Charleston

This weekend I got the opportunity to go back to Charleston for the weekend. I have to tell you Charleston is quickly becoming one of my favorite places. The architecture there is simply amazing. I received an invite a couple months ago from my friend Jess to go celebrate her birthday in Charleston. I was very quick to say yes. She told me it would be a birthday girls weekend with some of her in-laws. If you know me, and if you're reading this you probably do, you'll know that I love to travel and I love to talk. Combining those two passions is fantastic.

One of our first stops was Drayton Hall. It's a beautiful old plantation home on the Ashley river. In my opinion it's one of the more interesting plantations. The historical society acquired the home in the 1970s. They've elected for preservation, instead of restoration. Basically what that means is that they're not updating the house (no running water or electricity), and they do their best to maintain the house as it is. Some of the paint dates back to the original of the house. I love art and architecture, and this was a fantastic home to tour.

The next day we went on a very informative walking tour of Charleston. This is a city with so much history, and some of the most beautiful architecture. The homes are unbelievable. I think you could walk around the downtown area for hours just looking at all the houses and beautiful gardens. One of the most interesting things is that the preservation of Charleston almost didn't happen. In the 1960's and 1970's there was a group of people that decided that Charleston really needed to be preserved, instead of adopting the urban sprawl mentality of many other US cities. To all those men and women that helped, thank you. You did a wonderful thing and I look forward to returning to Charleston again and again.

We had such a great time. And of course, no vacation would be complete without ridiculous amounts of food. We had so many amazing meals. I ate the most amount of seafood one person could eat in one weekend. I had shrimp, scallops, crab cakes, even a crab po' boy. The crab po' boy really was an impressive endeavor. When it came out I just stared at it for a minute. If I was going to tackle this sandwich I had to have a game plan. In case you don't know what you're looking at this is an entire soft shell crab fried whole on top of a piece of french bread with tomatoes, lettuce, and aioli. I decided that the best plan of attack would be to eat the legs first, starting from the outside then I'd work my way in. Did I mention that my friend Jess is a vegetarian? As soon as this came out I immediately regretted my decision to order it, how could I eat this in front of my dear friend? But then I put that first bite in my mouth and knew I had indeed made the correct decision. So I'm terribly sorry Jess.

I have many good memories to add to my memory bank from this weekend. I was happy to spend a birthday with a great friend, to help her celebrate. I was happy to meet new and fascinating people. I was happy to eat my weight in seafood. And I was especially happy to have this adorable guy give us a bicycle ride home in his pedicab from dinner on the last night. It was a very jam packed and fun filled weekend. It's time with friends that has helped me to get through this deployment, and keep my spirits up. Thank you to all my friends!