Christmas 2007 thru January 31, 2008
How can one celebrate the Holidays when away from home and family and friends? Celebrate with new friends.
Though John and I missed being with our families for Christmas Eve/Day and New Year’s Eve/Day we found that we were not alone. Charleston City Marina had boats full of people in the same situation we found ourselves. And this commonality brought some of us together.
We first met Archie, born in St. Lucia, who had just retired and was single-handing s/v Janey, his brand new Tartan. He invited us to go with him to a midnight candlelight ceremony in town on Christmas Eve. And we shared food and drinks and stories on each other’s vessels.
Through Archie we met Marc, on s/v Pearl, who had recently purchased a Beneteau First and was also single-handing. He introduced us to Chais a Tapa Lounge in Charleston. Chais offers a generous half-off sale on their delicious tapas, complete with live music, during happy hour on Wednesday evenings.
On New Year’s Eve John and I went to an event that "Charleston Cooks!", a culinary store and cooking studio, hosted. The studio conducts cooking demonstrations and classes and earlier in the week I had taken a class to learn how to cook some of the Low Country recipes. For New Year’s Eve the chefs and seven participants prepared and cooked a multiple course meal and then we dined. (Menu: Oysters Rockefeller, Salmon and Caviar Parfait, Crab and Watercress Salad, Beef Wellington, Au Gratin Potatoes, Mocha-Baked Alaska, Champagne) We also received a dance lesson on how to dance The Shag, a popular southern dance best described as a cross between The Swing and The Lindy.
During the event we met a couple who offered us a short tour of the area. It turned out that he is a land developer and they drove John and I over the newly built Charleston bridge to Ion, a community that he had developed and now lives in. Located near the water and a fowl sanctuary, which we walked through, Ion is definitely an upscale development with the average home worth more than a million dollars. Very nice.
This month we also met Bernie on s/v Pied-a-Mer another retiree who sailed into Charleston a few years ago and who has decided to stay. Bernie keeps his Beneteau at the marina but lives in the historical section of Charleston in a beautifully renovated carriage house complete with private garden and patio. One evening we went to his place for hors d’oeuvres and then a short walk to Pearlz for dinner. Pearlz is a popular oyster bar hang-out for locals with excellent seafood meals.
Also on our dock we met George and Christina on s/v Sophie. George, a professional photographer and Christina, a graphic artist recently purchased Sophie a 46' Cambria, a truly handsome vessel. The four of us have shared glasses of wine and conversations and a trip into North Charleston for dinner at Santis, a Mexican restaurant.
John and I had a surprise one day as I was baking cookies and he was working on deck with a rigger, tightening the fore and back stays on the mast. Doug and Charlotte on Abbotsford, our friends from Annapolis, were in town and stopped by to say hello. They introduced us to Doug’s daughter, Lisa, who works in Charleston and she gave us recommendations of restaurants to try. Not to have Lisa’s suggestions go to waste, we joined Doug and Charlotte for lunch a few days later at Magnolias where I had the best Shrimp and Grits (a southern main staple) to date.
In a nutshell, while in Charleston we are definitely not going hungry, we have met some new friends and met-up with some old friends. We take long, exploring walks through town to take photos, to see the historical sites and to walk off all the calories we are consuming. (On one solo trip to the grocery store I passed Charleston College and found a rally organizing for Barack Obama. I decided to stop and listen to his speech and for my first time heard the chant ‘Yes We Can’ from the large, enthusiastic crowd that had gathered.)
And with these warming memories, January, the coldest month of the year, has slipped by...
