Greenville and Charleston, SC

This past week we were in South Carolina -- partly for work, partly for play. Our first stop was Lewis and Melissa Young's house in Greenville, of course. Dan lived with them for 4 1/2 years after college. Of course, he was on the road for the majority of that time. But you'd never know. He walks into the house and it's as if he never left. Melissa's had a trunk full of his fishing gear sitting in the guest bedroom for years, which she was more than glad to get rid of finally. And they still make him clean up after himself.

We had a dinner party for some of our Greenville friends. For dinner, pumpkin pasta and asparagus. For dessert, poached pears with a vanilla bean sauce. We had to roll our guests out to their cars. But fortunately, everyone enjoyed it.

I took some photos of trees on their gorgeous property. They've had a little more rainfall than we have, and so I enjoyed the beautiful colors while I could. The one below I've titled, "Don't Be Shy."

We also visited the Citadel, Dan's Alma Mater. The campus was empty for fall break when I took these pictures, but we did drive through the campus the day before when all the students were there. So I saw the freshmen (the "Knobs") walking rigidly in the gutter from one class to another.

My talented husband. We found this hanging on the wall in one of the common rooms -- memorabilia of a talent show Dan won while he was there. He's the one holding the guitar in the second picture down.

It was quite chilly out, but we did stop in at the beach for a few minutes.

And, of course, Kaminskys, one of Dan's favorite little places in Charleston. Their flour-less Chocolate cake is pretty fantastic.

We stopped in on some old friends, as well. Below is Bryan Ray, looking at Dan suspiciously. Bryan was Dan's best man. What an incredible friend. And he has an adorable wife and two little boys. We really enjoyed hanging with them for a few hours.

Oh -- and the reason we went to South Carolina in the first place. Dan played at Fort Jackson and made some great connections with chaplains at the chaplain school. I didn't get many pictures of this either. (Sigh.) It really was an encouraging time of ministry. We stayed with John and Isie Kenyon (ahem, no pictures) and their five beautiful kids. They were a treat for me to get to know.