Pets and More Scouting

Today our Boy Scout earned his Tenderfoot rank. It was great to see him and all the other Scouts recognized for all of the hard work they've put in. He also received his First Aid, Metalworking, Swimming, and near and dear to his father's heart - Small Boat Sailing.

Earlier in the day we took Seabreeze to the Low Country Paws and Claws Pet Expo at the Charleston Convention Center We had a great time and Seabreeze was very well behaved among all of the other dogs at the Expo. For only living in Charleston for a little over a year I was suprised by how many people I knew there (and that they were all pet lovers as well).

Voddie Baucham Conference

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a Voddie Baucham conference put on by the James Island Christian Church with my wife and daughter. The subject of the discussion "what he must be to marry my daughter" provided some excellent biblical insight into what the Bible says about the important role that a father plays in helping his daughter find a suitable husband and in the character traits that she needs (from a biblical perspective) to consider as she considers this important decision.

Being able to do this with my daughter was great because it helped us come together on an issue that we were not fully aligned on before. If you haven't had an opportunity to hear any of Voddie's sermons I highly recommend him, his talk on Children of Caesar on YouTube is a great starting place.

Drayton Hall

This past Labor Day weekend we had an opportunity to visit Drayton Hall and had a great time during our visit. Elizabeth's timing was excellent as the visit coincided with several promotions that were going on. The end result was that we only had to pay for one admission for our family of four and recieved a treat bag for the dog as well. Drayton Hall is a preserved, rather than restored plantation so there is paint on the walls that dates from the 1800's and it shows. It's the only plantation along the Ashley River that survived the Civil War among other disasters.

The docent that guided our visit did a great job sharing about the architecture and history of the plantation from its beginnings through phosphate mining and up to the present day.

New Boy Scout

Last week our youngest bridged from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts and earned his arrow of light award. This was a fantastic experience and we're really excited about his new troop.

First Fish

On Friday afternoon as I was driving home from work I received an urgent call from my wife; "Stop at the pond!" Our youngest had gone down to the pond near our house to do some fishing and unlike the dozens of times before was met with success rather than disappointment. I arrived at the pond just as they were about to release the 10" Tilapia back to the relative safety of the pond. I'm not an avid fisherman by any stretch of the imagination, but I can say I've never had a bad time fishing. As a result of his success, my wife and I went out for licenses and hope to add some quality fishing time in South Carolina to our list of family recreational activities.

Be a tourist in your own town!

January is be a tourist in your own town month in Charleston. We picked up a family pass and made it our mission to check off as many of the attractions as we could in the month.

The weather was not always cooperative and we weren't able to go to every event together but it was well worth the money and we had a great time. Some of the highlights of our month were our visits to the Hunley, Patriot's Point and the Middleton Plantation.

At Patriot's Point we had a great time touring the ships and learning about their history as well as that of the Port of Charleston. Of particular interest was the Medal of Honor museum, I could have spent hours learning more about the incredible people that have given so much to and for our country.

We also enjoyed visiting the Aiken Rhett House and the Old Charleston Slave Mart. One of the things that struck me during the Slave Mart visit was that not only was slavery a blemish on our nation's past it's prevention is part of our ongoing battle.

We had so much fun this year we'll probably do it agian next year.
See you in Charleston!

Busted

Last night we were doing the soccer parents thing, Elizabeth cut out early to go to a home schooling meeting, I took the kids home in the Minivan and she took the Miata. I was expecting her home about 8:30. At 9 she called and said she'd be home shortly not to worry. Since the McCain - Obama debate was on I was not paying too much attention to the time. At 11:00 the phone rang - she'd lost track of time and after the coffee shop closed they brought the discussion to the parking lot. At 10:50 a police car pulled up to the collection of cars in the parking lot and pointed out the time - all the stores closed nearly two hours earlier. It was time for them to move along or risk a loitering charge. They didn't need a second warning and we're on their way home promptly.

Our first hurricane - almost

As Hanna drifted around in the Caribbean we started to get nervous that this would be our first hurricane since moving to South Carolina. The models were showing a real possibility that it would end up making landfall at Charleston late Friday night or early Saturday morning.

As a family we have fairly good disaster preparedness habits; food, water and other critical supplies on hand, etc. Checking in with our more experienced neighbors we were feeling comfortable but not too comfortable. Being nearly 20 miles in from the coast helped.

Thursday one of my co-workers took the day off to board up his parents beach house on Folly Beach. There was a liberal leave policy implemented so people could make any necessary arrangements for the storm.

Friday morning as I drove to work the clouds were starting to move in and when I drove through the front gate, the hurricane awareness level had changed from 5 to 3, indicating that the area was under a hurricane warning. At about 11 the word was put out that we were shutting down and were expected to be gone before noon; I made it out the gate at about 11:58.

Since we weren't evacuating I spend a few hours reorganizing the garage to get two cars into it. It was tight but we did it. It was starting to rain lightly and now the sky was getting darker. We decided to make a quick run up the road to WalMart for some last minute supplies - after we got on the road (which happened to be a hurricane evacuation route) we discovered that many people had decided not to stay put. The 3 mile drive took about 30 minutes!

The drive home was nearly traffic free and we started watching the news and checking the weather service web site.

As the evening wore on the rain started to come down in buckets and the wind started to pick up a little. The neighborhood kids were out playing in the deluge it looked like fun but I couldn't bring myself to join them. Our neighbors braved the rain and came over for dinner, as the meal came to an end the weather service confirmed that Hanna was going to pass us by.

Saturday morning was a clear sunny day and the only sign that remained of the near miss were all the puddles and full drainage ponds throughout the neighborhood. In retrospect I'm still contemplating a generator just in case we aren't so blessed next time. Ike is making its way across the Atlantic and we're watching it closely.

Back to school

The past several weeks have been a flurry of activity as we get ready to go back to school; a new state so new home schooling laws. Over the past several weeks we joined our "Option 3" accountability group and an area support group and attended a plethora of home schooling conferences, seminars and pot lucks.

It's been a great way to meet some new friends and find new resources in the area. One of the things that we're really excited about is the opportunity to see where so much of our nation's history actually happened. Charleston played a significant role in both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War / War of Secession.

We also enjoyed taking advantage of the South Carolina back to school tax holiday to purchase some much needed educational items including a new computer to replace one of our aging laptops.

Magnolia Plantation

After a diligent day of house work and continued unpacking on Saturday we slept in a little bit and went to the late service at church and got Sunday off to a great start.

In the afternoon we headed over to the Magnolia Plantation, which is actually just across the Ashley River from our house. Until the end of the month they are running a South Carolina resident special so we were able to take the whole family for $30. We had a great time, the tram tour of the plantation took about 45 minutes and Rick, our guide filled us in on the history of the plantation and early plantation life. Most of the earlier rice paddy's have been turned back into natural swamp areas filled with wildlife. We saw about a dozen alligators ranging in size from about 3 feet up to 8 feet! After the tram ride we walked through the gift shop and then visited the petting zoo. The kids had a lot of fun feeding the goats and pig. They also had a great collection of local reptiles including a canebrake rattlesnake, cotton mouth, timber rattlesnake, rat snake and copperhead, among others.

We saw this small alligator when we were walking across the garden bridge in the picture above.

We're planning another visit in the fall to take a tour of the house and enjoy further explorations of the gardens.

Vacation!

After a brief settling in period our oldest son came to visit from California. For the past few days we've been out visiting Charleston. Some of the sites and activities included a visit to the only tea plantation in the United States, geocaching, a visit to the South Carolina Aquarium, and the Irvin House vineyard. We also spent a day on Folly Island boogie boarding - and with Hurricane Bertha kicking up some decent surf we had a great time.

We also went out to eat at a number of restaurants - Ruby Tuesday which is a family favorite, Pasta Joe's which was unremarkable, Queen Anne's Revenge which is our family's favorite restaurant in the area . . . so far.

Happy Independence Day

This Independence Day our family is in the midst of some major changes. Having just moved from California - where the fun police prevent you from buying fireworks, to South Carolina where fireworks are sold on every street corner we'll be introducing the kids to fireworks and fireworks safety. This is also the first Independence Day that we haven't has some sort of boat to take out to watch the fireworks in . . . well a long time. Earlier in the week we stopped by a local fireworks stand and picked up some firecrackers, roman candles and bottle rockets. A nice assortment for our first year. Our fireworks rules are built around the premise that fuses are unpredictable. This means that we generally don't light exploding things while holding them in our hands, we don't launch rockets at less than a 60 degree angle, and we make sure the expected blast area is clear (of people, animals and flammables).

We invited some of our new neighbors over for a barbecue, everyone brought a little something and as is always the case at events like that there was plenty of very good food, great company and entertaining conversation. Later on all the kids (and Dads) moved outside to fireworks. The tiki torches did a great job of keeping the bugs away and served as a ready source of fire when matches we're uncooperative. The party ended and the fireworks ran out while it was still relatively early so we decided to check out the North Charleston fireworks display. The drive was about 25 minutes and we were able to catch the last 15 minutes of the show from one of the neighborhoods near the park.

All in all a great Independence Day! I missed not getting out on the water but it was relaxing not to have to get the boat ready. Given the choice I'll be out on the water watching the fireworks next year.