Several weekends ago I had this amazing romantic weekend planned in New Orleans to surprise my boyfriend. Well, then a hurricane came. All the flights were canceled out of Charleston. But I refused to give up. Our second flight was out of Charlotte and wasn't cancelled (yet) so we drove to Charlotte while I was on the phone with American Airlines customer service for two hours. By the time we had made it to Charlotte our flight was cancelled. And the two flights the next morning that would have actually gotten us to our plan in NOLA on time were also cancelled. So we decided to make the best of a disappointing situation and spend the weekend in Charlotte.
To add insult to injury, the first hotel that we found had just had a fire and had no power and we couldn't check in. Which turned out to be a blessing because we found a nicer hotel anyway. Butt by the time we finally got to the hotel we were exhausted and starving because we had never eaten dinner in our rush to make the flight.
The hotel directed us to the Red-eye Diner. It was on the first floor of our hotel and was open 24-hours. The place was super cute and the food was really good.
We stayed in the Aloft Hotel in the Epicentre. It was a great place to stay because we were in the middle of downtown and had the ability to walk everywhere. We never even had to move the car the entire weekend.
Saturday morning we had brunch at the Haymaker. I just googled restaurants and look at pictures and menus. And we were not disappointed. I had amazing french toast with a super yummy coffee cocktail.
We watched around downtown for a little bit before deciding to go check out the Mint Museum.
Chihuly fixtures in the lobby of the museum.
I think this was the first time I got to see this Andy Warhol in person.
The Museum had all sorts of art installations that included furniture, pottery, textiles, jewelry and all sorts of other really interesting things.
The lobby front window.
More downtown views.
Afternoon stop at Aura Rooftop. We got there about 3:30 and they didn't officially open until 4:00, but they were super nice and let us in early. It was a really neat little spot.
Saturday night we ate dinner at the Mico Restaurant in the Grand Bohemian, It was a beautiful restaurant and the food was absolutely incredible. I'm still having dreams about it. I had the lamb gnocchi with a Madame Mariposa. And then we split the Iguazú Falls for dessert.
Sunday morning we had brunch at Fahrenheit. This place the most absolutely breathtaking views. They had an amazing porch, and the whole side of the dining room was all windows. Food was just as yummy as the atmosphere. I had the chicken and waffles (I'm embarrassed to say it was the first time I've had chicken and waffles) and the Orange Cream Dream. I didn't want to stop eating. After eating we took our drinks outside and relaxed on the porch and enjoyed the view.
After brunch we headed to the outlets to do some shopping before heading home. Even though it wasn't a planned trip we had a wonderful time, and were able to find some great places to eat even on short notice. It was the first time I had spent the weekend exploring Charlotte, and I would definitely love to go back!
