South Carolina and a little Savannah, Georgia

Some of my favorite photos from this past week...

a couple of dolphins playing. Spent an afternoon on the river - which is really an inlet of the ocean.

Baby alligator - one year old - about two feet

There are alligators in that serene peaceful lake.

Hancock putting up with me. Do you think cats smile?

Tybee Island, Georgia

John Wesley statue, Savannah Georgia

feeling safe? on the streets of Savannah

Bedfords - great lunch spot.

The Cotton Exchange - Savannah, Ga

Blue crabs fresh out of the ocean - still alive - pretty colour.

 Clams baking on the BBQ. They pop open when they are ready.

Let me know your favorite.
LOTS more photos of South Carolina and Savannah Georgia on my web site HERE

Remember Photoshop Spheres?

About 8 months ago I showed y'all some of the spheres I had made with Photoshop using my photos.

Well tonight I took a collage of some of my scrapbook layouts and made a sphere - with a bit of a reflection too. I love it. So much fun. Got the idea off of Digital Designer

Also made a quick digital page using some photos from our trip to S Carolina last fall.


I needed a break from wedding layouts!
It was wonderful!

In other news I have been asked to take a new position with SHR - A two year full time position in a new SHR project with Long Term Care clients in acute care beds. I am very excited with this new challenge...but it does mean I will be very busy. I am looking forward to more work with families and less list management stuff. Starts Sept.

And another family has booked me for a photo shoot in September. YIKES - that's four shoots in September. PRESSURE!!
Umm... expect less blogging. Srapbooking will likely slow down but with the new grand baby due any day that could be to hard to resist. :) Waiting for the phone call. Camera is ready!

Now I need to go to bed... feeling a bit of flu coming on which I cannot afford to have right now. I need to work tomorrow and get some shopping done after work for a guest this weekend. David has been out at dinner meetings all week and I have been content to have a bowl of cereal for supper. The cupboards are bare. LOL

Blessings to you all!

Julie

SNOB's

It is good to be home... and doing laundry, grocery shopping and cooking meals????? Somehow my home, kitchen, sheets, laundry room and wardrobe seem terribly inadequate. One of the pitfalls of a holiday in a very nice warm place with a sister who has an incredible house with guest quarters with a King bed and 600 thread satin sheets. I'm not coveting, just recovering and getting back to reality here. :) I am also freezing!
I thought today I would share one of our culinary experience in Charleston. A visit to SNOB!

We had a late lunch at SNOB's while in Charleston. There are quite a few good restaurants within 200 yards of SNOB, one being Magnolias (see previous post with pics), but our B&B had highly recommended SNOB. I thought the name had character so we gave it a try.

Slightly North of Broad was a nice place to have lunch although we arrived at the tail end of lunch hour and there was quite a flurry of activity about our table as staff hurried off the lunch settings and readied tables for supper. We almost felt like we were a little in the way. Who were the snobs here anyways!

Our waitress was lovely and courteous. I ordered a Gimlet and promptly received a Gibson but that was quickly remedied. I can get a very dry martini at home. This is South Carolina - something with lime was called for. And what a pretty drink to take a picture of. :)

Decor was very appropriately snobbish upper class too - linens and silverware. Okay no Waterford crystal but pretty nice stuff.



SNOB is named because it is on Broad street at the edge of THE most affluent area of Charleston (see previous post for some pics of multimillion dollar homes).

Between Broad Street and the "Battery" or Atlantic Ocean, are some of the most affluent, beautifully kept, huge, 100-200 year old homes that sell in the 1-3 million market.

We ordered the House Made Charcuterie - current and pine nut pate, pork rillettes, chicken liver mousse and ham.

We also shared an order of the Carpaccio of Beef Tenderloin which is thinly sliced raw beef with olive oil, Pecorino Romano and toast points. (that gave spell check a work out)

We felt down right snobbish!!

Both were tasty and perfect for the light lunch we wanted. The gimlet was the best part though...

I loved the old building that SNOB was located in, and like most of old Charleston it was steeped in history. There are ghosts everywhere in this town.

The back wall had a huge arched brick opening into the kitchen area and we could see many chefs and helpers busy preparing food back there.

I think next trip to Charleston, if we are ever so fortunate to visit again, we will have to try some of the other restaurants. There are so many places to eat (and shop but very high end). But do try SNOB if you are in Charleston . And there are other more normal things on the menu. You don't have to order raw beef or pate or other stuff that you don't know what it is.

Have you ever had beef tartar? Carpaccio? David loves it. It is actually very tender and tasty but I can only eat a few pieces...just on principle. And we had to order the pate because it is down right snobbish. LOL

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!