Hearing God in Music

Sometimes I feel like I talk more about the secular music I listen to way more than the more Christ-focused music that I listen to.  I listen to a pretty even amount of the two.  There are a few particular groups that I really enjoy and I love listening to them because I really feel like I'm praising God using words He's given me.  If you really know me, you would understand that I believe my love language between God is through singing.  That is when I feel the closest to Him :)  So here are a few lovely people whose music encourage me in my walk with the Lord, and maybe they'll do the same for you!

Column 1: Gungor : : Brooke Fraser : : Matt Redman
Column 2: Branches : : Phil Wickham : : All Sons and Daughters : : Starfield
Column 3: Josh Garrels : : JJ Heller : : Tenth Avenue North

They're in no particular order (except for Gungor, of course) and they're all such passionate people who love the Lord.  Their lyrics of grace and wonder speak to me as if it's God speaking to me through them.  How powerful is He who uses that which we take for granted as a way to love us more.  If you would like to listen to these lovely people, and worship the Lord with all of your heart, in humble adoration, feel free to listen to the playlist I put together on Spotify called "Grace" that includes more than just a few songs by these guys.  I continue to pray for you who need Him to surround your life with love and hope.  The best thing I recommend is putting the playlist on shuffle so you can get an array of praise and worship.

When Will You Get It, America?

[DISCLAIMER: I am not a political concierge, I only know just so much about things (like most people in America) and this blog post is simply my opinion.  I have included facts, and the rest of it is just coming from my own mouth.]

    On the brink of decision of whether or not America should embark in the war in Syria, I have many many thoughts about this absurdity.  Sometimes, I honestly wonder if our country would be better off if the people were actually in charge, and didn't just vote for one person to make all the decisions for four years.

    First off, Syria is in a civil war.  Civil wars happen everywhere almost all the time.  When a country goes to war with itself, the worst thing to do is intervene.  How do I know this?  Korea. Viet Nam.  Afghanistan.  Nameless others.  Every time there's been a civil war and the United States has gotten involved, more and more people have hated us as a nation, we lost the war anyways, hundreds of thousands of men (and women) die fighting for someone else that had nothing to do with us, and even more veterans killed themselves afterwards from experiencing such bull crap.  And in these cases, no one really asked for our help; we put it upon ourselves to "fix" them.

    Second, we have no hard evidence, only speculation, that Syria has chemical weapons.  I was watching segments from British Parliament over the debate of whether or not Britain should go to war as well.  The opposition posed great points including this statement: evidence should not proceed decision, decision should proceed evidence."  Syrians did not ask anyone to help them fight.  I understand that the Geneva Convention outlawed using chemical warfare - I do understand the severity of that.  But no one has hard evidence of the Assad Regime being the culprit of a chemical attack in Syria.  YES, I agree that what's going on there is horrible, and lots of innocent people are dying but us getting involved would only make things worse...

   Because we just got out of a war in the Middle East.  We cannot handle it!  We will go into this too soon after bringing troops out of Iraq and other places.  We simply are not strong enough to do this right now.  If we were to get involved with Syria right now, it would be one stupid decision - and how long would we be there for?  What would our relationship be with Syria once we leave?  And how will the world look at us? As that annoying bully who just can't stay out of other people's business.  This video is somewhat of a good representation of how I see the US in the world as an American citizen:

[There are a few instances of suggestive language, but no impropriety.]

Imagine the guy in the red shirt as the United States, and the other two guys are the rest of the world - that's the only part you really need to see

    My whole point is that things go on in the world, in a way effect the world, and the US thinks, "Let me show them how to live right and how to be more democratic, and how dumb they're being in blowing each other up!  How will I do that? Invade their country and kill a lot of them and then try to instill a democratic government because that's why they have so many problems!"

    And of course, the people who are leading our country right now are thinking that exact thing: no one asked for us to help, so we're thinking about forcing our help again.  HAven't we learned anything from the other civil wars that we've gotten involved in?  It doesn't work!!!!!  We lose!!!! Every time!!!!  And then the whole world gets ticked at us and the people of America find more reason to turn on their own country.  Hello!?  

    So my opinion on Syria?  They're in their own civil war.  But what if other countries invaded our civil war?  How messed up would things have gotten?  We just need to leave them alone and let them figure out their own problems.  The only time to consider intervention is when they start taking their war outside their own country.  That's when it's okay to step in.  We need to stop focusing on fighting other peoples' wars, and start focusing more on rebuilding what we have here.  WE DO NOT NEED TO GO THERE.

Getting In Shape: The First Week Back To School

This week was so dishearteningly slow... I hardly did anything in terms of working out... :(  Here's my week:

Monday

Monday night, Frank ran with our friend, his running buddy, Peter.  They both did a great job!  All of us chose to only run one mile.  Peter finished at 9:36, Frank finished at 9:42.  They ran a mile in under 10 minutes!  Great job, guys! :)

We only chose a mile because it was soooo muggy outside.  As I started running, I felt like I was going to collapse from suffocation.  So I didn't go too far.  However, these were my times:

Half mile: 4:52
1 mile: 9.46

So I didn't do all that bad.  I really need to get back on the bandwagon with running though!  My body keeps giving me these little pains and it's effecting how I feel while I run.

Tuesday

This was the first day of school... I was exhausted when I got home, and ended up not doing anything... :(

Wednesday

Today was Frank's birthday! Yaaaayyy!  Happy birthday, Frank! :D And it was the second day of classes, so I had three classes - all pretty stressful classes - and then he and I celebrated his birthday.  I did not go out and run... :(

Thursday

I did a Pilates DVD!  With Karen Garcia.  It was just strange.  I definitely like yoga better.  And I don't really fell it did anything to help em at all...  I just rolled around and held my legs a lot - haha!  But I didn't do anything else :(  I feel unreasonably overwhelmed.  Not that I have waaaaay too  much to handle right now, but because I'm letting myself be more overwhelmed than is reasonable at this point.  I got a good amount of homework done on time last night, and I am ahead of the game in reading for one of my classes :) I really need to get back into running again...

Friday

Rest Day

Saturday

I didn't do anything today, it was the day we were going out to lunch with friends and going to dinner with family to celebrate Frank's birthday!

Frank's 21st Birthday!

August 21, 2013 marks another fantastic year in my history!  My darling beloved husband, Frank, turned the ripe old 21!  He had a great birthday, and keeps letting me know just how happy he is ;)

To celebrate, I got him two presents: Skyrim (video game), and an old book from the 70's about Revolutionary War era attire.  His parents got him some great books that he really wanted, including the entire Game of Thrones book series!  And we ended the night by going to a restaurant of his choice: Tokyo Grill on Forest Drive!  I made him breakfast: egg skillet with grilled mushrooms, tofurkey, pepper and a side of toast with cream cheese and key lime jelly.  In our first class together at 10am today, I let the entire class know that it was his birthday, and although he doesn't like attention, he appreciated my proud-wife gesture when everyone sang out to him!  Every person I passed, with him or not, found out that it was my special one's birthday, and he got so many greetings! Although We both had work and class, he still had a great day.  I will let him "guest blog" right quick about his day, what he's learned in the past year, and what he is looking forward to in the next year:

Happy birthday, panky!

[Well, normally I am hesitant to share such deep and personal thoughts, but you don't say no to the woman who ignores the fact that you are a major nerd... In the past year, I have learned just a few thematic things. First, and most recently, I have learned that I should love people, even those I find idiotic or immature. Second, I have learned that marriage is the most difficult, fun, and rewarding thing in life, all at the same time. Third, the order in which I will finish my academic career. As far as my birthday itself: For the first time, I awoke without excitement, I just opened my eyes and began the day. And then my wife gave me my presents, nerdy in the full. My day resumed a feeling of normalcy as I endured two classes and shift at work. However, the day was made special by an excellent dinner and even more excellent company. I would prefer not to presume what I expect to learn in the next year, but assure everyone that it could be anything. ]

I am honored to be your wife, and I love you so much! I'm glad you had a great birthday, sweetheart! :D

A Few Facelifts To My Blog

I've been going through a blog-identity crisis, I guess you can say, as I'm trying to make my blog more comfortable and efficient for me and my readers.  I've made some major changes to my blog just now... without really thinking about it... I hope it doesn't bother anyone... I mean, it is my blog... :P So here are those changes:

1. The background no longer has color, it is white.  This may change to something just a little more colorful, like maybe stripes or something.  That way there is less distraction for those who read, and more attention is paid to the things I have written and things you may or may not be interested in.
2. I changed the URL address of my blog again... I'm so sorry :(  It went from JBRAZBLOG.BLOGSPOT.COM to JAY-ELLE-BEE.BLOGSPOT.COM - why?
3. Because I also decided to change my blog name.  I'm tired of having blog names that can't line up with the URL address, so I changed it to something that hasn't been used by anyone else.  The name of my blog is now: Jay Elle Bee.  Why? My initials, that's pretty simple.  And I like the little bumble bee!  Plus, being able to have something small that's memorable is good if I want to make a favricon for myself.  A favricon.  That will be the next thing I add to my blog ;)

I'm sorry to those of you who liked what my blog looked like before, who follow me via URL, and who liked the name I used to have for it.  However, changes are made every day in the world, and none of them last.  This blog is merely me recording what my mind is saying in the very short time that I am here on earth.  Once I'm gone, so will be my blog.  Nothing to get worked up about :)  Thanks for reading, my friends and fellow bloggers.  I love you all, and I will blog again soon! :)

First Day Back?

It was ...kind of like any other day.  The only differences: I didn't have to work for 8 hours today and I had to go to Hoke for the first time in three and a half years.  I think Public Speaking won't be that bad... I've already taken Communicating to Youth, which is like a public speaking class geared towards youth.  And I've taken half of a public speaking course online (yes, online - ask me how they do that...) from a tech school. It won't be that bad.  Plus, I sit next to the hottest guy in school ;) (my husband).

The day wasn't so bad for Frank either.  He's looking forward to his Five Great Novels class, thinks it'll be a lot of work, but is ready for it!  He thinks the same as I do about Public Speaking ;)  Besides, what's he got to worry about: he's graduating this year!

We had a great start to the semester! I'll let you know more about our tomorrow schedules.

I have worn this same outfit every first day of school for the past four years.  This style ain't neva gonna go outta style B)

Too cool for school.

And my hair is getting long enough to curl again... hooray!

Happy 2013-14 school year, everyone!

Comin' Out the Speakers

I love listening to music.  I just love it.  I love finding new music and really getting into new-found artists.  I don't listen to the radio (1. because I don't have a radio to listen to, 2. because there are too many commercials on the radio to wait through just to listen to the same 40 songs over and over again).  There are quite a few regulars that come back up[ in my playlists throughout the seasons.  These 16 bands are the ones I continuously fall back on when I have nothing else to listen to.  These are the few bands that are repeatedly coming out of my speakers:

Top Row, Left to Right:

The Black Keys : : Nico Vega : : Florence + the Machine : : Matt & Kim

Row 2:

Dan Auerbach : : The Dead Weather : : Sent By Ravens : : Linkin Park

Row 3:

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour : : Lindi Ortega : : Kitten : : Gungor

Row 4:

The Heavy : : ABBA : : Lord Huron : : Branches

If you take a listen to any of them, you'll notice the eclectic interest I have in music!  My favorite genre, I would say, is probably something like blues rock; something that has a bit of blues and soul, maybe a little grungy.  I really like the way that kind of music sounds.  I like more modern music, to be honest, that sounds like old music.  It's new! It's fresh! It's not old, and I can still see the musicians live because they're young and truckin'!  However, I do like other genres as well ;) I also really enjoy the folky-sounding music, especially when it has a sort of old rustic mountain-y, old country sound to it.  I guess I could sum up my taste like this: new artists with new music that sounds like it could be old... make sense? :)  I think the only exceptions in the list above to that rule are Linkin Park and Matt & Kim.  Linkin Park (in my opinion) is more of a ... mix of genres (rock, rap, electronic, r/b, etc.) Matt & Kim ... they're just their own genre ;)

If you'd like to have a great sample of music from these delightful folks, take a listen to the playlist I put together on Spotify!  I hope you enjoy as much as I do!

What sounds regularly come out of your speakers?  What music gets you in the mood to move around? Have you found anything new and great lately?  Feel free to comment below!

If It's Not One Thing, It's Another!!!

Sunday

Rest Day

And Frank came home!!

Monday

I made myself go out and walk and run.  It felt really good to do something physically active again!  I started off by walking the inside loop of the apartments three times, just to warm my body up and see how my leg would be working.  I felt fine!  So I ran a lap, thinking that if I felt the need to, I would stop and just walk the rest of the time.  Well I finished one lap and went on to run a second lap!  That would equal approximately just over a half mile :)  Then I walked around once more for cool down.  I felt fine until I was walking up the stairs...

A few summers ago, I broke my tailbone... A problem I have had since it's healed is swelling in the SI tendon that surrounds that part of my backbone and pelvis.  If I do too much unexpected physical activity, I feel it swell up and get tight, and it hurts to walk or move my leg or hip or really do anything.  Sooo....

Tuesday

...I didn't really do much.  I even drove to work... My leg is feeling so much better, but now my back is on my nerves - literally!

Wednesday

I wake up and my back feels fine! :D  Thinking about the catch-up I need to do in order to continue training properly, I go to give my husband a good morning kiss and what happens?  KINK IN MY NECK!  Not a small glowering kink, not one on the side either.  It's down on the left side right above where my neck meets my spine.  And it is so painful... :'(  It's made my day horrible, I feel little spikes of pain every way I turn my head, I keep having a dull headache, and I'm having a bad day as it is!!!!!!  I just don't understand!!!!!!  What is going on!!!!!!!!!!  Advice to everyone: if you have an exercise schedule, stick to it - don't take an irregular break for any reason!!!!!!!  Ever since I took the day off from running to go to Charleston, I have had nothing but physical injuries to take care of - one right after the other!!!!!!  :(

I'm not going to let this bother me anymore!!!  I know better than to start where I left off after an extended period of time.  So I started back at week one tonight :)

I ran for 20 minutes.  Actually, I ran 2 miles in 19:57!  Frank drove around the apartment loop that we run around and measured with the car how much the distance was.  He recorded just over .4 miles= 1 loop.  So with the extra bits of feet that we add in from running further outside the driving loop, we estimated basically 1 loop = 1/2 mile.  I ran around 4 times!  Frank did an excellent job in running 3.1 miles in roughly 30 minutes - proud of you, babe ;)

Thursday

Tonight is cross-training.  I wanted to take Frank up to the gym with me to do some agilities!  But here's what we did instead:

Frank ended up running with our friend Peter (he found a new running buddy! yay!) They ran 1.5 miles together, so proud of him!

I ran half a mile in 4:21, did some agilities in 30-40 yd intervals, and then finished with a half mile (4:58). The next morning: my legs feel like lumber, but I know that's a good thing ;)

I still have a pretty painful kink in my neck, and little pains are bothering me, but I'm working through them :)

Friday

Rest day... and it was raining... again...

Saturday

Frank and I have been getting into the habit of running late at night... like midnight... HA! So, we went outside for a run in the cool misty air. We ran 2 miles together, since I'm trying to work back up to where I was while I was out with multiple injuries.  We ran the first 3 laps together (each lap is half a mile); these were our times for each lap:

Lap 1 - 5:41
Lap 2 - 11:35
Lap 3 - 17:27
Frank's 4th lap - 22:20
Jessica's 4th Lap - 22:58

So not that bad, right :)

Sunday

Rest Day

What I Love About Walking Home

    Of all the things I think about on my way home : : I get to see Frank gain, I am hungry and want dinner, I get to relax, I can watch some TV, I can clean the house a little, I love my husband, hat should we do tonight? what should we do this weekend? : : there's one little thing while I make my way home that interrupts my thoughts so sweetly.  What is it? 

Little froggies!

There are little retention ponds around the apartments where frogs and minnows live.  When I walk home at night, I can hear for yards all the little chirping and croaking the frogs make to speak to each other.  They sound like little squeaky toys playing in a little puddle!  I know that doesn't make a whole of sense, but that's the image I get when I walk by and hear them all squeaking away!  That is such a nice little end to my day, right before I get to the comforts of home :)

Oh, My Leg!

I am at Week 5 on my 10K training guide!

At this stage, I can look at the possibility of doing 2.5 miles, and I don't feel so bad.  3 miles, I am starting to feel a bit more comfortable with, and anything beyond that, I am still a bit nervous about.  I am already starting to notice small changes in my appearance, my belly has lost a little extra fluff, and my face is getting a little thinner.  My legs are much stronger than they were, and the rest of my body is getting stronger.  I don't feel aches and pains regularly anymore like I used to, and I notice that I breathe better - even when I'm not running!  Even though I have thinned just a little bit, I have gained 6 pounds (probably from muscle weight) but I won't let that discourage me.  I'm eating much healthier foods (even though what I already ate before wasn't bad, now it's even better).  We'll be running our first 5K for the season in September, and then another one in October, November, and December.  We've even started looking into the Spring semester, and have already decided on a few of them!  So that is where I'm at right now :)

Monday

I got sick today... I drank too much caffeine, and I started feeling dizzy and nauseous... My body can't handle too much caffeine, and it sucks, and it effects me negatively whenever I drink it.  So I went home early from work today and went to sleep for 3 and a half hours :(  But when I woke up, and as I started feeling better, I went on a walk around the apartment complex.  I walked around four times, which I assume adds up to be about a mile and a half, maybe close to two miles (I have no real way of telling...) And then I went to sleep.

Tuesday

I decided that, since I hadn't run since last Wednesday, I would run a little bit tonight.  Frank and I went to Ben Lippen track to run laps (4 laps around a track = 1 mile).

Frank did his second best time for a mile in 8 minutes and 13 seconds!

I did pretty well (since I can't remember my ultimate best) =

I ran 1 mile in 10 minutes and 20 seconds!  

I beat my recent 1 mile mark of 1 mile in 12:07!  Go Jessica :)

However... after we were finished and we walked a lap to cool down, I started feeling a dull ache in the back of my leg...  By the time we got home, it had worsened and I was starting to get scared... I thought for a while that it might actually be a blodd clot... :( scawwy.  But I survived the night, and my pain hasn't spread, even though it hurts the more I walked.  I looked up some symptoms and treatments, and it turns out that I have shin splints.  And it hurts...

Wednesday

Since I have shin splints, I can't run, or even walk extensively on it, for a few days.  I need to ice it for 15 minutes every 4-6 hours,and I need to keep it propped regularly, and I need to stretch it very carefully every hours.  So for the next few days, I will be focusing on upper-body strengthening, and maybe some cycling if I can handle it.  This is fine by me, since my legs are very solid right now.  Whenever I started, I didn't have a whole lot of fat in my legs (thanks, genetics) but just a lot of fallen, unused muscle.  So now that that muscle in strengthened again, everything in my legs are solid.  Upper-body strengthening doesn't seem so bad then ;)

Thursday

I didn't do anything, my leg was hurting a lot and Frank left, so I took the night off and hung out with a friend :)

Friday

Rest Day

Saturday

I cleaned house... My leg was hurting a little bit still from the shin splints...  I felt so lazy without Frank here...

My 100th Post!

  Today is a great day for me in my little blogger world!  Why?  Because this is my 100th blog post!!!! :D
How Exciting!?

    My blog first Began as "Fly From the Highest Swing" in September of 2011.  The idea to create a blog came from sitting in Intro to Sociology at Florence-Darlington Technical College (my year off from CIU) after having a class discussion about Occupy Wall Street.  I wasn't sure what to expect with blogging or anything, so I gave it a go.  My first blog was written about Occupy Wall Street and my take on things, but mainly giving facts since I was new to blogging (and didn't know what I was supposed to be writing about...)
As my contribution to that time in history, I marked my place:

Occupying a Part of History - October 12, 2011

    It was a gratifying feeling to post something about world events and contribute to the world-wide craving for information and opinion.  After that first post, I started experimenting with what I could possibly write about.  I next posted about social events taking place, including the Japan Relief Effort, the Court System, and then I decided to take a whack at writing something Biblical: a Bible Study leading up to Christmas.  After the new year, 2012, came around, I kind of fell out of this new pastime I had found.  Until April.

    I worked at Sonoco in Hartsville and got bored with working as much as I did.  So when I got home almost every night, I would type up a blog and post it!  After a few posts in April 2012, I decided to try posting each new post on Facebook to see if anyone would be interested in reading what I have to say.  Well, it worked! And I was encouraged to keep typing up my thoughts for people to read!

    Throughout the year 2012, I touched on topics like music from my daily walks, how my Relationship with God was growing, I made a personalized Harry Potter Playlist, I wrote about My Engagement!!!, I talked about my idea of Conflict, I talked about my Love Language, the Venus Transit, my opinions on the 2012 Presidential Election, even Panic Attacks!  I started another blog called The Craft Room, and I got ready for the Hobbit.

    As 2013 came around, I wrote about how my computer failed me and was off of blogger for awhile.  But once I got a computer to use, I started back about things I love, like Japanese Stackable Cups, and lawn furniture from the home I grew up in.  I even decided to make a name change from "Fly From the Highest Swing" to "The Brightest Lights".  I told the world about my 21st birthday, I talked about the dead church, talked about our Looney Tunes Lunches, and gave timeline pictures of my many haircuts.  I talked about my venture with two different Blog Engines, introduced my calling, shared our life experiences like at Ninety-Six, gave some explanations of Vegetarian Life, quoted Dumbledore, started my "Getting In Shape" Journey, and talked about the new Royal Baby Boy.  Although it was late, I shared pictures and thoughts of our wedding in January, and I gave encouragement to people who want to get in shape too.

It has been a great 100 posts, getting to know the blogger world and letting people know more about me.  Over these past 100 blogs there are some stats that have accrued:

Most Popular Blog Post of all Time:

I Cut My Hair Again - March 3, 2012

At this moment: 130 Pageviews

Month Popular month for pageviews:  

March 2012: 1,057 Pageviews

My Top Ten Country-viewers:

1. United States of America - 6,337 total views
2. Russia - 21 views
3. Israel - 19 views
4. Canada - 13 views
5. Germany - 9 views
6. Spain - 8 views
7. Ukraine - 7 views
8. Argentina - 6 views
9. Thailand - 6 views
10. Turkey - 4 views

Honorable mentions:

• Netherlands (3)
• Greece (2)
• France (3)
• Panama (1)
• Philippines (1)
• Egypt (2)
• Brazil (1)
• Australia (1)
• Austria (1)
• South Africa (3)
• India (2)
• Chile (1)
• Japan (1)
• Hungary (2)
• United Kingdom (2)
• Norway (2)
• Finland (1)
• Italy (3)
• Mexico (1)
• Jordan (1)
• Poland (1)

(I don't know how I'm so "popular" in Russia but I give a shout out to my viewers there!  Thanks Russian friends!)

Most Popular browser I'm viewed on:

Chrome: 3,354 (51% of my views)

Most popular Operating System I'm viewed on:

Windows: 3,190 (66% of my views)

Most Popular Tab:

About Me - 90 Pageviews

And in the time of me writing in this main blog, I created two other active blogs:

The Craft Room:

the trend setter:

(I don't know why this is centering to the right...)

In The Craft Room, I have published only 19 posts in the past year of it's life, although many are already written for some reason... It has collected, however, 1,674 pageviews in its one year of life.

In the trend setter, I have published only 15 posts, although it is only a few months old.  In it's life, it has collected so far 487 pageviews.

And now keep looking out for my next 100 posts!!  This day is a celebration, and school hasn't even started yet!  Thanks to all of my readers, regular and occasional!  It's been a great experience writing for you.  If you have any questions or want me to write about anything in particular, please feel free to leave comments! I love getting comments!  In the next 10 posts, I hope to write more about little tutorials that I pick up from here and there that explain how to do simple projects by yourself and a computer, and I plan to keep up my Getting In Shape Journey, as well as update the blogosphere with my life events with Frank.  I'm always excited!!

Favorite Commercial Ever

Every time I walk through or near a library, I remember growing up learning that you need to whisper and make as little noise as possible.  I never entirely understood the purpose, since I work better when there are little outside distractions and noises, music or television playing.  So the idea of everyone needing to be quiet in a library has, frankly, annoyed me a little.  I don't like going into libraries sometimes because of this.  Well during the Super Bowl in February I saw the best commercial I have ever seen.  It made me so happy, I still laugh at the mere thought of watching it again!  What is it?  It's an Oreo commercial that brilliantly takes place in the library.  I love it.  If you haven't seen it, watch it:

Way to go Oreo, you make me proud ;)

Our Day In Charleston!

Our friends, Ben and Anna, had never been to Charleston before this weekend.  So we took them there and showed them the town!  We had a really fun day, despite the fact that we parked in a garage 3 miles away from the Market Place and from the Battery, and despite the fact that my shoes gave me horrible blisters - to the point where walking barefoot all over Charleston felt much better than walking in my sandals.  Other than those two mishaps, we had an excellent time together, the four of us :)

We started off our day in Charleston by visiting a fantastic restaurant in Sullivan's Island called, Poe's.  The cool things about Poe's, other than it's awesome sauce, is that it's named after the poet Edgar Allen Poe.  Why?  Because Edgar Allen Poe was stationed at Fort Moultrie in Sullivan's Island during the Civil War!  So there is plenty paraphernalia of Poe around the area.  We took a few pictures of each other as couples there :)

Next, we drove our way into the city of Charleston!  We literally walked 2.8 miles to get to the Battery, and then walked the rest of the way to Market Street.  The Battery, as Ben put it, was 'battered.'  And it felt so nice to have that fresh salty breeze blowing over us.

Once we made it to Market Street, we walked down looking at the nice old homes that are still in-tact there and made our way to the Market Place.

Something cool about the history about the Market Place:  slaves from the time of the settlement of South Carolina until the Civil War in South Carolina had great relationships with their masters, despite common belief.  Slave owners gave their slaves regular break times and free time so that they could grow their own crops and make baskets and whatnot.  When they made these things, they were allowed to walk freely to town, to what we know as the Market Place.  There, slaves were allowed to sell their things as they wanted.  Once the slaves raised enough money from their sales, they were allowed to buy their freedom - and many of them did.  Now we enjoy the Market Place as a place for local artists to sell their craft.  It's so neat!

Anna and I both want some nice hats ;)

Overall, we had a great time, despite the long walk, and they got to experience Charleston at its finest.  Hopefully we'll go back there again soon :)