Picnic at Angel Oak

Today after church, John and I headed out to Angel Oak to have a picnic. Angel Oak is a famous live oak tree on John's Island that is 1,500 years old (supposedly the oldest thing, living or man-made, east of the rockies). I've been wanting to see the tree for a while now, so I packed a picnic lunch for John and I to have a Sunday afternoon date.

Unfortunately, we got to the tree about noon and it doesn't open until 1 pm on Sundays (yes, the tree has hours. It needs its rest, too.)

So we took our picnic to a nearby park and lunched there while we waited.

Yum! Sandwiches and pasta salad!

The weather was actually very nice in the shade and we enjoyed sitting by the quite pond and chatting over our lunch. Plus it was free! Hooray for cheap dates!

After a nice lingering lunch in the shade, we headed back to the tree. And here she is:

Oooo! Twisty!

We were actually very surprised at how not-tall the tree was. What it lacks in height it makes up for in canopy though. We learned the live oak has a diameter of spread reaching 160 feet and the trunk's circumference is nearly 25 feet.

While we were at the beautiful site, we also had a mini photo shoot because I need a new "Letter from the Editor" picture for my new job. My first issue as editor of Where Charleston magazine comes out in September! Woohoo!

One attempt during the photo shoot. It was actually very challenging to get a shot that didn't have a ton of tourists in the background.

John and all his tourist friends

Crazy tree limbs everywhere!

What a great afternoon in Angel Oak's shade.

Surviving Irene

As the weather maps showed Hurricane Irene inching closer and closer to South Carolina earlier this week, I was getting a little nervous. Charleston hasn't been hit by a major hurricane in 6 or 7 years and I was really hoping that didn't mean one was due. People around here still talk about the destruction of Hurricane Hugo and that hit the Lowcountry in 1989.

So early in the week, John and I stocked up on the hurricane essentials just in case. Unlike the bread and milk routine of Oklahoma's ice storms - hurricane hoarding is all about water and batteries.

Here's some of our loot. Lots of water, diet coke (of course) and some baby wipes — if we can't shower for a couple days I wanted some way to stay clean. We also got some canned food, which we stored in the pantry, filled our cars up with gas and got some cash from the ATM.

Turns out all our planning was for nothing though because Irene sailed on past Charleston without so much as a thunderstorm. Early Friday morning it started raining and we continued to get several showers throughout the day as rain bands from the hurricane came inland.

View of King Street from my office window during a downpour.

It stopped raining about 3 pm and that was all we got. Some power went out in some parts of Charleston because wind messed with the power lines. But let me tell you, the wind here from Irene was just a typical windy day in Oklahoma. It was nothing.

John got home from work early so we decided to go down to Folly to see what kind of waves Irene was kicking up.

Monsters! I've never seen waves so big on Folly Beach. John went in with the boogie board, but I was too scared. The waves looked huge and the current was too strong for me.

Here's a video I took that shows the waves a little more:

At high tide, the waves were pushing right up against the dunes near the houses. No more beach!

Me observing safely from my concrete perch

Several surfers were attempting to ride the waves. Some more successfully than others.

Concert on the beach

This weekend John and I went to see Jack's Mannequin and Guster in concert at what might have been the most fun concert venue ever. The concert was in Charleston at Patriot's Point. Until we arrived, all we knew was that it would be an outdoor concert. When we got there, we found out it was actually a concert on the beach...

A pic of the concert venue before it got packed with people.

Complete with a little tiki hut bar off to the side.

The concert was directly behind the Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina and was right next to the water. The weather was great and we loved digging our toes in the sand and listening to some good music.

Now, a Jack's Mannequin concert has more meaning to us than just any other old concert. For those of you who don't know, John and I met at a Something Corporate concert in Oklahoma City when I was 16 and he was 18. We were devoted Something Corporate fans until they broke up and the lead singer formed the band Jack's Mannequin. Now we love that band just as much. And their music is great! You should check them out.

Since that first fateful Something Corporate concert where we met, we have done everything we can to make it to any SoCo/Jack's Mannequin concert that performs within reasonable traveling distance from us.

For my 18th birthday (actually on the day of birth), we went with a group of friends to Columbia, Missouri to see SoCo live. That concert was great not only because it was on my birthday, but also because we met the lead singer Andrew after the show and he autographed a playlist for me wishing me a happy birthday (still framed in our house.)

Here's the scanned picture of us at the concert (originally taken with a disposable camera of course.) Don't I look so punk rock?

We saw Jack's Mannequin in concert for the first time in 2009. We found out they'd be playing in Tulsa just a few days before the concert date, which happened to be during John's pharmacy school finals week. Even though he had a test bright and early the next morning, we made the drive from OKC to Tulsa for the night of the concert.

And of course we met up with our favorite SoCo concert buddy Kirby.

Now two years later, we got to see our band again in our new hometown of Charleston. Of course we couldn't miss it!

2011 and we still love this band.

Lady Danville opened the show.

Waiting in our OU chairs set up by the sound booth for Jack's Mannequin to start.

Yeah, Jack's Mannequin! They played songs from their first two albums and a couple new ones from the new album coming out in October.

Every time I see Andrew dancing on the piano keys, I feel 16 again.

And finally Guster closed out the show. What a great night!

Haunted Charleston

My sister loves all things spooky. Her favorite TV show is Ghost Hunters and she loves walking through cemeteries ( I know, creepy.) So while she was here in Charleston, we did just the kind of spooky stuff she would love. Charleston is actually a perfect town for it. Because it's such an old city, there's a lot of old cemeteries and old ghost stories. A perfect combination for Sarah.

First up, we spent some time exploring some of the older cemeteries. Mom wanted to see the Circular Congregational Church (the building is circular, true to its name), but the sanctuary was closed so we just wandered through the cemetery instead. We found out later it's one of the oldest cemeteries in town as it was established in 1681.

Circular Congregational Church cemetery.

Mom and Sarah checking out the gravestones. Many of the markers were so old, the letters were faded making them hard to read.

Next we ducked down a side ally off of King Street that lead us to the the graveyard of the Unitarian Church. On our carriage tour, our tour guide told us the Unitarians let a garden grow up and around the gravestones in the cemetery to simulate the Garden of Eden. This overgrowth makes this graveyard even more spooky.

Mom, Larry and Sarah exploring the graveyard/garden.

Me trying not to freak out. Why am I here again?

Taking a breather and getting eaten alive by the vampires in the graveyard (aka hundreds of mosquitos).

The other thing Sarah really wanted to do while she was in town was go on a ghost tour of downtown Charleston. There are a lot of tour companies that offer such tours, but we went with Charleston's Original Ghost Hunt Walking Tour, who was mentioned in one of our tour books and it was great!

We met the tour in front of the custom house downtown. Spooky in its own right huh?

Our first stop was in "Bloody Alley," an old cobblestone alleyway that is rumored to have been the sight of many old time duels. Our tour guide told us that it was illegal to duel inside city limits, but if a confrontation broke out in the passion of the moment, the alley was the perfect spot for some illegal in-town dueling. Our guide said the alley is now known to be haunted by the men who died here, often tugging at the legs of the living who pass through on dark nights.

Sarah scared in bloody alley.

One of the other places we stopped was the cemetery at St. Phillip's Church, which is the home of one of Charleston's most famous ghosts, Sue Howard Hardy. Sue died in 1888 during childbirth and her baby died also.

Both Sue and the baby are buried in a grave together in St. Phillip's cemetery. This ghost became famous in 1987 when an amateur photographer happened to capture her image in a picture, coincidentally on the 99 year anniversary of her baby's death. And here's the famous picture!

Do you see the cloaked figure kneeling at the grave? It's said that is Sue, crying over her baby's grave.

This picture was taken in 1987. That's before the invention of Photoshop right?

Here's Mom's picture of inside the St. Phillip's graveyard. What is the strange orange light in the corner?!? (Cue "Twilight Zone" music.)

My favorite part of this story is that St. Phillip's Church got so fed up with all the ghost hunters drawn to their cemetery that they put up this sign...

Zing!

Second Sunday on King

Once a month, the city of Charleston shuts down the ever-popular King street to traffic and lets the pedestrians take over the pavement. This wonderful idea is called Second Sunday on King and John and I went to check it out today.

King Street is always fun to explore because of the many shops, boutiques, restaurants and speciality stores that line the street. But today was even better because we didn't have to worry about getting hit by a car. With the road blocked off to vehicles, the crowds took to the street. Many restaurants had tables out in the street, shops had sale racks on the side walk and street performers were jammin' on almost every corner.

Take that cars!

We had a great time just shopping around at the stores and checking out some shops we've never been in before. And FINALLY I got to try a popsicle from King of Pops...something I've been wanting to do forever now. It seems whenever I see this yummy food cart, I never have any cash or time to stop. But today, a popsicle was the perfect solution to a hot muggy afternoon.

King of Pops sells handmade gourmet popsicles made with fresh fruit and ingredients. Today I tried the grapefruit mint ( a little tart, but very refreshing) and John got the South Carolina Peach (made with local peaches). Both were great, but a word to the wise: eat fast! I was too slow apparently and mine started melting down my arm.

I recommend bites, not licks.

Later in the afternoon, we decided dessert wasn't enough and we needed some lunch. So where did we stop? None other than good old Pita Pit! Nothing like Pita Pit to make me feel like I'm back in college in Norman again. Sigh. Too bad this Pita Pit was a little more run down than the one in Norman. Eww. But the pitas and the memories were still great.

Aww just like our college days!

Gardens and swamps

Charleston is full of plantations and historic houses. So many in fact, it's hard to choose which one you should see. While the family was in town, we had to see at least one of them. Mom chose Magnolia Plantation and Gardens because not only is it a plantation, it also has famous gardens and a swamp tour!

Us in front of the plantation house before our tour.

Mom and Larry keeping cool on the veranda.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the house, so you'll have to take my word for it — it was a nice big house with some interesting furnishings and an extensive family history dating back to the 19th century. I liked the house tour (and gift shop for that matter) because it was air conditioned!

The rest of the beauty of this plantation was out on in the gardens...where it was not air conditioned unfortunately. Don't get me wrong, the gardens were absolutely beautiful and included several miles of winding trails with hidden gardens, alcoves, water vistas, cute gazebos and many many beautiful bridges. However, as much as I wanted to get into it, it was really hard to when I felt like I was melting. My advice: wait until spring to visit this plantation, when the weather is cooler and the flowers are in bloom.

Me and Sarah posing in a gazebo, or trying not to die in the heat, one of the two.

Us on one of the many beautiful bridges laying over the swampy water.

Larry in my favorite little garden. Loved the flowers and the Spanish moss, but I especially loved the little maze of hedges because it reminded me of the OU campus :) Sigh.

Although we were all dying from the heat, apparently the critters didn't seem to mind. We spotted many animals, birds and reptiles on our tour of the gardens. Got to give mom props for the pictures, I was too hot to worry about my camera.

Mossy turtles

We saw many of these birds

We also saw several beautiful peacocks

Mom, Larry and I braved the heat to also go on the swamp tour. I wanted to see an alligator! Unfortunately, I just got bit by a lot of swamp mosquitoes. We did find an old slave cemetery in the swamp though that was pretty neat and spooky. And one more critter I was not happy to encounter....

Ahhh!