Halloween Charleston Style

Shrimp boats on Shem Creek.

Colleen and I met her friend Emily in Charleston, S.C., this past weekend for a much needed getaway. We usually go down in the spring for the Cooper River Bridge Run the first Saturday in April, but we decided since we had a great place to stay in Mount Pleasant, S.C., for a great price we should go down more often.

When we planned the trip we didn't even think about it being Halloween weekend, but boy are we glad it was. It was a nice break from reality and a lot of fun. The Charlestonians were pretty creative with their costumes.
Emily, who is obsessed with all things related to Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" book series and HBO's "True Blood" TV series, went as a vampire with some really fearsome fangs.
Col went as a cutthroat pirate from hell. She literally was telling people on the street she was "from hell" when they asked where we were from. It was quite funny later in the night when a woman at Southend Brewery asked, "Aren't you the one who said you from hell?"


I was also a pirate, alas, not a very good one, and I don't have any pictures worth sharing. Too bad for you.


Speaking of Southend Brewery, that is apparently where Santa Claus likes to unwind after a hard day of pushing the elves to produce. Christmas is coming up scary fast.

We went on a pub crawl with The Original Charleston Walks, and wound up with the same tour guide we had a year and a half ago. Nice bloke, good storyteller, but we were hoping for some fresh young blood.

The crawl did introduce us to some new Charleston bars: The Griffon, the aforementioned Southend Brewery and The Blind Tiger.

The Blind Tiger was cool. It has a great outdoor area, and on Halloween, the costumes were hysterical. There was a Michael Phelps, the news crew from Will Ferrell's "Anchorman," Shaun from "Shaun of the Dead" and several Sarah Palins, including the one below with her moose, a Todd Palin and a Joe the Plumber.

And oddly enough there were three Jesuses (Jesi?) at The Blind Tiger, including one female and one bartender, below.

We had such a great time Halloween night. It seems like everywhere we went people were just out having a good time, and nothing malicious happened. Everyone was in good spirits, including $5 footlong man:

We're already planning on going again next Halloween. Can't wait. Gotta start working on my costume.

Back from the Bridge

Well, the Bridge Run went better and worse than I expected.

This was our third year doing the Cooper River Bridge Run and I have to say I felt a lot better afterward than I did last year. Probably because I walked it with Coll and Em rather than running it. I felt almost crippled after last year's race.

I say it went worse because we got a really late start to the race. Much later than the first year. I think we were probably some of the last people to start the race. It was pretty discouraging to look behind and see only a handful of people and then get the first water station and the volunteers were already tearing it down and putting the tables away (hence, no water).

I thought a sweeper truck was going to come along and tell us we had to stop now, but it didn't and we didn't and the three of us finished our third Bridge Run Walk.

Interestingly, at the end of the race, I came across three Asheville firefighters who walked the bridge in full turnout gear, including air tanks. They were walking in honor of Paxten Mitchell, a 3-year-old leukemia sufferer who died the day after the race. Paxten's father is also an Asheville fireman. One of the firefighters, David Sauer, told me that even though they weren't walking the bridge to raise money, people along the race route gave them money for the Mitchell family.

That's what I love about this race: The people. The people are fantastic. I love all the people who come out to cheer and support the runners and walkers and all the volunteers who hand out water and offer words of encouragement. And I have heard of others talking about people giving them money for their cause during the race. I think it's great.

I'll have more photos and commentary on the race later.

Closer to a Header

I've got my second attempt at a header up now. I like it a lot better than the first one. I'll leave it for a while until I'm sick of it.

The photo was taken in the fall up on Max Patch, so I probably should go with something a little more spring-like. Maybe next week or after Charleston. I need a good shot of the ocean.

Not ready

Photo by Melissa Haneline, The (Charleston) Post and Courier

Colleen and I are taking our annual trip to Charleston next month, and I am not ready.

I am ready to get out of town and enjoy being in that great, old city, but I am not ready for the reason that we began going there.

The 31st annual Cooper River Bridge Run is April 5, and we've been going down since 2006 when the race crossed the Ravenel Bridge for the first time. Quite an experience running/walking over that bridge.

The first year we went, I ran the 10K (most of it). The second time I ran/walked a little slower time. This year, I'll probably walk it with Colleen and her friend Emily (who is really Kim, but we won't go into that right now).

I have been having some hip and knee pains that the doctor thinks may be from tendinopathy. Whatever it's from, I haven't been running since last year's race, after which I could hardly walk.

I would love to be able to run the race this year. It's so much fun being in the crowd. They call it the third largest 10K in the nation. I had such high hopes for my running career when I started off with the Maggie Valley Moonlight Race three years ago.

Oh well, at least we'll be in Charleston celebrating Curly's birthday. What better place? Maybe Ireland. Maybe next year.