A Trip to Charleston

I went to a library conference last week in Charleston, South Carolina.  Never been there before.  Definitely want to go back and take the philosopher, and do nothing but walk around town admiring the architecture!  Now, I could regal you all (all two of you) with amazing conference anecdotes, and recaps of some of the amazing sessions like Scholarly Communication!  Google Books!  Bibliographic Instruction! e-Readers in the library! Database Management! Patron-Driven Acquisitions!

But I won't.

Instead I'll share with you some pictures I took during a brief walking tour.  I decided to skip out on one afternoon session, and try to see as much of the city as I could.  I wanted to walk down to the Battery.  I wanted to see some of the amazing historic churches.  I wanted to walk right up and touch some of the buildings that were standing 200 years ago.  So I did.. and this is some of what I saw:

Citadel Square Baptist Church: established 1854.  It was actually across Marion Square from the conference hotel, and we could hear it (and many others around town) toll the hours.

On the other side of the square was St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, established 1874.  You can't really tell in this photo because it was a cloudy day, but the edifice is a beautiful terra cotta color, and it had some wonderful stained glass.  It's also interesting that for all the churches, the stained glass is protected by what appears to be lexan or some other sturdy outer layer.  I suppose it makes sense.. you know, hurricanes could really do some damage.

Next was the French Huguenot Church, established 1845.  The architectural detail was stunning.

This is the First Baptist Church.  It is the oldest Baptist church in the south - the congregation was formed in 1682, and this building was constructed in 1822. 

 These are two of the Episcopal churches.  The one on the left is St. Michael's (1752), and the one on the right is St. Philip's (founded in 1680).  St. Michael's has the distinction of being one of the only churches that has not had significant changes made to its facade, so it looks today just like it looked 250 years ago.

 And then of course I headed down to the coastline.  The US Custom House and the USS Yorktown are visible from an awesome waterfront park and pier off of East Bay Street (on the Cooper River).  When I walked down to Battery Park, there was a sailing ship out in the bay.  I tried to get a decent shot, and the best one I could get also had Ft. Sumter just inside the frame on the left.  Bonus!

I still may bore you with a post about some of the conference proceedings - we had a senior Google engineer talk about the Google Books project which was Just Absolutely Amazing. I also enjoyed some delicious food at Slightly North of Broad, Chai's Lounge and Tapas, and the Swamp Fox Restaurant.  But I'll save that for later....  ::grin::

The G.S.E.: Church E

This past Sunday we visited friends in another state. One of our friends (*not* an Anglican!) suggested we go to the local Anglican church on Sunday morning before meeting up with the rest of the crowd for lunch. We hadn't been to an Anglican eucharist in quite a while, so we jumped at the chance. The congregation apparently bought an old Presbyterian church some time ago, so unlike many Anglican groups, this one had its own facilities. The priest and assistant priest greeted us at the door, as well as a couple of ushers.

We walked in and found our seats. The pianist was playing a beautiful prelude and... there were KNEELERS! The processional began and the choir came in, following the cross. The service was Rite I from the '79 prayer book. We sang the traditional Gloria, and I almost wept, because it has been years since I had the opportunity to sing that. The cantor did a glorious job with the psalm. The sermon was actually about sin and hell. (You don't get that very often from an Anglican pulpit!) And Origen was even mentioned!! After the recessional, the pianist played an amazing rendition of "A Mighty Fortress". I refused to leave until he'd finished, so we stood near the back for a bit.

That was a mistake, because apparently several folks in the congregation had spotted us as visitors, and came to say hello. What was the first thing many said? "Y'all are Anglican, aren't you?" "Well, yes, we are." "OOOhhh! Are you new to the area?" "No, we're from out of town. and just visiting our friend." ::disappointed look:: "Well, we are SO glad you came today!" If we lived in our friend's town, we would not be on this Great Sociological Experiment, because we would have found our new church this past Sunday. ::sigh::

I have to keep telling myself that God has us where we are for a reason. Otherwise I would just weep.

[Enter 1000 Words Here]

The professor, my dad, and I went to Florida this weekend. Friday night we stayed at a hotel in Marianna (a very non-descript, hotel-at-an-interstate-exit sort of place). We drove over to Tallahassee Saturday morning. The professor headed for FSU's Strozier library, where he planned to spend the entire day working on his book about "the philosophic life and classical education" (the newest subtitle for his cranky book about philosophy).



My dad and I, on the other hand, headed down to St. Marks Lighthouse. It was absolutely stunning. It's right on the gulf at the headwaters of the St. Marks River, and offers a beautiful panorama of marsh, bayou, and coastline. As I stood looking out at this desolate landscape, I was in awe of God's creation. It is desolate at first glance, but as you stand quietly and watch, you see the grasses and palmettos blowing in the breeze, and then you start to notice the wildlife moving about - dozens of species of birds, and even a gator or two. The area is also a national wildlife preserve, and serves as a roost for over 250 species of birds. I wish I'd brought my binoculars, because we saw - I think - an ibis, a snowy egret, and a blue heron. There were many others, but they moved to fast to identify. Water birds are easy, because, well, they stand still near the water's edge for long periods of time!

As an aside, I won't really talk about the swarms of love bugs. There were so many at the lighthouse proper that dad and I only stayed a few minutes. They would land by the dozens all over your back and legs. If you stamped your feet they would fly about six inches away and land again. And our new car was positively covered in the things by the time we got back home. EEEEW.

Afer our jaunt to the coast, we headed back to Tallahassee for the REAL reason for our Florida Vacation. Dad and I had tickets to the FSU/Wake Forest football game. I won't go into detail. Dad's comment? "Wake wanted to lose this game. FSU wanted to lose MORE!" Still, we had good seats and we got to see Chief Osceola with Renegade and the Marching Chiefs. So it wasn't a total loss. (OK, the GAME was a total loss, but the trip wasn't!)