Cookies and a pedicure

This past week was long and exhausting at work, and I didn't even have to travel...I coordinated my first (ever) data workshop for my first full stock assessment.  To celebrate a successful workshop and the return of nice weather - I got a pedicure today!  In a couple of weeks I have to go to another data workshop in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands.  It's going to be a hardship to travel somewhere so tropical and beautiful, but I'm sure I'll manage.  :) 

I was also in the mood to bake cookies, which is rare for me.  I dredged up an old recipe for Lemon Meltaways, a very tender frosted lemon cookie that I've tried to make in the past but hadn't had much success.  In the past the dough was too crumbly to make a cookie, although the flavor was always great.  I did a bit of searching online and found this recipe from Land O'Lakes.  The dough came together really well - not too crumbly.  I think the key was really soft, but not at all melted, butter.  Steve's not a huge fan of lemon cookies, so I won't make them often, but I will make them again.  The only downside is that these are too delicate to survive the trip to work with Steve on the motorcycle - we usually share treats with the people he works with so we don't have to keep them around the house.

Friday night out

The weather for the past week has been horrible - temps in the mid-80s and really, really humid and windy.  We saw very little rain from the storms that slammed most of the south, but it was unusually hot and humid for April.  So, when the storms finally passed and cooler temps and lower humidity came back, we decided to enjoy it!  We headed downtown to Taco Boy for dinner (and margaritas!).  They have a fabulous outdoor patio. 

After dinner we had about an hour to kill before going to the improv comedy show at Theater 99 so we wandered around downtown.  Charleston is a bit too small to have a "real" comedy club (with touring performers and such), so this is our local alternative.  The Theater is small - maybe 100-150 old movie-theater style seats - and there's not really a bad seat in the house.  And it's only $10 to get in and no minimum food/beverage purchase required.  In fact, there's a small concession stand in the "lobby" that sells soda, beer, wine and snacks that are actually reasonably priced.  They encourage audience ideas for the different skits (thus the improv part) and one of the first skits they were looking for a destination.  I shouted out "Fargo!" at the same time someone else said "Taco Bell!".  So the destination for the skit was a Taco Bell in Fargo.  They even threw in a few "you betcha's".  It was pretty funny.  Overall, the show was good and we would go back. 

Homemade pizza

I like to cook - I find it relaxing.  I like to be creative and use recipe as a guideline, not a rule.  Tonight I made pizza, something I probably make more than anything else, and because I make it so often I get lax in my 'recipe' for the dough.  I no longer measure anything, instead tossing flour, sugar, salt, and yeast into a bowl and adding water until it feels right.  Sometimes when we're in a hurry I don't let it rise long, but tonight Steve had to work late and the dough had time for two rises and a rest before baking.  The result was spectacular - chewy crust, with just enough salt.  Pizza is usually something we make with whatever's in the fridge - so tonight it was a combination of red bell pepper, onion, green olives, fresh herbs, crumbled feta and fresh mozzarella.  And it was very good.

 Dessert was equally good - sticky rice with fresh mango, drizzled with sweetened coconut cream.  It's not as visually appealing as the pizza, so you'll have to let your imagination run with it.

Easter kayaking

Lake Moultrie is a shallow lake about an hour from our house.  The Pinopolis Dam is on the east side of the lake and when they built it, the lake flooded thousands of acres.  You can still see stumps in the water today.  We headed up there this morning for a kayaking trip and were surprised to see that it was cool and cloudy at the lake...it was sunny and warm back at the house.  Even though it was foggy we saw several egrets, herons, cormorants, and coots, and a big fish that kept jumping out of the water ahead of our boats!

As we headed out this morning we discussed how it might be fun to come back with our wetsuits and snorkels since the lake is really shallow and you might be able to see some cool fish (someone caught a 58 lb catfish here once).  About an hour later we saw three huge alligators within 15 minutes of each other and changed our mind about the snorkeling.  I was freaked out enough seeing them from our kayaks!  Apparently they can get to 12 or 13 feet long here in the lake.  I'm not interested in seeing them any closer, thank you very much.

 Here's one of the hundreds of old stumps in the lake.  I think all the underwater habitat makes it a great place for young fish.  It would also make it very tricky for bigger boats. 

A preview of our Easter plans...

Easter Parade

I chalk this up as an "Only in Charleston" type experience...  While we were walking downtown this morning we passed an Easter Parade (complete with police escort), with a woman singing (about Easter bonnets and Easter parades) and ladies, gentlemen, and children dressed in their Easter finest.  I think it would be terribly uncomfortable walking in high heels in such a parade, but they did it.
The music:

 We loved this little girls pink hair barrettes:

 Look at the fancy hats!

Botany Bay, SC

Botany Bay is a gorgeous wildlife management area about 1 hour south of Charleston.  It was private property that was donated to the state.  The park has a beautiful tree lined drive and a 5 or 6 mile driving loop on the property.  However, the highlight of the park is the beach - where shell and artifact collecting is strictly prohibited.  The result is a spectacular collection of shells, 6-10 inches deep in places, that make the beach one of the finest in South Carolina.  We took Jane there and she loved it.  The walk to the beach is about 1/2 mile through salt marshes.  There's great bird watching and thousands of fiddler crabs on the walk.

After exploring the beach for an hour or so we headed on towards Savannah.  There was a nice arts festival down on the riverwalk and it was fun to browse through the stalls.  We finished off the day with a drive through some of the rest Savannah's highlights (the public squares and parks) and headed home.  It was a fun but tiring day!

The long entrance to the Botany Bay property is lined with live oaks.

Once inside the park, the pace is slow and you can enjoy the vivid green grass and the remains of old historical buildings and wells.

 Fiddler crabs line the side of the path to the beach.

 Steve and Jane reading about the salt marsh habitat.

 Steve was explaining to Jane about how palm trees grow, and why the 'groomed' trees in the city look different from those in the wild.

 Jane looking at shells on the beach.

Cypress Gardens

Despite the warm temperatures and potential for rain we headed out to Moncks Corner to visit Cypress Gardens this afternoon.  We took a self-guided boat tour through the cypress swamp, then visited the butterfly gardens, the exotic birds (parrots, really) and the 'Swamparium' (aquarium).

On the way to the park we stopped at a Wildlife Management Area on Lake Moultrie and found a place we'd like to come back to and explore with the kayaks:

At Cypress Gardens there's 3.5 miles of hiking trails in addition to the boat trail.  

Steve and Jane were patient while I took lots of pictures.  And I'll admit that Steve did 90% of the paddling.

 

This big alligator was sunning on a log.  We doubled back to get a better look.

 The water lillies were blooming!

 Jane got in the spirit and posed for a photo.

 This little (~2 foot) alligator was hiding in the weeds just a foot off the trail.

Carriage ride and grilling out

Steve and Jane took a carriage ride through downtown this morning.  I had to work, so I didn't get to go along, but they said it was really fun.  The hour-long tour takes one of several routes from the area near the city market down to the Battery, then back. They were in the first row behind the guide and were first in line for a giant, loud horse fart.  Note to tourists - if you see a half tennis ball with a flag on the street, don't pick it up. 

After the carriage tour they walked to Monza on King Street for lunch.  Monza is a great pizza restaurant in town - really thin crust, inventive ingredients, and cooked in a wood-fired oven.  It's one of our favorite places.

Because of the fabulous weather we grilled out for dinner - Thai grilled chicken (best recipe I've ever made), grilled corn on the cob, roasted green beans and homemade bread and pralines for dessert.  The best part of the night was when Steve went out to start the grill.  He came back to the house really excited holding the charcoal starter chimney in his hand - with a giant lizard in it!  It didn't seem very afraid of us and we took several pictures before it jumped out onto the side of the house.  We've never seen one like it around the house before and will have to look it up in  guide book.  

 Steve was chief grillmaster for the night.

Jane's in town!

Steve's mom Jane arrived this afternoon for her first visit to Charleston.  We love having guests because Charleston is such a great town to show off.  We all hopped in the truck and headed down to Folly Beach for a short sight-seeing drive, a walk on the beach, then dinner at Rita's.  It was a gorgeous night and there's still plenty of flowers blooming so the breeze smells amazing.  We'll have pictures and more adventures to post about in the next couple of days as we do more exploring.

Lunch

I just ate an entire avacado for lunch. I think I overdosed. If I puke it's gonna be really ugly.

Photos from Japan

I posted a small subset of the 1200 photos I took in Japan on my Flickr site.  You can access the site from the link at the bottom of this blog.  The photos aren't in any chronological order, but most have a title or short description. 

This is one of my favorite photos.  Tami and I were in Kamakura, a city that is just a short trip south from Tokyo.  While visiting one of the many temples and shrines we came across a wedding and these two women were part of the wedding group.

First post - Day trip to Savannah, GA

We've started a blog so when people say "What have you been up to" we can actually remember, and have pictures to share!  Today we decided to kick things off right with a trip to Savannah, GA.  It's a city only about 2 hours from Charleston, so it's perfect for a day trip.  We've been there several times, but always on foot...so today we packed up the bicycles and headed out to explore.  There were two things I wanted to do - try Angel's BBQ and make a stop at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge just outside Savannah.

Angel's is a place I've heard about, but never tried.  I had also heard that it's difficult to find.  They were right.  Steve and I biked all over trying to find the address - 21 West Oglethorpe Lane.  Our first problem is that we were searching for it on Oglethorpe Ave.  Clearly that wasn't working out.  We stopped to consult Steve's phone and headed off for Oglethorpe LANE, but after several blocks, still no luck.  Turns out we had headed off in the wrong direction.  We finally did find it, and it was closed.  The website had indicated they were open Sundays, but the sign in the door said "Open Tues-Sat, 11:30 am until we run out".  That's a good sign of good BBQ, in my book.  Maybe we'll get to it next time.  Our second choice for lunch was the Crystal Beer Parlor.  We split the pulled pork nachos and a reuben (both were awesome).

After lunch we biked for another hour or so.  Savannah has gorgeous neighborhoods, with cobbled streets huge live oak trees that shade the whole street.  It's Palm Sunday and tourists and locals were our en mass to enjoy the flawless blue sky, no humidity, and temps in the mid-70s.  Forsythe Park was busy and we stopped to pet several cute puppies.  We walked around a bit before we left too - picked up some of my favorite Savannah snack (pecan caramel corn from the Savannah Candy Kitchen). 

The fountain at Forsythe Park:

 Down by the riverfront:

On the way back home we stopped at the Savannah Wildlife Refuge.  It's free and in June the scenic road through the marshes opens back up.  We'll definitely be back to check it out because it seems like a great place to bird watch and kayak.  We pulled over at a couple of places and spotted lots of wild alligators, maybe a dozen or so.  A couple were pretty big, like this one: