Porch Life

Since we have moved into our new Charleston home, I have finally been able to grow the herb plants I have been dying to have. As you can see below, I have basil, oregano, parsley and thyme growing on my porch. Doesn't fresh basil smells so amazing!! And, it has certainly come in handy! Having fresh herbs around is much better than dry herbs, although we still use plenty of them too.
Below are just two of the dishes we have made with fresh herbs in them: A shrimp dish Michael made, and homemade pizza with fresh oregano and basil.
Here is a snapshot of our cute porch furniture Michael's parents blessed us with. It is perfect!
Lastly, we wanted to share the great hole in the wall restaurant we finally went to today after church: Jack's Cosmic Dogs. It is a cute little eclectic place with some great dogs!
-LB

On the boat in Charleston

Two of our friends here in Mt. Pleasant (in our neighborhood actually), Erik and PJ Norlander, generously invited Lynn and I to go out on their boat with them yesterday for Sea Ray's Aquapalooza event. For the event, people basically drive their boats out to Morris Island, park them all around this barge where bands are playing live music, and just hang out in the water, on the beach or in their boats.

It's about a 30 minute boat ride out to Morris Island from Daniel Island, where the boat was docked, and we got out there around 11:00. We had the boat parked near the barge until around 3, when Erik took us out to Morris lighthouse (about a 20 minute ride through open ocean). After Lynn had a slight bout with nausea from the choppy waters, we rode back towards Daniel Island where we stopped and swam with a pack of dolphins (amazingly, they got within about 15-20 feet of us). We then got the wakeboard out, being that we were in calmer waters, and PJ, Katie (Erik's daughter) and I all did some wakeboarding before heading back in around 7:30 pm.

The result of being out on the boat the entire day were some sunburned bodies (even though we lathered and re-lathered), but it was definitely worth it. We're hoping there will be more trips like this later in the summer. If so, I think we could really start getting used to this Charleston place...

Out on the boat in the morning

PJ enjoying being out on the water!

Wakeboarding at Sunset

- MB

Brattleboro, VT

For the past month or so Lynn has been talking about taking a trip to Vermont before we leave New England, because having spent time in New Hampshire & Maine, it remained the last of the New England states for her to visit. As many of you know, our moving plans sped up after we visited Charleston last week, so our original game plan of an overnight trip to Burlington, VT for our six month anniversary (as recommended by Joe & Kerry) changed to simply getting Lynn on to VT soil before Monday's move! So yesterday we took a day trip up to Brattleboro, VT - the closest city above the Mass. line. I did some research earlier in the week and found a solid hike in the Black Mountain National Area, with views of New Hampshire & Mass. at the summit. The trail was off the beaten path to say the least, and as one of the pictures shows, we had to find another route to the trail head from the directions we got offline. The trip was a lot of fun though, and gave me a chance to reflect on these last two years in New England. As Lynn said yesterday, there is something "peaceful" about VT that you don't find too often, especially living in Greater Boston as we have. We soaked in the VT mountain air and panoramic views from the top, realizing that while Charleston has a lot of natural beauty, we would have to drive up to Boone to enjoy these types of views again (which I think we are more than willing to do).

- MB

Not a good sign when turning in to the expected parking area! Had to find another way over the river. New Hampshire mountains over our shoulders

Lynn vs. WildNear the bottom of trail... hoping the camera stays on the branch I set it on