Quick Trip to Charleston and Mt Pleasant SC staying at the Post House

Regrettably, our extended trip to the St. Vincent's Festival in France was canceled due to Covid restrictions so sitting around with nothing to do we had an opportunity to go to Charleston South Carolina for the weekend for a La Chaine event in Mount Pleasant which we did and which we enjoyed very much. Charleston has been around for centuries and has been a go-to place for good food.  Having lived in Charleston, graduated from school there, and got married there, I know a fair amount about the city. I've also gone back every 5 to 10 years for some type of meeting or convention. I have found that the venues in the city are constantly changing and most of the old restaurants that I knew are now gone and there's a whole new generation of restaurants to visit. We stayed at a bed-and-breakfast called the Post House at 101 Pitt Street in Mount Pleasant. It's a 7 room Bed and Breakfast which is very nice we had the largest room at the property and we're very comfortable, it was very clean, young but helpful staff and overall a nice place to stay. It is centrally located and easy to get to restaurants in Mt. Pleasant. However, there was a serious deficiency in the facility and that it has essentially no provisions for disabled guests. Our room was on the third floor and the building is an old building built in the 1800s with narrow steep stairs restricting one's ability to get to the room. The stairs are extremely narrow and steep as they were in the old days and there is no operational elevator.  Our room had a king-size bed and you had to wonder how they got it there? I was restricted in that I went up once at night and came down once in the morning but it was just too difficult to go back and forth for anything.  You can see from their promotional pictures the front of the facility is the restaurant check-in area which is extremely small, and though everybody seemed to work around it there was a sense of claustrophobia with no where to sit while you waited, another deficiency for disabled folks. We had breakfast and brunch the next morning the food was frankly extremely outstanding it was one of the best breakfasts I've ever had. I had eggs Benedict which were cooked perfectly. I would go there just for the breakfast.  The entire afternoon and evening it was standing room only at the restaurant so they obviously have outstanding dining other than breakfast.   I should also mention that when you book it they say there's plenty of on-street parking that's not really true most of the parking spaces are taken up by the restaurant patrons they are not unlimited and in the end, we had to park a block or two away from the facility again making it more difficult for disabled patrons. So it's not always as advertised. Other than that it was a wonderful place to stay and I would recommend it but I would also note that people that are elderly or have any kind of walking disability it might not be the place for you. Before we left we drove through downtown Charleston and it was crowded even in the off-season. I really wished we had stayed a few days longer as from the looks of it a lot of the new places should be outstanding. If and when we go back we plan on staying downtown Charleston within walking distance of most of the places we might want to go as parking is close to impossible traffic is no fun and you don't really want to drive back and forth over the very large bridges there if you do not have to.  We stayed in Mt. Pleasant as we were attending a function in a home there.

Wine Travel with Covid, Or Not!

So we are all bummed out right now as we felt compelled to cancel our upcoming trip to France to attend the Tastevin St. Vincents festival in Puligny Montrachet.  Despite having boosters after speaking and emailing plenty of friends and associates in France this is what we learned.  In order to enter France, you have to have some kind of negative Covid test no later than 24 hours before entry at the airport.  The problem is that gives you no wiggle room for delays or other issues that might delay your flight, not to mention dependent on your time schedule and flight schedule it might be near too impossible to meet that requirement.  After Customs and Immigration let you enter you then have to obtain a French Health Pass which requires another negative Covid test within 24 hours, your passport, and original vaccination cards.  The problem there is you can only obtain it at certain pharmacies and we were told as of today, just like the USA, it is impossible to get tests done and there are lines down the block at most pharmacies to get the tests done.  So it could be days or weeks before we could obtain the said pass.  We were told today that weeks ago museums, restaurants, etc. would accept your vaccination card but no more.  The French Government is now enforcing the law to the letter and levying heavy fines for anyone who they catch breaking the rules.  In addition, anything public including metro's, train's, supermarkets, you have to have the pass.  Murphy's law always applies to us so no question we got over there and would end up spending the next two weeks in a hotel despite being fully vaccinated and with that in mind we felt compelled to cancel.  So far everyone has refunded any advanced funds except the airlines which only offer a credit good for one year.  Bummer.  And to add insult to injury, Ireland announced today that they were lifting testing restrictions, and with only your vaccination cards you can come on over and go where you wish!  A complete 180-degree change from the Continent.  The problem with that is there are no Irish wines we want to buy right now.  So Covid continues to be a problem.  I wonder how much business France will lose because of this at the same time I understand the need to protect the public.  It is too simple and would take years to put in place but why not have a testing area on arrival at the airport that could do your test check your passport and vaccination cards and issue the health pass before you left the airport?  Too easy probably.  And if you think all of this is a problem be aware that before the end of the year the EU is instituting a new requirement to have a visa prior to entering that you will have to obtain online that from what I can tell is a security pass and similar to the USA Global Entry card that of course will require payment of a fee and good news is at least good for 3 years.  It won't change the length of time you can stay, which is 3 months, but you won't be able to enter without it.