On yesterday’s trip to Beaufort we started by looking for the Visitor’s Center. It is a touristy type town, so every little spot has a sign outside mentioning Tourist Info, but that is usually just to get you in the door. We stopped into one place that offered walking tours and he was helpful, gave us a map of the historic district and was helpful about a lunch spot, but didn’t know where the “official” Visitor?s Center was. Should have been an omen.
Donna asked a gift shop place and was directed around the corner and up a block, but that proved fruitless. We did find a bookstore where she asked again, only to be brought to a second individual who said the Visitor’s Center was about 10 blocks that away, but there is a smaller one back near where we parked. But the smaller one might not be there anymore, as there was talk of consolidating it with the bigger one. We risked the closer but uncertain one. When we arrived it turned out it was all gone (although there was still a sign offering visitor info outside the place.) An omen?
We walked the ten blocks. On arrival we went inside and poked around the place for a while, picked up some brochures and got a Beaufort phone book, before we decided to leave and walk back for some lunch. Because it was sunny and warm we thought a couple of bottled waters would make the trip back more pleasant. They had a soda cooler there in the front office and I grabbed a couple of cold ones and went up to the counter. There were two people behind it and 2 customers on this side. Both individuals were helping one person and another was waiting their turn, then me. The woman being helped was buying something too, so the woman behind the counter was refolding a map while the guy was running her credit card. The kid running her card was way to effervescent and acting loudly too cute to be enjoyable. The woman was having trouble folding that pesky map. This was taking way too long and who knew how long it was going to take the two to handle the woman in front of me, so I looked at Donna, and she looked back, we wordlessly decided we could make the walk without collapsing if we didn’t have the water. I put the bottles down and we left. Portend of things to come?
The first place we came to I pooh-poohed as it looked too new and crowded. We walked down a little alley to a place that had a signboard on the main drag. There was a nearly full outdoor dining area and some steps up to maybe a place to dine inside and a door underneath that looked like an entrance. We chose downstairs, but when we opened the door it was definitely a bar. Smokey and dark, with patrons startled by the bright light of the opened door, we knew in an instant this wasn?t for us. I just let it close with the both of us still outside. At restaurant #3 we opened the door, entered and stood there deciding what to do. There wasn’t any sign saying “Seat Yourself” or “Please wait to be Seated”, so we hesitated in the entranceway. Ah, here comes someone on the wait staff, she’ll help. Nope, she breezed on by without so much as a how do you do? We figured they didn’t want our business, so we left. We got a little closer at place number four. We were greeted at the door and shown to a table, menus were dispersed, but that was it. We sat at our table for the longest time, we made our choices, but no one stopped by the fill our water glasses, let alone take our order. By now we had pretty much decided to get in the car and drive out to the strip and eat fast food, but we spotted a sign across the street to a place we had seen a menu from at the Visitor’s Center. With a sigh we decided to give it one more try. We were greeted with a smile, seated at a table against the wall that held cloth napkins, given a menu and our blue, real glass, goblets filled with ice water. After taking our order our waitress disappeared. A little while later we see her grab her purse and head for the door. Oh, no. We’ve been here before, our waitress bails at the end of her shift and we never get served. The other waitress in the place is helping about three other tables and has so far not even looked our way. After about 15 minutes and Donna has rearranged her purse a couple times to entertain herself, we had just about decided to leave when our meal arrives. The salad was great and the flat bread pizza, while almost too over done, was tasty. Our new waitress was very attentive once we had our food and because we split the two items between us our bill, with tip, was only $16. Glad we didn’t end up at the Burger Doodle, but boy that was harder than it should have been.
This is not the first time we have gone through an ordeal while trying to get a meal while traveling, so you would have thought we would have caught on to all the omens thrown our way, but no we were blind to them. We had a previous good experience with Beaufort a decade or so ago, so this little snafu hasn?t totally soured us on the town. When we next visit I think the first thing we will do is find a lunch spot early before the crowds and the wait staff tires.