We stayed at the Merry Sherwood when it first opened. We loved it, we stayed in the honeymoon suite. We had always wanted to repeat our experience, we had fond memories. Well, so much for memories. The two people working the house and the kitchen were wonderful. If you go onto the website and view the size of the plantation you may understand why two people are not enough to maintain the level of service that should be offered at this plantation.

Our first hint that something was wrong were the overgrown grounds, next came the unswept porch, and then our wait to be greeted even though we had just called on our way into Berlin. Truthfully my first hint should have been that the website had not been updated in years, but I wistfully kept checking it thinking of my pleasant memories. Now I was really nervous.

As we proceeded to the second floor we were shown to our room, which other than the honeymoon suite was the only other room on that floor with a private bathroom. The two rooms to our left were beautiful, but no private bath. We paid more money to have the private bath. What a room, what a surprise. Where shall I start, the broken armoire, the broken window shade, the smallest bed in the house put in one of the biggest rooms in the house(not even a double bed, let alone the usual queen bed), the horriblely tacky bedspread from a one room beach house that was polyester and something I probably would not have put down on my dogs beds. This was my birthday trip, the only one I would get this year at the shore. Did we want to move to another room, yes, but we would have to share a bath, which was not what we paid for or wanted to do.

Oops, I forgot a few things like the vintage childs dress in our wardrobe with a sweet little note that asked you to be careful as this was an antique. It was hard to read that note as it and that little dress were pinned to the wardrobe by a rusty old screen. The room was not nice, the bed was really not nice. My husband and I are not large people, but I found myself clinging to him trying not to fall out of our inappropriately sized bed.

So, Berlin was wonderful, I just wondered what happened to the man that years ago had lovingly restored this plantation and what new interests he has now. If he is restoring another old house, meant to be a B&B, and it's fresh and new and loved, as I once remember this property was, I want to stay there for my birthday.