Great Guests!

One of the fun things about being an INNSITTER is that we get to meet such Great Guests!!In Golden Colorado we are Interim Innkeepers at the Dove Inn B&B and because the inn is so close to the Colorado School of Mines, we get  guests from all over the world. On this map you can see the little pins indicating the countries that our guests have come from. One morning Kirk and I served breakfast to 12 people none of which spoke English as their first language!

This is Diane from Canada reading the paper in everybody's favorite easy chair. Sometimes a guest will spend all day just reading in the big bay window. It's nice to see them really making themselves "at home".








  Diane was such a GREAT guest - look at the nice things she had to say about us and the Dove Inn..... We really do love to read comments like this in the in-room books. It's so nice to be appreciated, right??

Of course we also get great guests from the good old USA. This is Gayle from Denver [see the Broncos sweatshirt?] playing with the vintage "steropticon" that sits in the great room. It's fun to see how people entertained themselves before TV, computers and smart phones when this house was built in the 1800's.

  And  this is were we greet all those "GREAT GUESTS" - the front desk. The lovely lady standing with us is Elizabeth Padilla the owner of the Dove Inn. We are always happy to give her a break and take another assignment at our "home" in Golden Colorado!




 

Mountain High Tea

  I guess it is now a traditon - every year to celebrate our birthdays Elizabeth and I go somewhere special for "HIGH TEA". This year she chose The Dusty Rose Tea Room in Georgetown Colorado - an old mining town way up in the mountains. And what a charming tea room it is: housed in a mountain home built in 1875 and providing a complete Victorian High Tea experience.... you are first asked to choose a hat to wear to make you feel in the era [unfortunately my dress is not really of the same era!] and then you choose what ever tea cup "speaks" to you.

Choosing a cup is not as easy as it sounds because there are so many fun patterns to choose from. The tea room is filled with cups, saucers, teapots, doilies etc.... just like any Victorian Tea Room would have been.










After you choose a cup of course you choose a tea from an elaborate selection. I chose a Mountain Berry Black Tea that was just delicious and appropriate because we were in the
mountains after all.
                                     

But ok, my favorite part of "High Tea" is not really the tea.... it's the FOOD! This food was really delicious. We started with a potato soup, then meat pastries, cucumber sandwiches [my favorite], little savory tarts and deviled eggs. Then we progressed to the sweet course: "historic" walnut cookies baked in honor of the chef at the old Hotel de Paris in Georgetown and other treats. The most delicious item was a small chocolate pecan tart or maybe the orange scone with clotted cream - I guess I'll have to go back to decide for sure!               

                While we finished our High Tea the owner, Jeannette Peterson, regaled us with stories of local lore and history. Then we were done with our Mountain High Tea and it was time to go home...

           So, we no longer feel Victorian but hey - I told you I was in the MOUNTAINS, right??

Charming Charleston

       Charleston SC  [or CHUCKTOWN as the locals call it] is truly one of the most CHARMING cities I have ever seen! While staying here we did get to take in a few of the sites and tour some of the Historic Homes [there are so many it would take you weeks to see them all]. The Historic Charleston Foundation has restored many of them to their original splendor and the visitors center sells passes that will get you in to 6 different homes and 2 plantations. We managed to visit 5 of the homes and 1 plantation. We were here for work after all so we could not spend all day sight seeing. The home shown above is the Nathaniel Russell house built in 1808 and now lovingly restored. It has beautiful grounds and a very famous free floating staircase.

 This is the center chandelier that has hung in the Joseph Manigault house for over 150 years. Can you imagine having to clean this thing?

 The "music room" in the same house was especially lovely. Apparently music was a great part of the entertainment in those days and no expense was spared to enjoy it.
 Just touring these Historic Homes gives you a real sense of history. So much has happened here. We visited the Hayward Washington House where President George Washington stayed in 1791. It is filled with incredible furniture mostly made in Charleston and mostly made of mahogany. I really wanted to steal a charming little cradle and take it home for my soon to be grand daughter! This home also had beautiful gardens [photo below] and the only restored historic kitchen. The kitchens were in separate buildings with the slave quarters above. Imagine how many slaves it must have taken to keep homes like this running smoothly.

  One of the most beautiful Historic Homes in Charleston was on the same street as our B&B - the Edmondston Alston House built in 1825. It still remains in the Alston family and they live on the third floor while the rest of the house is open to the public. We really loved the gardens just off of the main "piazza" [ long verandas supported by tall pillars to catch the cool breezes off of the bay].

                                                                OK, I could live here!