I ran 2691m before falling to my death on my iPod touch. http://www.canabalt.com/
Beach, BBQs and Birthdays
For those of you who are fans of The Office tv show this title is an homage to Dwight’s “Beets, Bears, Battlestar Galactica” phrase. Although it obviously has nothing to do with that. I realized this whole month of May has suddenly disappeared. It started out with our anniversary trip to Charleston SC and since then we have been busy traveling nearly every weekend.
A few weeks ago we took our first trip of the season to the beach. We stayed in Atlantic Beach for the night. After some delicious seafood at The Sanitary restaurant we took the dog for a walk on the beach before calling it a night. This was Peppers first experience with the beach. She wasn’t sure what to think at first. The next day we spent a few hours enjoying the sun. The water was way too cold to get in. We learned that Pepper is not very fond of the waves at the ocean. Not sure if she is scared of the sound or the way it moves or both. Nevertheless she still enjoyed digging tons of holes in the sand and then laying in them to stay cool. That black fur gets hot in the sun pretty quickly. The main purpose of the beach trip was to visit Lauren’s grandparents who live in that area. It had been a while since we had payed them a visit. After spending a couple hours visiting with them it was time to head home.
The following weekend we celebrated my sister’s birthday with her friends. She wanted to go to one of their local favorites. A sushi restaurant down the street from our house. Lauren and I were newbies to the whole sushi scene. With over 50 types of rolls to choose from on the menu we were thankful to have the expert advice of Heather and Wylie to explain our options and offer helpful suggestions. Unfortunately when it came to operating chopsticks properly I clearly failed regardless of the several people who helped give me instructions. I did the best I could. I must say Lauren and I were both pleasantly surprised at how good the food was. I think we had Philadelphia, California, and sweet potato sushi rolls. Nothing too exotic for our first time. It was fun sampling others dishes including Eel. It sounds disgusting but was actually one of the best things we tried that night. Everyone agreed it tasted like catfish. To finish the evening off we celebrated with their green tea ice cream complete with a birthday candle.
Since it was a long 3-day weekend for Memorial Day Lauren and I decided to host a BBQ cookout at our house that Saturday with some of our friends. It was kind of a last minute deal but it worked out well. After spending a few hours cleaning up our poor, neglected house and grabbing some groceries we started to feel like we had things in order. I got the speakers hooked up on the back porch as part of our dinner entertainment. I even found this cool program to let us wirelessly control the iTunes playlist on a laptop streaming to the stereo in the living room. After a couple hours enjoying dinner outdoors we headed inside to avoid the insects. That meant it was time to fire up the Xbox for some Rock Band. You can’t have a party without Rock Band right? Always a good time.
On Sunday it was back to the beach again. This time Mom and Mike got a condo for the whole week and they were kind enough to invite us down for a day or two. We met up with them Sunday afternoon to celebrate my sister’s birthday as a family. We spent the evening enjoying some great fresh seafood for dinner and then proceeded to play several board games. I am notoriously bad at most games that don’t involve a controller in my hand and a TV screen but I have learned to embrace that fact over the years. I had my teammates and opponents cracking up at my odd answers in Catchphrase. While my team only won one game out of 10 or more we all had a great time. There was also an old school Super Nintendo in the condo with a copy of NBA Jam. That proved to be more my speed and offered up some great nostalgia. The next day we stayed in the sun as long as we could bare it ( a few hours). Even though the water was colder than I would have liked, 68 degrees, that didn’t stop Lauren from swimming in it. After a little convincing I finally joined her. Once your in you adjust or just become so numb you can’t feel anything anymore. After the beach we headed back to the condo for lunch and then made the long drive back home. Traffic was heavier due to it being Memorial Day weekend.
This past weekend we mixed things up and took a break from the beach. Friday night Lauren and I went to dinner and a movie. I have been bugging her about Star Trek since it first released weeks ago and she finally agreed. Of course it had been downgraded to smaller, non-digital screen so we opted to go with Disney Pixar’s “UP” to get our moneys worth. Not only was it digital but it was also 3D. It was our first experience with a movie that used this new Dolby Digital 3D technology. It is such a world of difference from the cheezy 3D technology used back when I was a kid and before. No more green and red cardboard glasses. No more blurry images or headaches. Best of all the entire movie was in 3D not just a “special section”. Even the previews were in 3D. The movie itself was a lot of fun and was a great way to demonstrate 3D in a full length film. While I liked Ratatouille and loved Wall-E I could see where both of those films were geared more towards adults than children. Especially the slow openings. UP was a perfect balance for both adults and kids. I won’t ruin the plot other than to say you go on an exciting adventure with an old man and a boy scout as they float his house with balloons to paradise. Along the way you meet a crazy cast of charecters and face all kinds of circumstances and obstacles. While its not my favorite Pixar movie of all time or anything it was very enjoyable and I can recommend it to everyone interested. Especially for the 3D aspect.
Saturday we headed to Fayetteville for Alan’s birthday (Lauren’s brother). Her grandma prepared a huge pot of steamed crab legs with all the fixin’s. We never grow tired of seafood. After stuffing ourselves completely we had plenty of time to relax on the screened porch and catch up on the latest with everyone. Of course there was also cake and presents mixed in there. As usual Pepper came along for the weekend and was thankfully much more well behaved than last time we visited for Easter. Although she managed to find something nasty in the backyard and rolled in it until she smelled like manure. A quick bath solved that problem before loading her up in the car and returning to Lauren’s mom’s house. The next day after church I took it easy while Lauren and her mom did a little shopping. Then it was time to say our goodbyes and head home.
Needless to say the month of May has been really busy for us on the weekends with lots of traveling. Of course isn’t that what summer is all about. A few other things that have been going on. Lauren and I have both been more actively participating in our church. I have volunteered at least once a month to help run the computer and video projection system used during worship. Lauren has also begun singing up on stage with the praise band every few weeks. Speaking of church there have been plenty of young couples our age and younger who have just had their first child. That means that Lauren has also been busy in May attending several baby showers and a few weeks later visiting the newborns and their new parents. She has also had the opportunity to expand her child photography portfolio with some amazing shoots. You can see more on her site. There are lots of exciting things coming up this month in June but I will save those for another post.
Scan My Photos
As I recall it a year or two ago I was visiting over at mom’s house when someone got out the photo albums and old stacks of photos. We probably spent a couple hours that night flipping through them and enjoying the memories they brought back. Of course most of these photos were not in albums and not organized in any way. They were also the one and only copy of most of the photos since all the negatives dissapeared somewhere long ago. Im sure most people can relate to this scenario. I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be nice if we had all these photos on the computer. It seemed like a great idea at the time.
That evening I packed up several boxes and albums full of thousands upon thousands of photos and took them home with me to scan. For a few weeks when I had spare time during the evening I sorted through the mountain of photos and made two piles. One for the photos I deemed worthy of scanning. The other pile was the photos that were deemed unworthy of scanning. Most of these were rare duplicates, damaged or underdeveloped and just plain bad or boring photos. I guess before the age of digital cameras you never really knew if you took a bad picture before having them developed. Now that my piles were sorted I decided several weekends later to start scanning them. After less than an hour I only had a handfull of photos scanned. At this rate it would take an eternity to scan all of these photos. I quickly realized the flatbed scanner on our home computer was not going to cut it. Waaaaaay to slow and inefficient. Needless to say I abondoned the project completely for over a year.
As time went on I ran across a few digital photo scanning services online. All of them described the process in 3 easy steps. 1. Ship us your photos. 2. We scan them. 3. We mail back photos and photo CD. Of course when I read the fine print it was a bit more complicated. Many of these services had outsourced the scanning work overseas. Not only did this mean taking jobs from Americans but it also meant a risky international shipment of our precious photos. Just the thought of sending all those photos across the country made me nervous. There was no way I was sending them halfway across the world. Pricing also became an issue since all the companies averaged $0.30 per scanned photo. With 900 photos to scan that quickly got expensive. Yet again I put the whole project on the back burner for months.
A few weeks ago I realized Mothers Day was around the corner. I decided to get serious about finding a way to scan all these photos and turn them into a Mothers Day gift this year. After more research I ran across this company simply named ScanMyPhotos.com While their website design was not very impressive their resume was. They had been around since 1990 (yes before digital photos existed) and they had glowing reviews from reliable sources like David Pogue at the NY Times. What really sold it was their ultra cheap $0.03 per scan price. I decided to give them a go. I followd the instructions and shipped the photos out the week before Mothers Day. I paid a little extra for shipping to CA since I was short on time. 2 days later my photos arrived at their headquarters as I received a confirmation email from them. Before I left work that same day I received another email that my photos were done scanning and the whole package with digital photos were being shipped back to me. I got them before the weekend and just in time for Mothers Day. Total cost under $100 including shipping. Needless to say when I shared this gift with mom and pulled up all the photos on the computer she was blown away. I highly recommend them to anyone interested in saving their photos.
Now we each have a copy on our computers and backed up on discs. If anything were to ever happen to the originals (fire, flood, theft, etc…) they will never be entirely lost forever. Its a great piece of mind and a great way to share long lost memories with friends and family. Just a warning if you see embarassing pictures of yourself from our school days show up on Facebook you will know why.
Welcome To Charleston Ya'll
Every year for our anniversary Lauren and I decide to celebrate with a 3-day mini vacation. Last year we took a trip to Ocracoke Island. This year Charleston, SC was our choice for our 2nd anniversary. This was my first trip to the city after wanting to visit it for years. Lauren had been there before a couple times. We reserved a hotel in North Charleston and got a great deal since we booked a couple months early. After making the long 4.5 hour drive from my office we crashed and prepared for our weekend ahead. We decided not to make any formal itinerary which helped us to relax even more. No need to worry about sticking to a strict schedule the next few days. We just came and went as we pleased and it worked out very well.
Food
One great thing about being on vacation is not needing to cook or cleanup after yourself. The hotel we stayed at offered a great hot breakfast for free every morning. It was pretty impressive with eggs, sausage, waffles and more. This saved on time and money. It also gave us the energy we needed to make it through a few long days. While we toured the plantations we took advantage of their fresh open air markets with hand made sandwiches and snacks. It offered a great picnic like environment and allowed us to cool off in the shade. In the evenings we dressed up and headed downtown for dinner. The first night we enjoyed the Southend Brewery and Smokehouse. The second night chose a local favorite. The Charleston Crab House for great seafood. Lauren enjoyed the southern classic Shrimp & Grits. I chose the popular Crab Cakes which were perfect.
Drinks
During one of our tours of a local plantation we stopped in at the nearby Irvin House Vineyards for a sampling of their 5 different offerings. They use all muscadine grapes which offered a great compromise between Lauren’s sweet whites and my bitter reds. We found a bottle we both enjoyed called Live Oak Reserve. We also learned off a fast growing side business in a very popular creation that started just last year. It is their Firefly series of flavored vodka with the most popular one being their Sweet Tea Vodka. Evidently it is all the rage and is already sold in all 50 states. Of course no samples were available due to lack of permits and other legal reasons. Although we did get to try some as we stopped in for a quick drink at the roof top bar downtown one night. Probably one of the best views of the city at night.
Charleston Tea Plantation
A large portion of our time was spent touring a few of the local plantations in the area. The first of three was the Charleston Tea Plantation which turns out to be the only tea plantation in America. In the past few years I have become a big fan of all types of tea and drink it all the time instead of sodas. It was cool to take a tour of the factory and learn how they harvest and process the tea. There were also samples to try. I couldn’t leave without buying a few tins including their famous peach tea, “American” tea, and newly produced green tea. All great choices.
Middleton Place Plantation
The second plantation we toured at Middleton Place was no longer a working plantation. It used to be the regions largest rice plantation. Now it serves as a historic plantation for tourists. There were over 6,500 acres of property to explore including an Inn and Equestrian center that we did not visit. We walked all around the gardens which unfortunately had mostly finished blooming in March this year. There were still plenty of beautiful views of the Live Oaks leaning all along the waterfront. A picture perfect location. There were also many original historic buildings on site. Several people there were dressed in period clothing and taught us information about their craft as it was done in the 18th and 19th centuries. There was also plenty of animals from sheep grazing the fields to horses in their area and a few chickens running loose. While we did not take advantage of their official tour guides we did enjoy wandering around on our own and seeing what interested us.
Boone Hall Plantation
The last plantation was Boone Hall. This is a very popular spot due to the long row of Live Oaks leading to the plantations entrance. There are 90 oaks planted symmetrically along the driveway creating a breathtaking view like no other. This area has been photographed many times before in different movies over the years. The day we were visiting it was also hosting a wedding and reception. While visiting we got to tour the plantation home and butterfly gardens. There were also 6 original slave quarters still standing that offered a powerful message using the full timeline of slavery’s history in America. This timeline spanned from the birth of slavery in the 1600s through the Civil War to Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement and finished with an excerpt from President Obamas inauguration speech.
The City of Charleston
With nearly 350 years of history in the city of Charleston there are countless number of things to do and see and learn. Certainly much more than anyone can absorb in just one weekend. Lauren and I took our time walking all over the historic downtown district. I enjoyed the rich architectural homes the most and the various styles ranging from the popular greek revival to the occasional victorian and a mix of everything in between. Each one was unique from the one right next to it. There were also plenty of parks and piers and fountains to be enjoyed while walking around. We made a few trips through the city market in search of souvenirs. Saturday evening we booked a haunted ghost harbor tour. We heard a handful of spooky stories about real pirates that were killed in the city and their ghosts that still haunt people today. It was also a great opportunity to float around on a boat and see the city and the bridge from a distance at night. Very cool experience. Another fun tour we managed to squeeze in was a carriage ride on Sunday morning before we left for home. Our tour guide was a local who lived there all his life and he knew every single detail there was to the history of the city. It was amazing all the things we learned in just 1 hours time.
The City of Charleston is such a beautiful place, especially this time of year. There is lots of southern hospitality to go around. Everyone seems very laid back and the pace of life is slow and steady. Sounds like my kinda place. Lauren and I are both so glad we had the opportunity to visit this city together. It was such a nice way to get away from everything and relax together for a few days. There are still so many more things we would like to see that we have a list for the next time we visit (whenever that may be). Until then enjoy the slideshow of photos from our trip.
