Seeking Warmth Jan.- Feb. 2025

 Jan. 18- Charleston SC

Unloading in the dark, and I might say colder than I expected, I dropped a 10 pound exercise dumbbell on my left big toe.

 

Jan. 20- Walking tour of Charleston. Two Sisters tour was off due to MLK Day. This is the page about Charleston and the slave trade and Ryan's Slave Market from Demon of Unrest.

 

Jan. 21- Lunch at Magnolia with Fred Monk, Cliff and Diane. Ice and snow expected that afternoon into the evening. 

 

Jan. 22- Snowed in for the 22nd and 23rd. It started to melt on the 23rd and the ice came off the roof onto the top of my car, creating a huge dent.

 

Jan. 24- To Jacksonville FL for dinner with Matthew and Jessica. Met their bulldog, Stanley.

 

Jan. 25- To Palm Beach.

 

Jan. 26- Hot dog panini from Buccan.

 

Jan. 28- Visited the Manatee Center at the FP&L plant 

 

Jan. 29- Stuart Lyric Theatre for the documentary Uncharitable and a short walk around Stuart. Crazy intersection over the train tracks.

Feb. 1- Visit to the Loggerhead Marine Recovery Center in Juno. They had to rescue 22 Ridley turtles from the New England Aquarium and bring them to FL since they were "cold stunned".

 

  18-20 inch snook caught on Tenkara off the back of the boat. Fishing could not get better than that.

Feb. 6- Sadly it was time to begin the return trip home. First stop was the Amelia Island Williams House B&B in Fernandina Beach. Nice Inn. Bedposts were from the stairs of a Jacksonville Mansion. Shrimp nachos and gumbo for dinner. Veronica was a great hostess. The breakfast at the inn was great- some kind of pear and then baked egg. 

Feb. 7- Next stop- Beaufort SC at the Rhett House. Again a good B&B. Went to a place called Panini's for dinner and had a Southern Gentleman. Another place in town calls the same sandwich an Ooie Gooie. Basically a grilled pimento cheese and bacon. We wandered town after dinner and found Nevermore Books. Placed a search on for my missing James Bond and the Pat Conroy I am seeking. 

Feb. 8- Janet's Walking tour of Beaufort= 5 stars plus. Our group was mostly a bunch of Eagle fans who came down to watch the Super Bowl with a buddy who had a house there. They were happy on the tour and even happier I guess Sunday night.

Janet started talking about Parris Island and the Marine graduation ceremonies. She asked if any in our group had served in the armed services. I held up my little finger and saw I was the only one. Draft number 4 gets unwanted attention again.

 

Quote from Robert Smalls, a slave who was a Union hero during the Civil War, and then had a career in politics after that. He bought his former owner's house for back taxes but then let his former mistress live there when she came home after the war. See below for the Smalls marker with more of his story.

Barbra Streisand rented this house while she was making Prince of Tides. Jets from the Marine base flew over a lot and she protested to the base commander about the noise. he said that was the price of freedom and the jet flights got lower and lower over her house.

This is the marker next to the house where three Rhett cousins decided SC needed to secede from the US.

Big Chill House

Janet telling us about the early history of Beaufort.

Harriett Tubman was a Union spy in Beaufort. B was a Union hospital town. She was listening to the towns folk.

This is a huge Live Oak. 

This is the marker for the two houses next to each other. One was a dependency of the other. One was used in The Great Santini and the other The Big Chill movie.

This is the African church where Forrest Gump sings in the choir in the movie.

Smalls marker next to his grave site and the quote above.

What Pat Conroy had to say about Beaufort in The Water is Wide:

 I'd definitely go back and go on Janet's tour again. I'd also like more time to wander the streets.

After our tour we drove to NC and then on to Richmond the next day to see R's piano recital which was fantastic. We got here just in time for a snow and ice storm.

 

 

Duke vs UVA in Charlottesville

Dinner at Revolutionary Soups. Visited yarn shop and Blue Whale books in the Cville pedestrian mall.

Ball game. Went using JD's tickets along with Steve and Cheryl Valentine.

 

Duke won. 5 3s for Isaiah Evans.

A loud mouth guy one row up got thrown out of the game for cursing at the ref. Apparently he gets thrown out pretty often.

Met and talked to Cory Alexander, former UVA star and now an ESPN announcer. 

 

Noted that Kyle Guy is now on UVA team staff as mentor. he looked bored and missing being a player.

T and G paid big bucks for nose bleed seats and left early- seats were no good. 

Fun time. The college kids really look young.