What is your favorite thing about Charleston and WV? (Fayetteville: real estate, buy)

[CSS]

My husband and I live in Dallas Texas, and will be visiting Charleston, WV over July 4th weekend. We were wondering what is your favorite thing about your city- food, attractions, nature, fun things to do? What do you generally do everyday. Places to stay away from?

This is my gift to my husband for his 50th birthday. He was born in Charleston and has never been back since he was a baby. My husband was born in 1958 when his father played baseball for the minor ball team, the Charleston Alley Cats. He has always wanted to come back to visit.

We are so excited to visit your city (I love looking at it on Google Maps Satellite) and would appreciate any recommendations for Charleston, and surrounding areas.

[Silkdashocker]

My favorite part of Charleston is the new baseball park built downtown in the warehouse district. Appalachian Power Park has a large concourse, and is very fan friendly. I recommend you and your husband taking in a ballgame there during your visit.

Capital Street is nice, has several restaraunts and shops along the tree lined street.

If your looking for a park to visit for a picnic or bike ride, go to Kanawha State forest, just 10 minutes from downtown, it's like being in a national forest, yet so close to the city.

[CSS]

That sounds wonderful. Yes, we are going to a ball game, and also plan on going to Fayetteville. We are flying in and out of Louisville , KY and are looking forward to the drive through Lexington and throught western part of WV.

[BJC]

If you are going to Fayetteville, you must see the new river gorge bridge. You can go in a big circle from Charleston and get back to charleston using all 2 lane roads. You will see alot like that. What rt are you taking to get to F'ville? I would be happy to provide suggestions if you are not all ready using the rt I would suggest. I was born in 57.

[David Kennedy]

If you are going as far as New River Gorge...please visit Tamarac and see the beauty of Wv...lunch there too...Chef's from the Greenbriar and lunch is about $10 per head...I can't say enough good about Tamarac...

[Silkdashocker]

Louisville and Lexington are beautiful cities too. I'm fond of them both.

And Fayetteville, WV is ranked as one of the top 5 coolest towns in the USA.

[ArcticPhoenix]

I loved the outdoors things in West Virginia... whitewater rafting, hiking, etc.

Stay Away from: The East End, at night anyway. I'm serious. There may have been improvements since I've been there (I moved away from the East End in 2003, and out of WV in 2004), but the East End around Lee St. isn't the greatest of places (although some of the residential areas are decent).

I'd recommend visiting the capitol, too. It's pretty cool.

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by ArcticPhoenix

I loved the outdoors things in West Virginia... whitewater rafting, hiking, etc.

Stay Away from: The East End, at night anyway. I'm serious. There may have been improvements since I've been there (I moved away from the East End in 2003, and out of WV in 2004), but the East End around Lee St. isn't the greatest of places (although some of the residential areas are decent).

I'd recommend visiting the capitol, too. It's pretty cool.

East End: that would be east of the Elk River on the north side of the Kanawha, correct?

[harborlady]

Originally Posted by CSS

My husband and I live in Dallas Texas, and will be visiting Charleston, WV over July 4th weekend. We were wondering what is your favorite thing about your city- food, attractions, nature, fun things to do? What do you generally do everyday. Places to stay away from?

This is my gift to my husband for his 50th birthday. He was born in Charleston and has never been back since he was a baby. My husband was born in 1958 when his father played baseball for the minor ball team, the Charleston Alley Cats. He has always wanted to come back to visit.

We are so excited to visit your city (I love looking at it on Google Maps Satellite) and would appreciate any recommendations for Charleston, and surrounding areas.

The moose lodge of charleston is usually pretty brisk sociable crowd almost every night of the week if you're a member, and membership fees are pretty low if you're interested in joining their charity work.

4th of july fireworks will happen on the kanawha river, so anywhere along kanawha blvd on the north side of the river or MacCorkle ave on south side of the river is an excellent view (maccorkle won't have the same parking restrictions though).
Best quality lodging for least fee I found at the Days Inn at kanawha city exit 95 off I64. Freindly staff, flexible, accomodating, continental breakfast. Close enough to jump to downtown, in 5 min. Across the street from Days are 3 decent restaurants but they close fairly early. Kitchens close like 9:30/10:00 as I recall. Kanawha city mall is in between things with renovations, so the shopping is a bit strained there for now. Other area plazas fill in the blanks in the meantime.

While in charleston downtown, plan on parking at the town center mall parking garage and walking the difference because there really isn't on the street parking available. It's a central location so pretty much everything is within reasonable walking distance. Better made street maps can be had by, of all places, real estate offices. Old colony has them for free in their vestibule on virginia street. I found I couldn't buy a better map.

Could you tell us more about what your hubby likes? I'm sure we can come up with more ideas for you.

[ArcticPhoenix]

Originally Posted by ArizonaBear

East End: that would be east of the Elk River on the north side of the Kanawha, correct?

Fairly far on the north side of the Kanawha river and relatively far east of the Elk River.

Ooh! The NUMBER one and two things I miss about West Virginia:

1. The autumns. Autumn in WV is teh win.

2. Fireflies. For those of you who don't know where I am, I live in Spokane (Spo-can), Washington. It's very very dry here (we get about 18 inches of precipitation yearly), and I'm relatively close to the desert (if I drive an hour on the freeway west, there's no trees and only sagebrush). Firelies don't live out here. It's too cold and too dry. And I miss fireflies. Funny how you don't appreciate a lot of things until you're no longer around those things, huh?