Hotel Indigo
As much as I love Charleston, I’d rather not go in peak season for a couple of reasons. The first is the weather…I’m not made to withstand the southern heat. It’s not enjoyable for me. I remember when I was in high school and one of my best friends invited me to Panama City for the week with her family. Even back then, I was miserable. We couldn’t leave the house until later in the evening to go out to avoid the scorching heat and suffocating humidity. I’ve not been back to Florida since.
The second reason is the price. Most of the hotel prices downtown in the historic district run around $500-$700’sih nightly. I’m not a fan of throwing money away to melt and fight crowds. So why am I going in peak season? Simple, DMB has a two night show there this weekend. So, I’m sucking it up and making the best of it and opting to use points for slightly cheaper hotel in Mount Pleasant, which is also closer to the venue while still being close to downtown and it’s amenities. Also, not to mention it’s pet friendly.
Upon arrival, our pupper was greeted and given a little goodie bag. He’s a good boy, he just realllllly likes his humans and we know we cannot leave him in the hotel room and that’s ok. We just have to find all of the pet friendly places to visit and dine. Hotel Indigo is one of my favorites for consistency across the board aside from Marriott.
Rappahannock Oyster Bar
This place is nestled in a 19th center cigar factory, away from the busy downtown historic district and riiiight across the bridge from Mount Pleasant with a pet friendly patio area. Rappahannock Oyster Bar and puppers: a perfect pairing. I made sure to look it up ahead of time…but dogs CAN have oysters. However, there was no plain steamed oyster offering but we would certainly recommend this oyster bar. I do wish they would have had a slightly larger selection of oysters, but we were very pleased and could have ordered at least two more rounds.
Vintage Coffee Cafe
Hidden in Mount Pleasant, Vintage Coffee Cafe is this little coffee shop delivers breakfast, coffee and is pet and child-friendly. They have a large outdoor seating area with plenty of shade and a playset. Our pupper was just happy to watch all of the tiny humans running around. He’s quite the little people-watcher.
Grace & Grit
I’m not a fan of grits. Never have been…shrimp and grits is still growing on me. I absolutely won’t trust a shrimp and grits dish from just anywhere. I guess I would say I’m picky about my grits. I’m not a fan unless they are done well. However, my husband really likes grits and I figured there’s not a lot of places that carry a variety of grits and this would be worth a try since they offered a starter dish of an entire flight of grits. What better way to try something without really committing? So, with all reservations taken online, we were at the doors at 9:20am hoping to snag some outdoor seating while it was still early and at tolerable warmth levels outside. I have to say…while the actual entrees were ok...Grace and Grit has forever shined a new light on grits for me. Now I’m happy to say I’ll be doing more experimenting and will be looking to jazz up my own grits in the near future. Their peach cobbler with oat crumble was my favorite alongside the brussels pesto. Both of which I place to recreate myself.
Credit One Arena
Credit One Stadium is a large but cozy outdoor venue. Very typical of DMB to do outdoor concerts. The husband was hopeful due to prior cancellations due to covid, this would be the first show for DMB upon returning and that this show would be amazing. He was right and the show delivered. We initially believed it to be a baseball stadium but it’s actually a tennis venue and also used for concerts and other events. It’s BY FAR the easiest venue to access and exit. No super long lines that take over an hour to exit. There are several hotels near the venue that a LOT of people walked to and from the concert rather than drive. There was plenty of entertainment nearby…but you’d need to get there early to grab a seat and eat. When we showed up at 5, there was a 2 hour wait. However, we decided to just wait for the doors to open and eat separately. My husband obviously was living his best life particularly on that last evening. He had amazingly close seats, indulged in all the good food, including the lobster rolls…he was starving since we couldn’t sit down together to eat due to the fact we didn’t show up many hours early and no place on Daniel’s Island accepted reservations. Oops.
Their food selection was absolutely the best I’ve seen at a concert. I’d actually attend another DMB show at this place, despite me being burnt out on DMB, just for the venue and food experience.
