We are now home in Carrboro after spending a few days on the road. We drove down to Jacksonville, FL last Friday where Marc ran in the Gate River 15K Saturday morning (results are here). After the race, we drove across the panhandle to visit Lillis in Tallahassee, where we managed to catch the Duke- UNC mens Basketball game together at a sports bar. Lillis & Shuwen were sad to see Duke lose, but at least it was an exciting and fun game. Our time in Tally with Lillis was short, but wonderful. We particularly enjoyed our picnic lunch on Sunday.

From Tally, FL, we drove up to Savannah via a number of small towns in GA which had appeared some weird sign fetish. One town had no parking signs running for about 1/2 mile every 10 feet on both sides of the road. Another one had yellow road sign lining the street for over a mile. It was simply ridiculous!

The squares in Savannah were quite pretty and well maintained. We guessed that Savannah must have a significant Irish community as many homes had the Irsh flag out, pubs and resturants were all decked out for St. Patty's day and there was even a fountain with green water flowing out of it. Savannah has a certain mystic about it with its history and the stories of ghosts and witch-craft -- the spanish moss that hangs on the trees all around town certainly adds to the eeriness of it all. After a dinner where crab and beer (we were at a micro-brewery) played a very prominent role, we continued on our way towards Ridgeland (halfway btw Savannah & Charleston) to spend the night.

Sunset from Savannah's Riverwalk

Today, we left for Charleston early in the morning and spent a couple of hours walking around Historic Charleston, amazed by the architecture and how large most of the old homes were. Shuwen was particularly intrigued by the earthquake rods that can be turned to re-level the buildings -- we had no idea Charleston was susceptible to earthquakes. We stopped for coffee in a cafe on Market St. and it turned out that the owner lived in Carrboro for 7 years prior to moving to Charleston! He made a great french press that was truly reflective of the Carrboro-ite's snobbiness when it comes to java. We ended our visit in Charleston with a lovely lunch at Hominy Grill -- shrimp & okra beignets, shrimp etouffe, corn bread, and hummingbird cake (a banana & pineapple-nut version of carrot cake) -- yum!