All About August

Well, we finished up our last month here in Charleston! I still can’t believe that. We kept going strong until the day that we left and managed to find even more things to try for the first time. I’m not kidding; this place has so much to do.

Blues & BBQ Cruise

One thing that Rusty really wanted to do before we left was this cruise that went out on the harbor at sunset and had a BBQ buffet AND a blues band playing live music. They only happen on Thursdays, and his birthday just happened to be a Thursday this year so I thought, perfect. But then he told me that Boeing was doing that for their interns and so we could go and just pay for my ticket. Weeeeeelllll, that made it 50% off so it was only 20 bucks for both of us instead of 40. So needless to say, we went with the interns. Which was cool… and awkward all at the same time. We ate dinner with them and they are awesome, and then they went and got drunk so we did our own thing for the rest of the ride. It was so pretty! We watched the sunset over the harbor with the Charleston skyline and dolphins… yeah. I really can’t think of a place that is more picturesque than Charleston. The food was so delicious and we ate so much we thought we would blow up.

Kayaking

Another thing that we did was go back to Shem Creek because we liked paddling boarding so much. This time we decided to do kayaking so that we could go a little further away from the creek and out by this island that we were curious about. When we got there they gave Rusty a ‘big, fat luxury’ kind of kayak that sat above the water, was really wide, and had a huge seat. It was like sitting in a lazy boy. They gave me a ‘narrow speed demon’ that was so tipsy I thought I was going to die. When I left, the girl said, “this is what our guides use… good luck” and at first I really didn’t think I was going to make it. But alas, I was too lazy to go back and get it changed and within minutes dolphins were popping up all around me so I was distracted. There were so many dolphins and they were so close to me that I just couldn’t stop laughing. The entire time. I was stoked. After enjoying the plethora of dolphins we voyaged out to the island. Little did we know that it was just a stinky island full of bird poop. We did see lots of baby pelicans that were trying to learn how to fly so I guess it was worth it. But mostly it was just stinky. When we were going back to drop our stuff off we saw all of these dolphins swimming around a shrimp boat that had just come in (Winds of Fortune, which is in Darius Rucker’s music video). So we sat and watched them for a while; my especial favorite was the baby. Then we started to head in when all of a sudden I saw a dolphin jump out of the water and do a flip! I was so shocked and surprised I just started yelling at Rusty to see if he saw it. Then it happened again, and again! The last one was only like 10 feet away from me. It was the coolest thing that I have ever seen.

Sunrise, Chicken and Waffles, and Getting Thrashed by the Waves

So, growing up my family and I spent a lot of time at the Oregon coast. Luckily for me, I have been able to see the sun set over the ocean quite a few times and one of my most favorite things is to watch the sun quietly slip away into nothing. Being on the East coast for the summer has a lot of pros, but watching the sun set over the ocean is not one of them. So I decided that I wanted to watch the sun rise and then I set about trying to convince Rusty that getting up at 5:30 on our only day off was a good idea. Surprisingly, haha, we didn’t do it until the very last Saturday that we had. But we succeeded! We got up early, grabbed some hot chocolate, almost got in a wreck with my sleepy driving, and made our way slowly over the wooden steps to the beach. We laid out our blanket and started watching the sky get brighter. Now I don’t know about you, but I have only seen a few sunrises and every time it surprises me how fast it happens. It seems like it gradually gets brighter and brighter but once the sun actually pops up it just shoots up into the sky so fast. It was absolutely beautiful to see the sun rise up over nothing and light up the clouds and create reflections in the wet sand. And, not to sound too sappy, but holding my lover’s hand and watching dolphins swimming in the waves really did make it unforgettable.

Well, after a little nap we headed on our way to our adventuring. I had been wanting to see the Morris Island Lighthouse but we didn’t know exactly where it was. So we just wandered around until we found some signs that looked promising. We did make it there, and it was really cool. The lighthouse is out in the water so you can’t get close to it but it was cool to see it. It was built in 1870 something but it was the third lighthouse put in that spot. This little area is pretty deserted so it was kind of surreal to stand there and think about someone standing in the same place more than 100 years ago and seeing the same thing.

By this time I was getting hungry. We went to IHOP and found out that the wait was 15 minutes. We were already a little iffy on the whole thing because we would rather eat at a little diner that isn’t a chain but we weren’t sure if we would find one quick enough haha. I get cranky when I am hungry. But we decided to keep on trekking and see what we could find. Literally half a mile down the road we came across a diner called The Early Bird Diner. Miraculously, we found a parking spot and ventured on in. I had heard that chicken and waffles was a southern thing, but I had also heard that it wasn't very good. When we got there the waitress told us that they were famous for theirs, so we decided to give it a shot. Correction: Rusty decided to give it a shot. I thought that was great because I could try it and then have to be stuck with it. :) But honestly his was way better. Way, way better. Which is weird. But I do, I love chicken and waffles for breakfast.

After a good ol' southern breakfast we drove out to Edisto Island and played at the beach there. This was definitely a new beach for us; it was completely different from the other ones. There were a ton of seashells, in fact the sand didn't start until further away from the ocean. Closer to the waves were big shells which hurt. And all of a sudden the ground dropped off, so to get in the water you had to leap off the ground and just jump in: like a swimming pool. I think that was my favorite part. Anyways, we were trying to body surf but it just kept picking me up and carrying me and then throwing me down on the shells. The first time I was so shocked I just stood there with seashells covering my whole body. Rusty laughed so hard that it happened to him too (karma) and that ended our attempts at body surfing. After that we just floated around and swam and body surfed far away from shore haha.

On our drive home we stopped at the Edisto River (which I think I wrote about already) but I had never seen. It was... actually pretty gross. All brown water. And who knows what lives in there.

Hahaha this is Rusty's reaction to the water.

Fresh Shrimp

The last week that we were in Charleston we decided to do our own cookin. We went to a seafood place and bought a pound of fresh shrimp to take home and cook... which was way more than we needed. But delicious none the less. It was cool to be able to buy seafood that had just come off the boat that morning.

Well, there is probably more but I can't think of anything right now. I'll add on later if I remember :)