Charleston-Part 1

After getting three three hours of sleep,  the alarm clock woke up at 3:28 am. I had never seen such a long security line at Newport News airport. I believe the line opened right at 4 am, and there were already about 35 people in front of me, and within ten minutes, another 15 had followed behind me. And of course, there's only going to be one security lane at this tiny airport which only has 5 outbound flights a day. It was tight and I think the flight went out full, but I still scored an exit row seat. 

And my goodness this may have been the most turbulent flight I've been in possibly a decade. In one hour, we had three separate periods of severe bumps. But we landed just fine, and I was happy to see my next flight was one gate over from where I landed. I was never even called by the gate agent, my boarding pass was emailed to me. So the flight that was expected the be the hardest to get on turned out to be one of the easiest standby experiences I've ever had. 

Quick footnote. The busyness of life caught up with me too quickly. A month later, I still haven't finished chronicling my travels. So I will instead use bullet points and write brief statements where details are worth mentioning. 

City tour downtown

So many horse drawn carriages

Remarkable classic architecture on the Battery

Lunch at Hyman's 

Shrimp po'boy
I checked in on Yelp, so we got a free Wadamalaw Special (and it's the first time I have ever typed that word). Fried green tomatoes over cheesy grits topped with parmesan cream sauce and cheddar cheese.

City Market walkthrough, tight foot traffic

Lionel Richie cutting board- Hello... is it me you're cooking for?

Citadel campus

Mt Pleasant was the Eastern suburb where we stayed

Those darn side service roads

Drove to Shem Creek

Lunch at Crab House 

We came in just wanting apps and drinks. We ordered the crab dip. I like warm fish dips spread on some saltines.

This was not what I was hoping for. What we got was a scoop of chilled crab salad. We could barely see any crab meat, I don't know if it was even real crab. It was mixed with way too much mayo along with cream cheese and Old Bay. Two bites and I was done. At least we

I can't even remember which cocktail I had, but I remember it had pineapple, rum, and some nutmeg added to it. Pretty good, but still a bit sweet.

Maybe we just ordered the wrong menu item, and it's nice to dine near a spot that's close to the water, but I can't say I was satisfied with my experience.

Checked into Hilton Garden Inn

Confusing hotel arrangement,  the back of the building was facing the entrance road

Bricco Bracco at 4pm

One of the best happy hours

We arrived at 430 and the 30 or so seat bar was already full

$4 Red blend

Huge bowl of Parmesan

$2 Bread and olive oil

Our entree was the Chicken Giambotta. Chicken breast with sweet Italian sausage, peppers, onions, mushrooms, hot and sweet vinegared peppers, and fried Yukon gold sliced potatoes. I'm a sucker for those kinds of peppers, especially with all that oil and garlic. It just makes you feel so good and side, you know? I felt like there wasn't a ton of meat in the platter, or maybe we just took too much too soon. But wasn't long before we had just potatoes and peppers to finish.

Chatted with some neighbors at the bar

One guy was from Germany

Fruitflies showed up

Hotel bar

NCAA tournament on TV, good to see St Peter's make their run