Pond of El Dorado

This photo was captured with a Sony a6300. 

The Fort Sumter House

In President Kennedy's own words: "They shipped my ass out of town to break us up."

I've always been fascinated by this building that just doesn't quite fit in South of Broad.

I did a little research on it and learned that President John F. Kennedy was stationed in Charleston for a brief period and spent three nights in this hotel turned condominium building with a former Miss Denmark who had connections to the Nazis. The FBI monitored the entire thing and reassigned him to a PT boat in the Pacific after sharing the information with his influential father.

This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.

High Dive

I love the symmetry of the homes and Boardwalk Inn at Wild Dunes. It's a beautiful place to be from the air and the ground. 

This photograph was captured with a DJI Phantom 3 Professional drone.

Hotel Metropole Brussels

If you ever visit Brussels, check to see if the Hotel Metropole is available. It's the oldest hotel in Brussels and one of the first luxury hotels in the world. In 1890, two microbrewing brothers opened Cafe Metropole in order to sell their beer. It was such a success that five years later, they bought the adjoining bank and turned it into a luxury hotel named Hotel Metropole.

Taking the open-air cage elevator to your room as it soars through the lobby is like stepping back into the Belle Epoque world of the Great Gatsby. This photograph is a detail of the chandelier, moulding and wall paper of our suite. 

High Above High Tide

I'm ready for a trip back to Wild Dunes. Even if it's just a weekend, I'll take it!

I spot five pools in this photograph, not including the beach... perfect!

When I was a kid, the only thing that would have been in this photograph was the old restaurant, called Edgar's, and an even older, open air beach pavilion full of windsurfboards and two-person Sunfish sailboats.

Hurricane Hugo devastated Isle of Palms but they rebuilt it like the Six Million Dollar Man. From the ashes of Hugo, all of this grew. 

This photograph was captured with a DJI Phantom 3 Professional drone.

El Castillo de Alcañiz

A few weeks ago, I wrote about our stay in the Alcañiz Castle under the Spanish Paradores program. Here's the view from our balcony, looking down the wall of the castle. It was an amazing place and a tremendous travel find. It's probably the least expensive European "hotel" that I have ever stayed in — and it's a castle!

This photograph was captured with a Canon IXUS 30 and edited in Adobe Lightroom.

Patriot's Point

This panorama was taken from the deck of the USS Yorktown, a decommissioned US Navy Aircraft Carrier. The boats in the photo are all moored at Charleston Harbor Marina in Mount Pleasant, just across the harbor from downtown Charleston. If you look on the horizon just to the left of the red-roofed building (the Charleston Harbor Resort), you can see Fort Sumter. 

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Summer Home

The Grove Park Inn has been home to many famous guests over the past century, including ten US presidents. The most fascinating to me, however, is F. Scott Fitzgerald, who stayed in rooms 441 and 443 for two summers in a row, drinking his life away and chasing socialites as his wife steadily lost her sanity at a nearby asylum. In the ultimate case of life imitating art, F. Scott Fitzgerald became a character ripped from the pages of his own generation-defining novels. Ultimately, Fitzgerald left Asheville for Hollywood to become a screenwriter to pay for his lavish lifestyle. He only lasted two years in Hollywood... and on this earth.

If you ever have the opportunity to stay at the Grove Park Inn, request to be placed in the Old Building above the grand lobby. Better yet, see if you can get one of Fitzgerald's rooms. They're not nearly as nicely appointed as the new wings and Fitzgerald's rooms overlook the carpark rather than the mountains (rumor has it he requested the view so he could scope out prospective conquests as they arrived at the hotel) but they take you straight back to the jazz era as you walk in the footsteps of the giants who came before you. 

Whatever you do, though, don't stay in room 545 unless you want to share it with the Grove Park Inn's resident ghost, the Pink Lady. 

This photograph was captured with a DJI Phantom 2 drone with a GoPro Hero 3+ Black camera.

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