We hung out in the room this morning, enjoying the wireless service in our third room of the weekend.
At somewhere around 1:00, we set out to find the popular South Park Mall in Charlotte.
Our main goal in visiting this mall was to check out the Belk store, which is a “flagship” Belk store.
Our secondary goal was to find a coffee shop and a place to have lunch.
The Belk store consisted of four stories, and it was quite impressive. We bought a six-pack of cotton, Gold-Toed socks, and split them — three pairs each.
We had lunch at CPK, where our waiter started off on the wrong foot with us by walking away as Joe was still finishing the sentence of his drink order.
We ordered two pizzas and split them:
| White Pizza A combination of Mozzarella, Fontina, Ricotta, Parmesan and Pecorino Romano cheeses with fresh sautéed spinach and garlic. |
| Fresh Tomato, Basil, & Garlic Fresh sliced Roma tomatoes, Mozzarella cheese, fresh garlic and fresh basil, topped with Parmesan cheese. |
After lunch, we set out on a coffee shop hunt. While walking, we passed a woman walking around with a headset on, a hat and uniform that had 
on it, and two cups of coffee in her hands.
Presumably, she was making a delivery. “Excuse me,” I said. “Would you tell me where the Starbucks is?”
We arrived to a line extending out into the mall. I thought, “I can’t believe how popular gourmet coffee shops are these days, and how people will pay so much money for a cup of coffee.” Yes, I thought this as I got in line to buy one myself.
I was intrigued by a “special holiday offering” of an “Eggnog Latte,” but Joe, knowing my patience level, pointed out that if we just got (our usual) plain coffee, we’d be in and out of there — once we’d ordered that is.
But, if we got a more “fancy” drink, we’d have to wait behind all the people waiting in the “line after the line” for their orders to be ready. Two regular coffees, please; room for cream in one.
I went to sit in one of the somewhat comfortable chairs just outside the store, while Joe “creamed” his coffee. Love that visual.
Between exiting the door and getting to the chair, this woman, who was walking forward but looking backward, rammed into me. Fortunately, my coffee cup had a lid on it.
On the way into the place, Joe had almost been taken out by a woman with a huge gold, Lamme purse. You think her purse was big; you should’ve seen her ass. “You could move in. She says it’s glandular.”
Kids were running around out of control, and both Joe and I noted that we were glad not to be raising kids in this day and age, what with all the things competing for their attention these days, least of all their parents.
There was a Sharper Image right across from the Starbucks, and we stopped in to look at XM Radio Receivers as we had been talking about them earlier.
 |
Delphi XM Portable XM Satellite Radio Receiver DP800 Delphi XM only $199.95! with $50 instant rebate, save an additional $50 with manufacturer’s mail-in rebate. Original Price: $249.95 |
The salesman gave us a brief demo, and we checked it out long enough to be polite without having any intentions to buy.
I ate a dinner of leftover nachos in the room, and Joe ran over to KFC, where he purchased some nuggets.
We got to the Eagle at around 9:30, and the place was pretty dead. We didn’t let that stop us from taking advantage of the $5-all-you-can-drink-beer night, though.
We played a few games of pool, where we met two guys standing around watching — Joe and Kurt.
Joe had moved to Charlotte about two years ago, from NYC, and Kurt had moved there recently from DC. Kurt told us all about Sunday nights at The Woodshed, where they have a free buffet and Karaoke, and from where he had just come.
Joe and I were both polite and did not comment on how it’s a little hard for us to think about eating dinner in a bar.
The bartender was the same one who was there Friday and Saturday night, and was just a little bit too cocky for our taste, though we never officially came to hate him.
At one point, he brought everyone in the bar a shot. Of course, there were only about 12 people in the bar at the time, so it’s not like it put the bar out.
We never did determine what was in the shot — some kind of juice(s) seemed to be involved, perhaps Orange, but who knows. It wasn’t bad, and the price was right.
Overall, there were never more than 25 people in the bar at one time all night long. However, we did not find ourselves missing scaryoke in Raleigh at all.