Charleston, South Carolina

late April/early May 2006
Brad's 30th birthday

• Rented a house in Folly Beach, just south of Charleston. The house is really nice - very close to the beach, plenty of room. Stacie (with her camera in a sock) and Kara come from Charlotte, Colleen took the train from DC, and Carrie came in from Jacksonville. Brad and Ellan took a flight from Memphis to Charleston, and Nick drove from Memphis to Charleston. Laura flew in from Lexington.
• Over the 3 days that we were there, we visited the beach a few times, flew kites, went to a great tapas bar (Meritage), did some shopping downtown, and visited a few bars. Bars with shopping carts.

• After rolling around in shopping carts, we went to a couple different bars. One happened to be a honky-tonk, local biker bar. Quite frightening. At one point, there was a person "singing" onstage. Ellan, ever the curious one, inquired to no one in particular "who's the retard onstage?" The man behind her, ever the informative one, responded "it's my son". At that point, it was clear we probably were not all that welcome...not that we were before...
• We left the bar and ended up getting a ride in a truck from a young local couple. They took some of us back to the house...with the exception of Carrie. Who called. And was curious about "where the fuck everyone is" and why she was left there. Oops. When ya got this many kids, it's hard to keep track of everyone, ya know? Carrie ended up back safely at the house, where the couple who gave us a ride were hanging out. It became clear that the female half of the couple looked like Jessica Simpson. She found this flattering (we think), probably until minute number 43 of everyone commenting about how much she looked like Jessica Simpson.
• One afternoon, the girls went to lunch and after a not-so-pleasant dining experience, came back to the house with a great story and an even greater photo of an unfortunate-looking troll they named Scary Mary. Here is Kara, going all Vanna White on Scary Mary's ass:
• And a day or so later we were all preparing to go our separate ways, so we all had lunch on a rooftop patio restaurant downtown. Brad flew back to Memphis, and Nick drove on to North Carolina to see Tony and Jill in Sylva.