Southern Swing, May 2010, Day 4 - Charleston

I know it sounds strange, but today we are going to go to bed in the same city where we woke up. In fact, today is close to a completely normal day. The entire day is built around the Friday rehearsal dinner, which precedes the Saturday wedding. In essence, everything we do today is built around going to a Carolina BBQ rehearsal dinner. Everything.

We could not go all day without eating, and on the first block across from our hotel is Cafe Cafe. There was no hesitation when we decided to get breakfast here.

Breakfast in Charleston. Between you can me, I have had a better waffle. But looks great, which is almost more important to the Waste than being great.

Across the street from Cafe Cafe, and across from our hotel, is this. The Daughters of the Confederacy building. I, um, well, whatever.

Our hotel is in a tight district surrounded by historical churches.

I skipped the church picture, but snapped a picture of the graveyard. I am going to go out on a limb and say that it was healthier, psychologically, to have the graveyard next to the place of worship. I know it is impractical for large congregations to keep there dead close. I mean, space is space. But keeping your ancestors next to you when you talk to your God makes more sense to me than sticking them far away from your everyday life.

Who knew? The fourth oldest Jewish congregation in the USA, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim. Can you believe that architecture? Who knew that the Charleston was going to feature so many tributes to the Parthenon of Athens; Christian, Jewish and secular.

Charleston Place, presented to you by a Price is Right model.

Why exactly is water squirting out of the backs of the horses' heads?

Time to hit the hotel room and clean up for the evening. In a few hours we are supposed to hop onto the transportation that takes us to the BBQ.

Talk about a sweet ride. Not sure if you can tell, but this party bus is equipped with everything a bachelor party needs.

We arrived at the home of one of the Groom's friends, on the outside of Charleston where people have their waterside homes.

How is that for a back yard? As you can see, the children move more quickly on the planks/catwalk/whatever than we adults.

The same view, but using an iPhone app to transport me to 1857 when all photographs were sepia.

There you have it, a Carolina back yard. Park your boat and walk to the house over the marsh. Incredibly cool. I do not see how they keep kids out of the marshes, even with threats of alligators. One was spotted, but not by me.

Sometimes you look at the sky and think, "I wish I had a camera." This is why all phones include cameras now. Someone somewhere has the statistic, but I would guess that more pictures were taken with phones in the last few years than taken on film in the previous fifty years.

I have fun tweaking photos on the computer, and this picture called out for a vignette effect.

Redundant, I know, but this time I walked up the steps of the home to get a shot with the sunset as well as the tables for the BBQ. By the way, I should mention that the BBQ was delicious and I ate approximately four pounds of pulled pork.

Back at the hotel... where else but the hotel bar? We have now met wonderful people from Denver, New York, and even Norway. All friends of the Bride and Groom. And Los Angeles. We have met new people from there, too.

Tomorrow... as I prefer to pronounce it, the weeding.