The end of the weekend already. The dance ended a couple of hours ago after 3 final hours of bliss. It feels really good to be sitting down now drinking a cup of tea. Will need to drink a couple of gallons worth of fluids yet before I am back to being hydrated. The Great Bear Trio were hot, from the very first dance to the last waltz they played. Anna's Banana's were also a wonderful band, not quite of the same caliber, in my estimation, but certainly fun to dance too and with some more experience they will also be first rate.

  Wanted to go back a little bit and write more about yesterday since I was so tired last night that nothing much was going to happen once I got back to the trailer.... Was up early, for me anyway, in the morning and on my way into town to meet up with a friend of mine, Cathy, from Nashville. We had lunch together and then went in search of this miniature doll house town that her mother had made many, many years ago. (Hope I'm getting these details right). Anyway; it ended up being sold or given away and was kind of lost to the family. Cathy did some investigation of it and found out that at least part of it was out at a retail store for doll house hobbyist's in the town of Folly Beach. Long story short, we drove out to Folly Beach and found the store and they did have the town... unfortunately, all of it except one display case, was in some vague place called "storage". The lady was very nice though and told Cathy they would contact her if and when they got it out and had it set up again. So only a partial success, but better than nothing.
 
  We went on out to the beach and wandered up and down it for a good hour or so watching all the college kids on their spring break. Interesting to watch all the posing and preening of both sexes going on, or as one of my good friends would put it, all the 'Heing and Sheing'. Pretty cute really and actually very polite too.

   Went back into town and dropped Cathy off at her hotel while I went and did a little shopping while I was in town. Went back and picked her up later on and we went on to one of the local restaurant's that was recommended on one of the dance handout's. The restaurant was named 'Runaway Bay' and specialized in food you might find in Jamaica. I wanted to have 'Roast Oxtail with Butter Beans', because.... come on.... how many times do you see Roast Oxtail with Butter Beans on the menu? Unfortunately; I was evidently not the only one who craved that meal as they were all sold out of it. So I ended up having to 'settle'  for a spicy shrimp meal with rice and beans. To top it all off was an Island Rum Cake with ice cream and whipped cream. Good thing we were going to go dance yet because it had to be about a gazillion calories. It was a very nice meal overlooking the Cooper River and the company was very pleasant.

    The Saturday night dance is almost always the best night and last night was no different. Lot's of good music, wonderful dance partners and it wasn't so hot that you were drenched in sweat like you can sometimes be. It was a lot of fun.

    For those who have never been at a contra dance before, let me try to quickly describe what it is. Imagine you and a partner facing another couple all in a column of two set's of couples. You have a caller, similar to a square dance caller, who is responsible for picking and teaching the dance. The dance is an assortment of several moves, do-si-do's, alamands, swings etc, that you are doing with your partner as well as the couple you are with. Each dance is made up of only a few different moves, but how the individual moves go together makes each dance unique. The goal of all of this maneuvering is that after several moves done with your partner and the other couple you are with, and sometimes with even more people in the column, you end up moving on to the next couple in the line, as the other couple you were with moves in the other direction. Then the whole pattern starts all over again with this new couple you are dancing with. In the end you should have pretty much danced with everyone who was in you column. After awhile you pretty much know what the pattern is so the caller stops calling and you continue dancing for the next 10-12 minutes. Now, if you are still confused, or even more confused, I recommend you go to 'Youtube' and watch any of the thousands of video's that have been posted. Just know that very, very few of them really show what it is like and almost none really give you an idea of how good the music is.

   Did talk to a couple good friends from back home this afternoon. One, a person I use to work with, caught me up on what is going on at the job I retired from. Sounds pretty much like what was going on while I was still working there, so I can say with utter conviction that I am so happy to be done with that.

   The other good friend caught me up on the happenings with my boating friends back in Colorado. Glad to say they all seem to be doing well and getting ready for summer. Plans for the trip down the Grand Canyon as well as possible canoe trips. Looks like the summer months are starting to book up already also.

   So that is about it for today. It's going to feel good to sleep in tomorrow. I think it will be a pretty easy day for me. Here are a few pictures from several days ago. Will post a few pictures of buildings in downtown Charleston in a day or two, once I have them all sorted out.

The original Charleston Custom House where taxes on goods coming into and out of the region were calculated and paid before being loaded and unloaded.

The Charleston Harbor Pilot Boat Station. Every large ship entering or leaving the Charleston Harbor is required to have a qualified harbor pilot on board who has control of the ships navigation and docking.

Ft Sumter. This is where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. Union forces were in charge of the fort while southern forces, including one regiment made up of cadets from the 'Citadel Military College', were located on the lands around the area. The bombardment of the fort went on for so long and so hard that the 16' foot thick stone and masonry walls were reduced from their height of about 55' to what is now closer to 22'.

Some of the many shore line homes on the north shore of Charleston Bay. According to the boat guide many of these are 2nd and 3rd homes for people and retail for around 10-12 million dollars each on average.

The Hwy 17 suspension bridge crossing Charleston Harbor. I liked the symmetry of all the cables as well as the bridge joists.

A small sailboat that was out for the day. Beautiful warm, sunny day to be on the water. Sure looked like fun.

Saw this sign hanging over the door into one of the historic Inn's in downtown Charleston.

One of the many cemeteries within the city of Charleston. This one is across the street from one of the old churches in town. Two interesting tidbits of info concerning churches in the city. The 1st is that the nickname of Charleston is 'The Holy City', because of the number of churches as well as all the different denominations that have always been here. The 2nd interesting thing is that there are no tall buildings in Charleston. This is because of an old law that said no building could ever be built that was taller than the tallest church in the city. So no building is more than about 285' tall. (I don't remember the exact number).