Trip to Charlotte NC

October 16-20
On the way to Charlotte we spent a night in Savannah, at the Hyatt Regency hotel. Savannah sits 22 miles in from the ocean, on a river. In its early days it shipped cotton, so the buildings on the dock are very old and, of course, have become "The RiverWalk," containing lots of small shops.

From our hotel window we could see ships going back and forth. When a ship was right at the window we could wave at people on board.

Further down the river was a beautiful expansion bridge that looks a lot like our Sunshine Skyway bridge in St. Pete. One picture was early morning, the other at night. It would be the bridge we'd take to Hutchinson Island for the stop in Savannah on the way home.
We stayed at the Adams Mark Hotel in Charlotte. At 3 a.m. the first night in our 3rd floor room overlooking the entryway to the hotel, I was awakened to the sound of fire engines -- lots of them -- arriving at the hotel. I checked the door to be sure it wasn't hot, then opened the door to the hallway. It wasn't filled with smoke, but it smelled like smoke. Just about then the alarm started to ring. By the time I returned to our bedroom, Ken had looked out and seen a truck leaving. With that he decided to go back to sleep. Not me! I got dressed and walked down the three flights to the fresh outdoors.

One of the fireman was nice enough to offer three of us ladies the seats behind the driver in a firetruck. When the lobby was considered "okay" we all moved to that. Ken had decided to come down, so he, with lots of others found chairs and tried to go back to sleep. The pictures below were taken inside of the fire truck, from the seats behind the driver.
It took about an hour before we could go back to our rooms. In the meantime we learned that there had been a fire in the laundry room, that it was contained there and put out quickly.

The next day hardly anyone knew about the fire. Most everyone slept through it. If you didn't have a room in the front of the North Tower, there were no alarms.

Every time I go to a hotel I check out the fire exit. This is the first time I've ever used it. Scary.
On the way home we stayed again in Savannah, this time at the Weston, which was across the river from the Hyatt, on Hutchinson Island, which is just beginning to become developed. The picture on the top left is of the Weston Hotel, taken from the Hyatt.

The picture directly below and to the right, is of the old cotton docks, taken from the Weston.

The picture lower left is of a ship going back out to sea. You can see a bit of the pool as seen from our hotel window.
Happy to be home again, but it was fun to take a driving trip for a change.
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