Heading home...but first Charleston

Well the suitcases are packed and my jeans are very, very tight. It is soup and salads and workouts at the gym for the next 6 months to undo the damage of southern hospitality. Man they have good food down here!

We will be off for a visit to Beaufort in an hour or so and from there on to the airport and the long trip home arriving at midnight tonight. I plan to catch up on sleep tomorrow.

We have had a wonderful time. Lots of visiting with my sister and brother-in-law, lots of interesting history, met wonderful people, ate fabulous food, walked through beautifully preserved old cities, visited a plantation and saw a crocodile up close, took a river cruise and saw dolphins and a Bald Eagle, attended an Oyster roast, ate pulled pork Southern style and attended two outdoor evening parties under the stars, took a boat out on the ocean to Ft Sumter, drank gimlets and mojito's with mint, and lazed on the porch of the clubhouse waiting for Dave and Frank to come in on the 18th hole. David golfed 38 holes of golf...I know that is two extras (you will have to ask him that story), so he is happy as can be. And so am I.

It has been 8 days of true southern hospitality and a wonderful rest from the stresses of work and responsibilities back home. As a matter of fact, it is hard to head back...but alas all good things must come to an end. And we miss the kids.

This morning I wanted to share a few pics from our visit to historic Charleston.

There is so much iron work on the old homes here.


the whole front of this B&B was covered in iron work.

King Street

..that's five stories. Wouldn't want to clean that house.

We went biking along the "Battery" That is the Atlantic ocean.

And across the street were these beautiful homes.

loved the brick streets. DH just wants to get biking again...

A very typical house design in this old area of Charleston.
Huge porches all along on side of the house.
With extremely hot summers, I suppose they were well used.

We had lunch at Magnolias the first afternoon we arrived.

It was just a few blocks from our B&B and the food was great.

cobblestone streets

St Michael's Church.

Broad Street

Our B&B. I will do a separate post on The Governor's House.
We REALLY hope to come back one day and stay here again.

Well Thank Y'all for letting me share my photos and a piece of this wonderful blessing of being able to visit a little bit of the Southern States. This get away was everything we hoped it would be and more. I hope you got even a little taste of South Carolina. We feel so blessed to have had this opportunity to visit and get to know a part of history and a part of the world we had never seen before.

We now head home...and home is always the very best place to be.

Blessings to y'all!

Give thanks today

Between May 26th, 1828 and July 6th,1839, the Ladson family lost six of their children. They ranged in age, at death, from 10 months to 17 years, but most were lost in their first year and a few in the same year. Malaria and other diseases were likely the cause.

click on photo for larger view

I think of the heartache this family endured and I give thanks that our own children have had health and we have been blessed to see them grow and mature. But they are each His. A gift from Him. And I rest in that.

The inscription at the bottom reads...

Dedicated in early life

To the service of the Lord

We rest in faith, that through Him

They have obtained a more perfect inheritance.

I do believe that it was the faith of this family and their trust in His perfect will that brought them through these difficult times.

Though we do not face the hardships of the 1800's, sometimes I wonder if our complacency, our excellent medical care, our good food and all the things and comforts He provides for us today ...make us less faithful people. We have so little to complain about.

Just some thoughts today.

It was very interesting to visit this graveyard in Charleston. While there was lots of glamor and beauty in the pre civil war days, there was a lot of heartache and pain too.

Have a blessed day.

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His mercies endure forever.

Alligators!

We were visiting the Middleton Plantation yesterday. A beautiful place and I am sure much more grand pre civil war days - when it was looted and the main house burned out. We were near the end of our two hour walk through the grounds when we rounded the corner and there on the lawn next to the lake was this fellow sunning himself - it was 76 F yesterday. :)

He was about 5-6 feet long I think - didn't measure him.:) I quickly switched to my zoom lens, snuck in a comment about having a telephoto lens and got these pics of him. David let me get within about 20 feet of him. He did not seem too interested in me and would have likely dove into the water had he been upset; or so I reasoned.

Y'all have a good day and make sure that snow is gone by the time we get home.

Savannah, Georgia

Finally, some pics from the trip. Sorry - been really busy seeing all the sites and eating. I am sitting on the piazza (front porch) of the Governor's House Inn in Charleston. But today I will update you on some pictures I took on a day trip where we rode the trolley tour and walked the streets of old Savannah, Georgia.

Stopped for lunch of grit cakes, collard greens, southern fried tomatoes, shrimp and calamari.

Then we headed off on foot into the oldest part of Savannah - late 1700's cotton exchange district down by the waterfront. I suspect a lot of evil stuff happened down here at night....

...and a little trivia for you movie buffs

Here is Six Pence Pub where Grace (Julia Roberts) rounded the corner at historic Johnson Square and spied her husband, Eddie (Dennis Quaid), cheek to cheek with another gal in "Something to Talk About" .



I will have to see that movie.





And I will leave you with this last picture. This church in Savannah Georgia is featured in a popular film - even I saw it!

Do you know which one?

Hint - it is in the opening scene...and perhaps in the closing scene too (can't remember but I think it is).

There is a feather involved. Know the film??

Across the street is a famous park bench local- well actually the bench is gone but the place where the bench was filmed is there.



Tomorrow I will upload my Charleston pics. We are off on a tour of Fort Sumter this afternoon.

Now, y'all have a good day, ya hear!

South Carolina

"I'm leaving on a jet plane, Don't know when I'll be back again....."

Actually I will be back very late next Monday, Lord willing. We headed out in the early, wee, dark, half asleep hours as in 5am, to catch our plane. The sunrise on the big engines was kind of pretty and I was very bored.

Still bored as we approached Minneapolis so here is sunrise on the wing. Since my head and stomach do not take to reading in any moving vehicle, I distract myself with my camera and my MP3

..and after leaving Minneapolis for Atlanta I am still bored, but with only miles and miles of clouds outside the plane I play with my macro lens. Dear husbands thinks it would be sweet to put both our devises together - ah the ipod and the MP3 - what a match. It was meant to be.

We land in Atlanta. The map shows that this HUGE airport is actually six airports but it looks like NWA has it's own hub...but wait, our ticket says we are now flying Delta! We have 50 min to go from terminal A to terminal D and they are all very far apart - connected, we discover, by an underground subway system. ....glad we were not walking because they were miles apart.

I took this picture above as were were taking off from Atlanta for Savannah, Georgia. There were 19, yup nineteen planes lined up behind us - those were the ones I could count. They were just taking off one after another and I am thinking...like, isn't it kind of dangerous to be in the trail of another jet - you know jet stream, turbulence, loosing a wing and that kind of stuff and that jet ahead of us is a whole lot bigger than we are. ..

I distract myself with my camera...again. Only one more hour of flying.

Ten hours since leaving our home in Saskatoon and we arrive. My sister and brother-in-law pick us up at the airport. It is beautiful in Savannah. You can smell the ocean air even though you are inland about 20 miles. It is so pretty.

A 30 min drive to their place and we are shown the "guest quarters" ...private bath, kitchenette, king bed, duvet. Yup should have booked in for two weeks. I think I will just settle in and read a few books and just soak up all this luxury.

Monday am stroll around the grounds and out to the docks. Tide is out. The southern home here are beautiful, large. All "lo country" design. Think "Gone with the Wind".

There are alligators here and I plan to get a photo of one before we leave. David keeps warning me to not get too close. I keep reminding him that a telephoto lens could solve that problem completely.

Keep watching cause as soon as I get the shot I will post it. They also have the cutest little black squirrels and all sort of wildlife around here; storks, egrets (sp?) an alligators -did I mention they have alligators?

And seafood -lots of it! Cajun shrimp last night, grits and shrimp with greens for lunch and Kobe fish from the ocean for supper. The jeans are tight and this is only day one.

We headed into Savannah for the day today and took a trolley tour. It was two hours of history lessons and seeing the sights of old Savannah. Almost felt like I could feel what it was like to be sittin' on the front porch with my Mint Julep telling Rhett I really couldn't give a you know what.

Stay tuned and I will post today's pictures of old Civil War Savannah as soon as I can, but right now I have to get to bed. I am also on the net courtesy of the neighbours wireless since the "guest quarters" does not have Internet, so not too sure how long this connection will last. hehe Love wireless.

Now y'all have a good nite Ya hear?

I

Acrylic album Life is Beautiful

This album took forever too, but it was fun doing. It too was part of the classes held at JSI.
I filled it with pictures of all my sisters grandchildren and gave it to her on our visit to South Carolina. I am posting this ahead of time with a time stamp...so I have no idea how she liked it....since technically I haven't given this to her...although when you read this I WILL have given it to her. Get it? Stay tuned for pictures of the South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia.

Blessings,
Julie

Satan's Plan

Please turn off blog music on the left.

Worthy of consideration... how busy are you?