing, we headed back to the hotel for a nice, complimentary sweet tea in the sunroom where we wiled away the rest of the afternoon Southern style.


Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Charleston recaps.....