Charleston, my kind of place.

I woke up around 7:30 to the sounds of the ocean waves crashing into the sand and the sea-gulls singing (if you can call it that) to greet the new day. I was still feeling tired, but that was to be expected after going to bed around 3am. I grabbed a quick shower and then moved a chair out to the balcony to do some reading and start the day off on the right foot. Chan and I decided that we should wake up Hickey by 8:30 so we could begin the travels for the day by 10. I gave the first attempt at stirring him by taking two of the hotel pillows and repeatedly hitting him with them for about 10 seconds solid. Surprisingly, this did nothing to move him towards consciousness. Chan then shook him and he finally came out of his coma. Chan and I left Hickey to begin his process of getting ready for the day and went to Walmart in search of IBC Root Beer bottles, a squirt gun, and a thumb drive. Let me explain: The bottles for placing a letter I have written inside to put out to sea, the squirt gun to wake Hickey up the next morning, and the thumb drive to transfer Chan's blog to my laptop so we could post it online as his laptop was not allowing internet access for some reason. We found only the thumb drive at Walmart (which is the least well stocked store I have been to) so we gathered the remainder of our items at the local Piggly Wiggly. We returned to the hotel and wasted a little more time, posting blogs, and packing bags before hopping in the car to drive to downtown Charleston.

We first stopped off at the Goodwill store in an attempt to find some obscure yet priceless t-shirt that would help us remember this fateful trip. We navigated our way fairly easily, only relying on the GPS to direct us when we weren't sure if we were heading in the wrong direction (so all the time). We parked and walked for just a bit until we came to our destination for lunch: A.W. Shucks. I had the Crab Cake and Stuffed Shrimp combo. It is a 5 oz. Crab Cake with 2 jumbo shrimp stuffed with crab meat and wrapped in bacon. It also came with a baked potato and hush puppies (which I found out is Hickey's favorite food group). After we ate and purchased shirts to commemorate our meal, we walked through the straw market to see what hidden treasures might be found. I purchase a new ring and Hickey and Chan bought various gifts for several people back in Knoxville. We then dropped Hickey off, on a street corner, so he could find the Quicksilver shop to buy some things for Clay and himself. Hickey was our driver while we were driving anywhere except to and from Knoxville, so when he got out of the driver's seat guess who stepped in to keep the party moving. That's right, me! This was an unexpected occurrence as I do not like to drive anything larger than my Toyota Camry. I was a good sport though and did quite well, hitting no buildings and running over no pedestrians. After that we drove around for a while and visited yet another thrift store to try and find the perfect shirts to capture the memories of our trip. Once again we struck out. We drove around for a short while before deciding to return to the hotel to chill for a bit and Chan wanted to try and catch up on some sleep (as he went to bed around 3am and got up around 6 am). He was extremely successful as you can see by the picture shown here.

While Chan was slipping deeper into his coma of recovery, Hickey and I walked down to a surf shop on the street corner near our hotel. We found what we thought we would; lots of cool stuff at really high prices. We walked down to the end of the pier and sat, talking for about an hour about life, love, and purpose. It was really good to get the last of this stuff off my chest and it was even better to share it with such a close friend. Hickey and I got tired of just sitting so we began walking down the beach towards the beach house where the college department at CBCB stays during the summer. We soon became inspired to go further at a faster pace and began running on the hard part of the beach to avoid slipping in the sand. We ran for about a mile and then slowed to a walking pace. We began collecting seashells for no reason. It just seemed like there would be some purpose if we kept at it. We walked for another mile or so and soon found ourselves at the end of the beach. We took some wonderful pictures that I will be able to show you sometime or if you want to you can log on to Facebook or Myspace and view the album there after I get back to GA. We also stumbled upon a seashell that was broken into many smaller pieces, but every piece was still right there in the same spot and in the correct formation. I thought about this for a while, and then it hit me. Even though things or people in life are broken, it doesn't mean that all the pieces aren't there to be put back together and that others can help you see the pieces you miss. This was very comforting to me and I knew that this was the first lesson that God was teaching me on this trip. We slowly made our way back towards the hotel and arrived back at our room approximately 4 hours after we left. We all piled into the Xterra and were driving around in search of a place to eat dinner. We pulled into Melvin's BBQ restaurant only to find that closed in 15 minutes. We continued driving until we finally found ourselves at Charleston Crab House. While there I realized that Hickey really doesn't like seafood (Amy you're not alone!) as he ordered a chicken sandwich. I ordered the Coconut Shrimp with French fries. They were delicious, but I was unable to finish them as I ate 3 hush puppies and drank 4 glasses of sweet tea before I really got into my meal. The staff at the restaurant was extremely nice and were very adamant about getting everything exactly right. We opted not to get shirts from there due to the fact that it would mean our entire selection of t-shirts in our wardrobe would consist of 60% shirt from restaurants. (not that that's bad or that that is an accurate percentage, but you get the general idea). We decided to hold off on ice cream until tomrrow seeing as how we couldn't eat anything else. We then went for a short walk on the beach to finish putting some things to rest for now by placing a letter in a bottle and then throwing it out to sea. This was a good release for me and a way to allow God to take this burden from me and to place it in His hands for His time. We relaxed for the remainder of the evening at the hotel watching NCAA basketball games and drifting in and out of sleep. The last sounds I heard were the gentle breeze and the rhythmic crashing of waves on the beach just a few yards away.

Meditation for the day: Jeremiah 24:4-7

"Then the word of the LORD came to me: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart."