Vinnie Van Go-Go's

If you've known me for a while - you remember Vinnie:

(Yes, I am now officially the crazy cat lady)

We went to visit his name sake this summer.  (Actually we went visit Gabe and Lori in Savannah, but made a stop at Vinnie's.)

So really, the purpose of the trip was to have a grand celebration of Gabe's 30th and reunite with some of Leslie's grad school friends all in the same place at the same time - for once!  On another note, this weekend, along with our Edisto Island trip, makes us seriously consider buying a boat....

Gabe's fancy drinking contraption

Edisto, SC is not the same as Edisto Beach, SC

We had a lot going on this summer but found the time to take a long vacation with a few friends.  A friend of ours had a house on the coast of South Carolina in a little place called Edisto Beach, SC.   While we were planning this little trip, we did a quick Google map search and were very delighted to see that it was a just a few hours drive for us!

The evening we decided to head out, we punched the address in the GPS and were completely confused.  Our trip was going to take several more hours than we originally thought.  After a little investigation we discovered our mistake.

There is an Edisto, SC AND an Edisto Beach, SC and they are not located anywhere near each other. Bummer.  Lesson learned.

Regardless - we did make it to the beach and had a pretty darn good time!

Just swinging on the dock

Taking a cruise

Is that a Forrest Gump boat?

TB with the very large shrimp scale

Delicious eats

The crew

Our evenings were spent on the dock with tervis tumblers, food and good drinks.  All in all - a great vacation!

Everyone Needs One of These

Our trip to Portland was not just for fun - we were there to celebrate Stacy's graduation.  Congrats to Stacy!

Her in-law side of the family is HUGE and they all turned out for the ceremony and contributed to quite possibly the largest cheering section of the whole place.  I think everyone needs a cheering section this big at some point in life:

East Coasters Have a Few Things to Learn

Portland is weird.  Really.  They are quite proud of being weird and it is even a motto of sorts for the city.  They also seem to enjoy protesting (as in marching around the city with a sign).  And they do indeed protest everything. 

This is an odd concept for us southerners.  We don't see too many protests out here.  I don't think it's apathy - perhaps we just choose to express our opinions differently.  Or maybe we have chosen to pick our battles and don't feel passionate about seemingly everything.  Who knows?  But the fact remains, I have never seen so many protests, as I have in the states of Oregon and Washington. 

Being the typical tourists that we are - we needed to get a picture of this oddity.  Right?  Just as you would a painting or monument. 

We found a few wandering protesters and asked for a photo opp, in our sweetest southern accent.  There was some initial hostility from the pictured protesters, but once we explained that we were not from around there and were just trying to document their passionate protest - they quickly agreed.  They were quite excited that their protest was actually gaining some interest. And then they apologized.  For what, you may ask?

Apparently it was a light day for protesters in Portland and our friendly photo op group, was upset that we were not getting to experience Portland protesting in all it's glory.  Seriously.

Oh geez.