LAST EVENING
Becky and Halis Alkis arrived just after 4pm. We gave them a tour of the ship and ended up shortly after in the Mariner Lounge for a couple cocktails before dinner, just as I had mentioned in yesterday's post.
This is another Kadek who was our wine steward for dinner in Compass Rose. Not sure how many Kadeks there are onboard but at least two.
We went in for dinner at 6pm and had our usual table with Mario as our waiter.
We all started with the mussel & vegetable cassoulet, It is lots of mussels and vegetables in a saffron cream sauce with puff pastry over it. Very yummy!
Unfortunately my phone battery expired so no more photos. We all enjoyed a double order of the mouth watering miso glazed sea bass with sticky rice as our entrees
This photo was taken of the sea bass when we had it on June 18th.
For dessert Becky and I had millionaire pie and Halis had cheese cake. Rebecca had a bite of mine.
Becky texted their son to come and pick them up. Rebecca and I escorted them off the ship and back into the terminal. I continued with them out to the parking lot as I wanted to meet their son. Wish my phone camera was working as there is a nice night view of the ship all lit up.
We really enjoyed them coming to visit with us as we last saw them before covid when they came to visit us in Durango. We discussed them maybe doing an Alaskan cruise with us September 1st to 15th in 2027.
TODAY
Several days before we left on this cruise we received a special invitation to have lunch with Sid Evans, Editor in Chief of the Southern Living magazine, at the Circa 1886 restaurant here in Charleston.
There were 42 of us and Captain Ahbi who boarded this bus at 11:30 to take us to the restaurant.
It was a 20 minute ride to the restaurant and we passed one of the many churches in Charleston.
Waiting for everyone to leave the bus and then one of the Southern Living escorts took a group photo.
We had made arrangements to join Karen & Jim Shockley for the lunch.
But then Sabrina Schmid, Regent's Director for Consumer Marketing, told us we had reserved seats at the table with Sid Evans, our host. So we apologized to Jim & Karen and moved. From L to R:
Susan Evans (Sid's wife), Captain Abhi, Deborah Baker, Susan Thatcher, Sabrina Schmid (unfortunately standing and looking away), and us. Sid was next to Rebecca but was not seated yet.
The lunch menu
Our host, Sid Evans. Rebecca had a great chat with him as they were both born in the same Memphis hospital (21 years apart however) and both are huge Tennessee Vols fans (UT football).
Sid is welcoming everyone and telling us about our lunch.
Our southern themed lunch started with this shrimp n' grits: shrimp, bacon, ham hock gravy, goat cheese, and grits. ABSOLUTELY the best ever shrimp n' grits we have ever had!
The next course was quail: with white cheddar grits, collard greens, and red eye gravy. Very good again.
Throughout the luncheon there was LOTS of very loud conversations in the restaurant. We learned from Captain Abhi that our ship was the next to last cruise ship to be docked in Charleston for 5 years. They will be tearing down the present terminal area and building a modern one. That is really needed as as most of the buildings have no roofs any more.
Our last course was cornbread pudding: rum-macerated strawberries, mascarpone whipped cream and toasted pecans. WOW! This was so yummy.
Marc Collins, the Executive Chef here for 25 years, gave us some history about grits. Very interesting. He said he was a big Dallas Cowboys fan. I had told Sid earlier that I was the Cowboy's charter Captain from 1989 to 1996 when they won 3 Super Bowls. So Sid had me share that story with the group.
Next door is the Wentworth Mansion. It was built in 1886 and is now a 21 room inn.
Everyone got a "goodie" bag.
Inside was this Southern Living magazine and a nice coffee mug.
This was hung over the back of our chairs at the special table with Sid. I asked Sabrina if I could take some and she said, "certainly". I then told Captain Abhi I was going to put them on our bar chairs in the Mariner Lounge. He got a big chuckle out of that.
Here is tonight's Compass Rose menu.
Our bus arrived back at the ship at 3pm. What a great time we all had at the luncheon. Rebecca is now doing her hair while I have been working on this blog post. We're planning cocktails in the Mariner Lounge as usual followed by dinner in Compass Rose. Definitely want to be on the front row for tonight's production cast show, "Blazing Boots". We're seen this show many times on many different Regent ships and always good. Tonight's show will be the last one for this cast as they will be leaving for vacation when we arrive in NYC.
After two days here in Charleston we will be sailing again at 6pm. Next port (our last) is the "Big Apple", New York City, which is 600 miles from here. Tomorrow will be a day at sea.
The lunch menu
