Home from the Beach

I just spent a lovely week cruising the south-east United States and hitting the beaches outside Charleston, SC. A wonderful time was had by all. Very little writing was done on vacation although a new idea for a fair tale popped up and I'm playing with it.What really excited me about vacation was the food, I'm an epicurean at heart and I love finding new resteraunts.

So....
what I loved:
Warehouse No. 1- Monroe, LA, off of I-20 exit 117 on Olive Street. We stopped on the way out and the way back because we loved their food so much. The warehouse looks like a dump from the outside, the parking lot is gravel, but the food is to die for.

Kennedy Deli- Charleston, SC on Calhoun in the historic district about two blocks from the aquarium. These people understand chocolate and they have some excellent sandwiches, don't miss them.

Long Island Cafe- Isle of Palms, SC in the shopping plaza next to the only stop light. For a place that usually needs reservations we walked in when the doors opened and had fabulous food. The fresh fish is great (if you like cooked fish- I don't but my husband raved) and so is the steak. Best part of all, you can call ahead and take anything you want to-go.

What I hated:
TGI Fridays- Columbia, SC. Actually, I haven't been to a TGI Friday's in years that had decent food. The place is always a crush of tables to close together, the food always comes out cold, and the service is always terrible. We couldn't find the resteraunt we wanted so we were stuck with Friday's one night. I asked for pasta with a cream sauce and steamed veggies. I got spaghetti noodles with a bad salsa. Gag!

McDonalds in St George, SC off of I-95. There was on other couple in the place and 10 people behind the counter. It took 15 minutes to get our food from the waiting area to the tray. I watched, I waited, I reminded the lady we'd paid and our food was cooling. Then my husband went up to ask for the milkshake we still hadn't received, we had a receit, and the woman argued. I reminded her that he'd spent almost three minutes explaining the concept of switching out soda for milkshake, she yelled at me that she'd given us two cups. The manager looked over, very obviously only one cup, and shrugged. I was livid. The workers can't count and they carged us double for a dumb milkshake. It's exceptionally petty but I really do like people who can count to two without help when it comes to money and wasting my time.

For hotels we loved:
Holiday Inn Express for always having discounts.
Boardwalk Inn at Wild Dunes resort for being fantastic and affordable, they had discounts, room service, and a private beach. I know why these guys were always booked solid.

Hated:
Doubletree of Augusta for overcharging for a bad room that wasn't clean. They tried to make up for it with free breakfast and a heated pool. Breakfast was terrible (almost as bad as TGI Friday's) but the pool and 12 o'clock checkout was nice. I won't head back there unless I have no other options but I will stay if it's the doubletree vs the motel 8.