The top picture is of the Cistern at the College of Charleston and the first evenings jazz concert.


The second picture is of the Spoleto Festival Dock Street Theatre, Where the Chamber Music was held. Awesome music.

Our Charleston Birthday Trip

Well, actually the trip was to surprise a friends daughter when she graduated from Summerville High School, which was actually held at the Convention Center. The trip was both a need to disconnect from what was happening in Valdosta and the great need for Kay to find her beach and open water; it also was just a continuation of my Birthday weekend.

We managed to get room at Charleston AFB Inn for the few day and on our first day in we had supper at Manny’s Mediterranean Place where I talked with a small group of Klingon Women Warriors at they held their weekly meeting. The food was very well prepared. That evening we had tickets to see our first concert with the Spoleto Festival and the Wells Fargo Jazz concert by Karrin Allyson,
“In the 15 years since Karrin Allyson first appeared at Spoleto Festival USA, her voice has gone the route young singers hope for—deepening, enriching, reaching the height of its potential. With musical fearlessness that ventures beyond the familiar framework of the Great American Songbook, she has become “one of the jazz world’s finest.” (Los Angeles Times); at the Cistern Yard, College of Charleston on George Street singing a few number from her current album CD ‘Round Midnight.

The next day, Saturday, was Katlyn’s graduation and after we rested, we spent the rest of the evening celebrating with our friend and family. Good chicken Rob, and you’re are a great dad to your children.

On Sunday, we chilled and had tickets for the Chamber Music Concert at the Dock Street Theatre on Church Street were we heard;
Oboe Quartet in F major, K. 370 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91)
Oi Kuu (For the Moon) Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952)
ZZ’s Dream
Osvaldo Golijov (b. 1960) and the
Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57 Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–75)

I would have really like to have heard more concerts but there is time and money and both were in short supply. Actually we realized that there are a lot of other offerings that are free, only there are happening in the following days and we need to get back home. Maybe next year we can do more.

On Memorial Day, we didn’t just want to sit on the beach all day and get burnt to a crisp, so we walked around downtown Charleston that morning and had a great lunch, and as we walked back to the car we came across a Oop’s Catalogue store where I found a great dress for $18 bucks, not bad considering that I saw others dresses priced in the hundreds of dollars, for the same cloth. After lunch and as it was going on to 2 pm we headed to Isle of Palms strip of beach and watched a steady stream of cars leave the island, which was a good sign for us as we didn’t loose too much time finding a place to park for the day. We just took our little chairs, a bag of drinks and snacks, our books and blanket to the beach with us. We actually took a spot from some people as they were leaving in the shade under a pier and just sat, read and felt the sea breeze on our faces as we watched the waves run to the shore. We never actually stuck our toes in the surf, but we really didn’t have a need.

As we walked around the state park, we noticed there were 3 short boardwalks to go to the water with lockable gates, and we noticed that the would be closed and locked at 7 pm that evening. As we read and lost track of time, soon we realized it was closing time as the took turns using the bathroom, it wasn’t until an hour later we decided we had enough and turned to leave noticing that all the gates were locked. Luckily there was another open boardwalk about 600 yards up the beach between some condos. So we weren’t really locked on the beach, but we hoped that the parking lot was still open; and so it was. Returning for the last night at the Air Force Inn. 4 nights in Charleston $150, 2 incredible concerts for 2 $130, shopping, eating, day at the beach, Priceless.

Friday 13th Detours

Kay and I have realized that the events for week we think and see head is somewhat flexible, cause you never know what stuff will be thrown in one's way. So the week had gone pretty much like we had expected until Friday morning. I was to go have some lab work done for my doctor's appointment next week, which I had missed earlier in the week. So luckily the lab wasn't crowded that Friday morning and I was in and out in 15 min, but not before she talked about how today was Friday the 13th, and I hadn't realized it was. As I arrived home, Kay was feeding Trinity as we had agreed to meet some friends to watch her daughter's end-of-school performance, and so I watched Trinity so Kay could get ready.

So, within the next few minutes I took a phone call, a friend had been admitted Wednesday night because she was coughing up blood, and her mother had been admitted the next morning for other reasons and she wanted us to look in on her cats and dog. We said that we had something to do that morning but we would come visit them today.

As we had agreed to fix a meal for a member of our church family to whom a new son had been born, Kay was fixing one of her famous Chicken-Pot Pies and I had to make the crusts, so we put two pot-pies together and I had some dough left over so I made a small pie crust for some Key-Lime pie with frozen blueberries sprinkled on top while Trinity and Kay took a quick nap.

After Trinity's mother picked her up, we decided to visit our friends in the hospital, then come back and gather up the diner to deliver. Some one's directions were not very clear and since the parent's house was in a really new section their address wasn't listed in our gps device. But we finally realized our mistake and found their house soon enough to get it delivered while it was still warm, and since their house was near our church we were able to pick up our 'Boston Butt' that we had ordered from the men of the church who was selling them to raise money for our new building program to expand the parish hall.

After all that we had an hour before we were to meet some friends for supper, which was fun. We met at a Japanese restaurant where they cook on the grill at your table; kind of showy antics. Cute cooking with good food with great friends. Afterwards we all came back to our house and were able to talk and continue the good fun.

Shopping Overload

Warning; to those who love to shop, this might sound strange!

I do love to shop when I am in the mood, and we have shopped at Macy's in both Gainesville, and Tallahassee, but this past Friday, we were in Atlanta and Kay wanted to stop by Macy's to look for some nice tops. It had been a rather long day for us as we watched our little one from 7:40 to 1 pm and then loaded up the car and drove to Atlanta. Of course we stopped by Macy's before we checked in for the night. I was tired but wanted to look for some tops for me, and since we have both lost weight we were in smaller sizes. I went upstairs to visit the Misses department as was immediately overwhelmed by the quantities of designers much less with the vast amounts of clothes and styles. I was disoriented since this store had grouped all their clothing by designers and not by sizes I quickly realized. Much to my chagrin, I also realized that the clothes on the second floor only went up to a size 14; not what I was looking for. The sale people were trying to be helpful, but when one doesn't really know what she is looking for, I was like a deer caught in the headlights, didn't know where to turn or run to, so I slunked back downstairs rather glassy eyed and found Kay. She said she would go with me to look when she finished her shopping, but it was getting late and so we left Macy's and checked into our room and crashed.

The next morning we had some time to kill, and feeling much better even though I forgot to bring my sleeping medicine and slept fitfully, we went back to Macy's because Kay wanted to get a top she passed up the night before. That was when I realized that this Macy's has an entirely different system of sizing their clothes. The smaller sizes in the Women's section went down to a OX which the sales person explained was really their Extra Large size, so I immediately found a wonderful black and white dress what would look better for the occasion than the dress I was wearing that morning's Nurses Pinning Ceremony we were attending that afternoon. I found lots of wonderful clothes, but we were running out of time and I really needed a new dress.

So, the lesson to be learned is not to go shopping when one is tired and is not in the mood.

Watching Children - Priceless

Friday night, the vestry member of our church was having a meeting, and so I said I would watch the two children of a vestry member; her husband has been the primary nursery attendant during our Sunday service.

He was to bring the two children to me for the evening and I had made plans for us. Pizza and Ice Cream, tickets to see "Rio" and popcorn and drinks, of course. Since the little girls was playing at some of the arcade games when I ordered the snacks, she didn't get to order candy, (shame on me). But it was all worth the cost and trouble, watching their little faces smiling and filled with laughter at the movie's main character, the bird named "blu". Since we ate our pizzas before we left, I bought a large popcorn and shared with them. The movie ended and we returned home to have Ice Cream, which the girl didn't like, so she finished eating her orange slices from the can she had brought.

The vestry meeting was to finish by 9 pm and we had enough time to eat our ice cream and ride back to the church to exchange the children for Kay. I got to the church with time for them to play and work off the sugar high they must have had by this time.

Yes, when we watch children it is usually cost us money, but we wouldn't have it any other way. As the old saying goes, "This will hurt me more that you.", well we wouldn't trade our time with 'our' children for anything. They give us so much joy.