This Mississippi Kite was hanging out outside our apartment this morning.

Another view of the kite right after landing on the tree.

Between Little Blue Herons and Kites, it was a pretty great morning for bird sightings right outside our apartment.  We think that we saw a Swallowed-Tail Kite as well, but didn’t get a definite ID on that one.

These outfits got us a free meal at Chick-Fil-A!

Today started out as a normal Friday.  Then lunch time came, and we headed over to Chick-fil-A for a quick date.  However, it was not just another Friday at Chick-fil-A… today was Cow Appreciation Day.  So, we dressed up like brown cows with white spots.  One random guy took a picture of us – he said he wanted to post it on Facebook.  A few Chik-fil-A photographers were also wandering around, and they asked to take our picture as well.  The employees also got a kick out of our outfits.  We had a lot of fun, and are planning on doing it again next year.

The blueberries were plentiful.

On the evening of July 6 we ventured down to Champney’s Farm to pick our own blueberries.  We’ve never picked our own fruit before, and thought it could be a fun (and interesting) experience.  We arrived, did not run over the beagle who was eagerly sniffing moving car tires, payed our $8 and were given two gallon pails.  One was lined with a plastic bag, and was for holding all the blueberries.  The other pail was to allow us to each pick our own blueberries, and then combine the bounty.  The woman who gave us the pails also gave Louisa a belt so she could stick the pale on it to simplify picking.  We had a lot of fun picking berries, and are now waiting for a blueberry crisp to finish cooking!

Considering how much I use the HDMI port (none), I’m kind of surprised that HTC didn’t provide an option to disable the port or use a cable detection algorithm to speed up graphics when HDMI output isn’t needed.

As an upside to the story, a few developers over at the XDA Developers Evo Forums have been working on a fix for this issue.

Source Story: Android Guys

Green lizards are plentiful in South Carolina.

Happy Independence Day!  On July 3rd we cleaned out our old apartment, so we are now officially moved to SC!  This also means we have driven much, much too much in the past 2 weekends.

Hanging out at Caw Caw Interpretive Park

Due to all the driving, July 4th was a bit of a rest day.  We also checked out Caw Caw Nature Preserve, and took a walk through the woods and along the rice marsh trail.  We got to walk through a swamp, and Tony laughed as I repeatedly freaked out over all the spiders who were sitting, with their babies, in webs along the trail.  Once we cleared the spider section, we were out in the open – which meant we got lots of sun, but no spiders (yay!).  We saw an osprey nesting (we think the same osprey also flew over our apartment complex).  The bird was quite vocal, maybe it didn’t like us being around its nest?  We also heard (but didn’t see) a gator crash through the brush about 10 yards from us.

Sunset before the fireworks.

We then enjoyed a dinner of shrimp scampi, black pepper pasta, cheesy broccoli and key lime pie before venturing out to Sullivan’s Island to got for a walk on the beach and watch some fireworks.  We were fortunate to be able to see a bit of the Sullivan’s Island fireworks, both downtown Charleston’s and North Charleston’s celebrations, various private fireworks, as well as the Patriot’s Point celebration.  What we did not anticipate was a 2 hour traffic jam to get home, as well as the sheer number of sand flees (think – many, many sand flees) that would all decide to make use their late night snack.  Next time, bug spray is a must!

Louisa, after a large wave hit.

July 5th was another beautiful (albeit itchy!) day.  We decided to explore Edisto Beach State Park.  The drive down to the coast was pretty, and not too crowded.  We were able to spend a few hours walking the beach, watching the waves and seeing groups of pelicans fly overhead.  They would occasionally hit an air pocket and be held up in a mid-air traffic jam, providing an abrupt halt to the train of birds flying by.

Sullivans Island at sunset.

After Edisto Beach, we went to Pearlz for an early dinner.  They have a great happy hour (4-7pm weekdays) and wonderful fresh fish.  After dinner we went back to Sullivan’s Island for more time playing in the water,  watching the sun set behind us and the sky and water change color.  We also spotted a few sand crabs popping up and digging back into the sand, a very sandy colored (larger) crab, as well as several cargo ships making their way out to the open water.

Until our next post, we’ll be busy enjoying peaches and watermelon from Georgia!

We walked by a few historic buildings on the way to Fast and French.

About a month and a half ago we traveled down to Charleston, SC, to do a bit of exploration and find an apartment.  Well, we found a great place and are in the process of getting settled in there.  On the trip we also had a chance to do a bit of exploration in the historic section of downtown Charleston, and get dinner at Fast and French.  Tony enjoyed a seafood dish and some iced Earl Grey tea, and Louisa tried the nightly special – chicken cooked with a variety of peppers, served over rice, with a side salad and a glass of house wine. 

The pelicans were enjoying the beach too.

The next day we headed down to Folly Beach.  We managed to get out early enough to beat the crowds, and enjoyed our time walking along the beach, watching the ocean and pelicans skimming along the water. Overall, we had an enjoyable weekend trip to Charleston, and are excited to explore our new state.

Don't get between a man and his meat plate.

On April 10 we headed to downtown Blacksburg to check out the International Street Fair.  We had fun wandering around the many different booths, listening to music, examining different regional styles of dress, and purchasing food samples.  We tried some dumplings from Thailand (?) (with a spicy tomato sauce), beef and chicken skewers from Mongolia (?), and a chicken, rice, tomato and pepper dish from Saudi Arabia.  We also voted the Saudi guys most likely to be GQ readers, since they all had perfect teeth, were tall, and several wore dark sunglasses.

Coffee treats are fun too!

After the street fair, we kept walking up Main Street and ended the day at Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea.

Sunrise at the hotel.

During the past few years we have been following the Cherry Blossom festival from sunny but not-so-green-and-flowery Colorado.  This year, we decided to go see the cherry blossoms over Easter weekend.  We got a nice hotel in the Herndon area for Friday and Saturday; our room overlooked a small pond with geese.  We could also see the sun rise between the office buildings located across the parking lot.

Photo time at the blossoms.

Saturday morning we took the metro into DC and went in search of breakfast.  Louisa wanted bagels; Tony had the brilliant idea to search for “yummy bagels” and found Brooklyn Bagels.  The shop was small inside, but we found a table by the bagel making activities and happily ate breakfast while watching the cooks prep huge batches of bagels.

Not all the cool flowers at the festival were cherry blossoms.

After breakfast we continued on towards the National Mall and the Smithsonian.  I don’t think either of us really knew how many people would be in DC this weekend.  The answer – a lot.  There were even traffic cops out, but they were policing the pedestrians (who have apparently never heard of crosswalks or right of way) rather than the cars.  Despite the crowds, we managed to make our way towards the tidal pool.  Along the way we found a tulip garden with several dozen different tulip beds.  We enjoyed walking around the tidal pool, past the JFK and Jefferson memorials, and towards a park behind the Jefferson memorial.  There had been a lot of rain the past week, and the park’s sidewalk along the river had been flooded.  The aquatic birds, however, did not seem to mind and appeared to enjoy being able to swim up to picnic tables.

View of Jefferson Memorial from the basin.

We wandered back towards town and over to a Potbelly Sandwich shop for lunch.  We decided to wander through the Smithsonian section, then back towards the cherry blossoms.  Word of warning – when there are this many people around, trying to access any of the Smithsonian museums is not necessarily a great idea, since pedestrian traffic jams are quite common.  However, we did find a respite from the crowds at Union Station.  We also found dinner at a Japanese place in the bottom food court.

Easter walks are fun in DC.

Happy Easter!  On Sunday we first went towards Mt. Vernon.  However, the crowds there were prohibitive, so we briefly stopped at a local park (and saw an osprey flying!) before heading back into the city.  We got our metro passes, and took it to the Arlington exit.  We wandered over the bridge, and took a break along a shady, cool wall near the Lincoln memorial.  We eventually made our way back towards the cherry blossoms behind the FDR memorial, and found a little tree to sit under along the river looking back towards the river and the bridge.

Our drive home was relatively quick and easy, and included a stop at Five Guy’s.

Sign at the top of McAfee's Knob

Way back months ago, when the weather first began to turn warm, we drove over to McAfee’s Knob to do the first hike of the season.  Although the parking lot was quite crowded, we were fortunate enough to find a spot.  We crossed the road, Louisa stepped in a ditch full of stagnant water, and we began our trek up the mountain.  Fortunately, the weather was warm, and although a bit odoriferous, Louisa’s sock soon dried and the water incident was forgotten.    We had a perfect day for hiking, and although the view was a bit hazy, we still greatly enjoyed our hike.