California!

I'm in So Cal for the weekend for a conference. It's already lovely and I'd forgotten just how much I enjoy traveling by myself! Bought some Blenheim super-spicy ginger ale from a cute soda-fountain shop, all the way from South Carolina. Upon arrival, I also ate an orange that I bought in Chicago and was likely grown around here. It's funny how much food travels around.

It's clear, sunny, hot, and kind of boring here (more antique stores than seems even remotely sustainable), but I strolled around, met a lot of friendly people, ate some tasty tacos (So Cal does seafood tacos RIGHT), and now I'm going to see if I can't take a dip in the pool. I'll try to take some pictures, and I'll try even HARDER to get to the beach (it's only a train ride away but I have to, you know, work).

Top 10: Columbia, SC

Tonight's my last night in South Carolina (ok, so I'm posting this late), so I thought I'd compile a little list of stuff that's cool in the state capitol, Columbia. The current slogan for Columbia is "famously hot" and while that's appropriate, there are also better things. For example, as you can see in the picture above, it's super jungly, even in the city! This was some house we looked at during my friend's apartment search a few years ago. That's a maternity dress I got on ridiculous sale at Old Navy and took in the shoulders a bit. It's too hot to wear black in SC but I keep doing it anyway.
So, I wrote a top 10 list of things to do & see in Columbia!

1. WUSC, the college radio station, 90.5 FM. Thanks for taking my request for Umm Khoulthum, DJ Watson! Y'all rule. You can stream them online, highly recommended.
2. The river walk. Columbia is at the crosshairs of two rivers, the Broad and the Saluda, and there's a nice long nature trail along one of them, which is where I took the picture that is the banner of my blog. It's super jungly and you can swim in the river, and also tube down it if you put in further upstream.
3. The Olympia quarry. Olympia is an old mill neighborhood, so there are some mills converted into apartments, which is cool, but there's a working quarry which you can climb up some rocks and look over towards the river. It's very pretty at dusk, but it can be a shady neighborhood so be careful.
4. The Horseshoe. This is the central quad of the University of South Carolina, and it's pretty and very Southern and genteel. Nice to stroll around with an ice tea from the nearby Cool Beans or Immaculate Consumption (say hi to my dad who chills out there a lot), and go visit the McKissick Museum at the top of the quad to see the geology collection or whatever historical artifacts are on display (once it was pre-Civil War quilts, once it was stories and photographs of bbq places around the state). The Caroliniana Library is also very pretty inside, and useful if you're interested in SC history or in sitting in a quiet air-conditioned place with lots of books and busts of famous South Carolinians. And there's a cute garden and greenhouse at the far end.
5. Finlay Park. This used to be called Sidney Park, back in the day. It's a huge place on a hill, with a giant fountain leading to a series of rock-rimmed streams, a giant waterfall you can walk under, playgrounds, fields for frisbee, laying around, listening to free concerts, a view of the city, swings high up on the hill for surveying the grounds. Lots of fun.
6. Nickolodean Theater for independent and art films. Tiny adorable theater that serves beer. A classic French films series is this fall!
7. New Brookland Tavern to watch shows and drink Yuengling (it's big in SC), and the coffee shop next to it to watch scene kids coming in and out of shows while you drink your tea like an old lady. There's a pretty decent used bookstore just down the street, too.
   
8. The downtown Richland County Public Library. I know I'm a dork for putting two libraries on my list, but it's a really cool building with a giant green glass facade and a undulating center atrium, a good music collection, a cool "Where the Wild Things Are" children's section & lots of programs for kids (at least when I was a kid), and a lot of places to read and cool down.
9. Mac's on Main for jazz & blues, and a really cool, chill atmosphere. They also have bbq and drinks, and sometimes old couples dance to the band playing. You can also walk across the street and see a giant chain "holding together" two buildings, the work of local artist Blue Sky, who also painted a giant mural Tunnelvision that looks exactly like a tunnel going into the side of a building.
10. Group Therapy, by far the coolest bar in Five Points, the college drinking center. It's got one of the most diverse and laid-back crowds I've seen, all kinds of different people, and a lot of people go there just to dance. Columbia's actually got a pretty decent DJ scene and there are people who aren't afraid to breakdance or really show some moves. Art Bar, in the Vista, isn't bad either but it felt a little more hipster to me, less of a mix of the crowd. But it is cool-looking, with its shiny undulating bar, graffiti blacklight dance room, and giant robots.

Wow, I had a lot of trouble packing that into 10 points! Growing up, I always moaned about how boring my area was, but on this past trip I really gained an appreciation for how interesting it can be, if you know where to look. A lot of these places are free or cheap, good for all ages, but I guess for a few of them it helps to be a bit older.

Charleston

I went to Charleston for a couple days with some friends last weekend. It's one of my favorite places to be, so I wanted to share some things that we did.

We went straight to the beach at Isle of Palms. It's easier to park in the residential part of the island and use the public access paths to the beach rather than deal with the crowds near the middle of the island where the public park is. You can always go back there to use their outdoor showers and bathrooms. When I went the weekend before, we swam at Sullivan's Island, which is even less popular, but currently there is a big sandbar blocking all the waves. We walked out to the sandbar and found a lot of starfish and sand dollars (and jellyfish!). The picture is from the beach at Isle of Palms a couple years ago.

After everyone was good and salty, we took showers (my friend's aunt lives on the island so we stayed with her) and headed to Charleston Crab House for dinner. There's one downtown that I've been to several times for the rooftop dining with a view of the market and the water, but we went to the location on James Island. I had bacon-wrapped crab-stuffed shrimp (yeah, that's right. I'm definitely not vegetarian in South Cackalacky) and she-crab soup. She-crab soup is my second-favorite thing to eat in the Lowcountry, but I already had shrimp and grits last weekend at Shem Creek Bar & Grill, another fantastic place to eat. Shem Creek is in Mt. Pleasant, and you can sit beside the marsh and enjoy the evening while eating some delicious seafood.

After dinner, we went to Surf Bar in Folly Beach. This sounds like a lot of driving, but it's all pretty close, and you get to look at pretty marshland and live oaks while you're going from place to place. We sat out on their big patio and played Uno and had some local brews (from COAST and Palmetto Brewing Company, I had a Mobius, which was very refreshing and tasty). We waited out the worst of an epic thunderstorm and then spent the night at our friends' house on James Island. In the morning, we hauled out the boat and put in at Wappoo Creek, then cruised over to Red's Ice House on Shem Creek. I had an oyster po' boy (I only eat oysters when I can smell salt water) and a lot of sweet tea. It was really cool to see Charleston and its surrounding area by sea. We went out past the bulkheads into the open ocean, where we saw a lot of dolphins playing, a mysteriously-colored "dog shark" and a lot more jellyfish. We went past Fort Sumter to a little beach at the end of a long peninsula jutting off of Folly Beach, where we swam and hung out and got worse sunburns. Some other people were having a shrimp boil, which looked and smelled like an excellent idea, but we had to get back. We had showers, I had a nap, and a quick dinner at Jack's Cosmic Dogs on James Island, before heading home.

Now I just have to have a Cheerwine before heading back home!

Night by the Lake

Seriously, y'all, there is nothing to do in my town. I went to sit on my friend's grandparents' dock a few nights ago to just look at the sky and talk. At least there's a bit of a breeze out there.

Packing for the South!

Even though I own a lot of clothes, I travel really light. The picture above is what I brought on this two-week trip to South Carolina, plus shoes (below), the fancy dress hanging on the wall (below) and underwear. It fit in a small backpack and a small duffel bag, along with some books and toiletries and various other things that you have to tote around with you all the time.
This came out rather dark, but the heels are only for the wedding I was attending, and they go with the orange and yellow dress. The sandals, Eddie Bauer bronze pointy-toe flats, and small leather Guess purse are all from Unique thrift store on various trips, and I use them constantly.I put everything in the second drawer of this old dresser, which wasn't mine when I had this room as a kid, but is pretty nice. You can also see that my parents now use "my" room as a place to stack tons of books, although a lot of these were mine in high school. The vanity that matches the dresser is also covered in stacks of books, such that the mirrors are barely visible. I bought the dress on the wall for $5 at an antique mall with Jess and her family when they came to visit Chicago. It's vintage 1950s, with its own belt, and I had to take it in a little in the top, but once it's on it has that nice full-skirt silhouette. I realized that I tend to bring the same things on every trip. The black dress makes it a lot, even though my parents have a white dog so it always gets covered in hair. The white-and-red hippie blouse and the pastel-striped blouse have also made it on several summer trips. I remember wearing the turquoise scoopneck t-shirt when I bought the green skirt, at a thrift store in Maine, so I know it made the travel cut before too. The floral dress (worn here as a skirt) I bought at H&M one time when I stopped there with some visiting friends who had a pool in their hotel and I needed a swimsuit in order to swim with them. It was less than $5 and while I generally make a point of not shopping at H&M, it worked then as a swimsuit cover-up and now I wear it as a long skirt (folding down the empire-waist top), a short dress, and a short skirt with a top over it (here). It's kind of skimpy on top, so I've tried to find other ways to wear it when I'm not at the beach or in an insanely hot climate.

Well, I'm in one now! Today the high was 95 and the heat index in the 105-108 range. I wish I was kidding. Thank God, we have air-conditioning. I'm not quite sure how people down here lived before it. I've been tired all the time since I got here; I don't know if it's the unreasonable heat, the lack of a schedule or work, allergies, recovering from an almost-sleepless night and somewhat grueling move right before I left Chicago, or what, but I'm a total sloth.

Here is a crazy post I started to write at 3 am while I was unpacking my apartment and packing for this trip, about a week ago. I didn't post it because it was disjointed, so I've edited a bit:

I'm going home in a few hours to South Carolina to see my family and chill out. Unfortunately it is going to be insanely hot while I'm there. [how prescient of me!] I've got a wedding to attend and the beach to go to, but other than that, I'll probably be mostly hanging around my tiny boring hometown or pestering friends who live in the closest (and still smallish) city.

I try to show some class on the plane in case there's the slightest chance of getting upgraded. I've been bumped up to business class a couple times due to delays and other harrowing snafus, but let me just say that transatlantic business class on Air France is the Best Possible Thing that could ever happen to you. Anyway, I understand that it might have something to do with classy dressing, so I try to look good. This time, of course, I'm going to look insane and tired, since I've been packing and unpacking all day and then packing my bags again. It's also ideal to have something with pockets for stashing your boarding pass and ID and other gunk you might be acquiring while reading magazines standing up or buying overpriced iced coffees.

Fortunately for me, I've got a green a-line knee-length skirt that I wear to work, and some super comfy pointy-toed bronze flats (slip-off and -on footwear is crucial, bonus for avoiding bare feet on airport floors.) Add my new black Zara cardigan I got at a yard sale for $5 recently and I'm set. I'm not sure I can travel without my giant scarf, but I might have to cut the cord. Maybe I'll bring a tiny scarf. Just a little one? [my better judgment actually won out and I didn't bring any scarf at all, realizing I wouldn't use one in this kind of heat where you want as little as possible touching your skin.]

Ugh, gotta dig out earrings... now which box were they in? [I brought 2 pairs of earrings: my old Turkish coins my mom got before I was born, and some pink faceted drops I got at a yard sale after Claire's wedding a few weeks ago. I've also been borrowing from mom.]

Little Mountain Antique Store

Mom & I went to Little Mountain Unlimited (beware the website's bad country music), a giant antique store in a tiny town next to ours. It's pretty much the only thing in the town, but it's a winner. I took pictures of stuff I liked since I'm not feeling rich enough to buy anything.

Mom tired out way before me, so I bought her a coke, and she sat in a chair and waited for me. How the tables have turned! I spent large portions of my youth waiting on her to shop, so I tried to hustle as I know how boring it is.
I really liked this black velvet fedora but realized I've got a zillion hats I never wear at home. Also, why am I always making this weird floppy-wrist pose?I just really liked the color of this cobalt blue necklace. The photo came out a little lighter than it looked without the flash, but it's still pretty.
I love glass bottles, especially this collection of purple ones. But I wonder, would they look so good if they weren't all massed together?
This lamp had been converted from an old oil-burning lamp. A bit traditional for my usual taste but still really nice, and simple silver and green would look good anywhere.
There were a ton of lanterns but this one was actually a toy, made in Japan, and was battery-operated. I am considering going back and getting it, as the tag says it "Really Works!" and it's so cute. It's $15. Should I get it?
My favorite booth had a small collection of old lab glassware. I really want one, ever since I saw some of these posts that I wrote about earlier that use old beakers and flasks as vases. I really don't feel like carrying glass on the plane, though, and also I hold out hope that I'll be able to scavenge some old chemistry lab glassware one of these days.Unfortunately this picture is a bit blurry, but there's another skinny lab flask and some small heavy stoneware cups from the US Army Medical Corps. The whole store had a lot of this stoneware; I wonder why?
More old pretty bottles. There were a lot of old apothecary bottles that I really liked, some with manufacturers and contents and "Union Made" stamped on them. I have a glass bottle problem and really want them all.
Like this stoneware jug for mercury! There was also a cool jar from an old Ekhert's, the drugstore that used to be in our town until it was recently replaced by a RiteAid.
Some pretty amber pressed glassware. I loved all the little cup sets, and couldn't possibly photograph them all.
I liked this tortoise chain necklace. It's similar to a necklace I saw awhile back in JCrew.
Some really cool rugs. I thought of my friend Lila who needs some rugs for her new kitchen!
I discovered that I really like jadeite. It was the color that Jess and I discussed painting my new room, and it really did turn out very similar. More pictures of that later-- I took one during the painting process but the color is awful.I loved these door knob pulls, especially in jadeite, of course, but they were new ("made in Hong Kong") and not vintage, so I passed. I also don't really have any furniture crying out for new knobs.
I love this tin mug with it's unique swirled enamel! The blue and white looks so cute, and it reminds me of the similar mugs my family had for camping.
A bunch of cute aprons. There were some cute patterns and one was printed with a calendar, with illustrations in pink and black for each month. But half-aprons are totally impractical and make me think too much of Betty Draper, which makes me uncomfortable (please do click the link; it leads to an interesting discussion of vintage fashions from a time that was very different from today in terms of opportunities for women and minorities, and I've got more to say about it later.)
I loved this old school chair. Also, the whole place is full of pretty, old, huge Persian rugs, most of which appear to be for sale.
These enameled cabinets were a set of two. I couldn't decide if they were ugly or awesome. I think they are cool and interesting, but can't imagine them looking good in a house.
More adorable glassware and pyrex. I have plenty of mixing bowls but this makes me want another set.
I really liked the rainbow embroidery on this very old tablecloth.
I loved these colorful bowls too. The irregular spots of stoneware peeking through the glaze on the green one were interesting, and of course it's my favorite shade of green.
More pretty bowls and tiny glasses, and I like the rose pattern: it almost look like a spray-painted stencil. And wow, that's the end!

Rainbow Falls

Check it out: this is in South Carolina. It's Rainbow Falls, up near the NC border. The trail is pretty new. My friend (in yellow) and I went there yesterday. It was a really sweaty and humid hike, but once you get there and play around in the cool mist of the waterfall, everything is perfect and you know you can just hustle downhill the whole way back.

Peach Cobbler

A few nights ago, I made myself some cheese grits & peach cobbler. Although Georgia is known for its peaches, South Carolina actually produces more of them. We just have more important and interesting things going on to be famous for, so we let that slide.

In addition to Smitten Kitchen, as previously mentioned, we in my house love Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen. To the extent that we are disappointed that one cannot be a "fan" of them as an entity on facebook, and must be a fan of the TV show, which we do not watch. We have the cookbook, The New Best Recipe, and we are fanatic about it. I really appreciate their scientific approach to cooking. Multiple tests with controlled variables and a totally obsessive pursuit of perfection: it warms my compulsive little heart.

But, in real life, I don't cook like that at all. For someone so in love with perfect scientific recipes, I really play fast and loose with them. How hypocritical.

Click here for the recipe I used, sortof. (You have to be subscribed in order to use Cook's Illustrated's website, and I happened to have one issue with this recipe in it. Fortunately, other people have typed it up for me.)

I had bought a pint of peaches at the farmer's market, but they went bad in about 3 days, and I was vexed. I salvaged what I could of them, leaving me with about 2 cups, if we're lucky, of peach mush. That's not at all the 2 1/2 pounds of firm but ripe peaches that the recipe calls for, so I halved the rest of the recipe (again, more or less.)

I used more than the proper proportionate amount of lemon juice, and didn't drain the peaches at all, just added extra cornstarch. I also didn't have plain yogurt, so I used sour cream. In addition, I ate about a quarter of the dough before I baked it (it was delicious).

We ate it with ice cream and watched the Up Series documentary. Lovely!

Image from here.

South Carolina is Magic

Look at this cool photo my dad took on his morning walk, with his cell phone! I love the way the puddle looks like a little light-filled window. This is the park across the street from our house. I have tickets for a 2-week trip home coming up, and I'm so excited!

In other news, I finally got Project Runway to stream, hallelujah, where have you been all day when I needed you?

Goals

Summer Goals:

1. Get my hair as long as it is in this picture
2. Wear a cowboy hat more & be braver about wearing tiny dresses
   
3. Go home to SC and eat too much seafood in Charleston and hide from rainstorms on church porches and explore old graveyards and go to the beach and chill with my friends.