If you're going to San Francisco...

I'm home again! Yay! The plane coming in had to circle low over San Francisco once before it could land, and I nearly cried. I had my nose pressed up against the glass, and I was going, "There's SFSU! There's Park Merced, and Sunset! There's the Park, and Land's End, and the Bridge, and the Presidio," and I went on and on. I know I haven't been gone for that long, but it feels like forever.

Sorry, I have to copy something in here before I get much farther. I have been jumping around on blogs for the last hour (yay for free internet!), and Brainylady pointed out the funniest site. Okay, maybe just funny to me, but I think it's great. You can make a Hollywood screenplay out of your website with the click of a mouse. Check out a bit of mine:

WINONA RYDER
You know, BETHANYRAMBLING, sometimes I think I should give up my independent florist ways and settle down with a decent man who will take care of me.
BETHANYRAMBLING
I explored a bit in the morning, and it was absolutely stunning.
WINONA RYDER nods in thought.
WINONA RYDER
Hmmmm.... I'd never thought of it like that before. Maybe I will keep this flower shop and not fall in love.
Suddenly, TOM HANKS comes into the shop. He is not impressed with the flowers on offer.
TOM HANKS
Look here, WINONA RYDER. I am not impressed with the flowers on offer here. Your flower shop is stupid.
He leaves.
WINONA RYDER
How incredibly arrogant that TOM HANKS is! I don't like him one bit.
BETHANYRAMBLING
The composting toilets actually had stained glass, and the library dome was soulfully painted.
WINONA RYDER
That's exactly what I was thinking BETHANYRAMBLING. Come on, let's continue our work as florists.

Hee hee. Most of it is silly and doesn't make much sense, but I am infinitely amused.

Anyway. Let's see. When we last left our intrepid explorers, they were in the wilds of Savannah, I believe. Right after we left the library we hit a little silly gifty shop, with a fabulous woman in it that told us all about these old church ruins halfway between Savannah and Charleston. I don't know why I am putting that in here, except maybe to remind myself that I HAVE to see them on my way south. It was too dark when we went through.

I did more driving at night and freeway driving on this trip than I have done in the last 3 months! I'm always kind of laid back and slow, because I know I am out here for the long haul. Sooner or later I will get there, so why rush? But Christy only had 6 days! And so much to see! So we traveled very purposefully.

We wandered a bit more, and saw the Telfair art museum, which had the bird girl from the cover of "the book". Nothing else really impressed me, except for this amazing, huge, two paneled work by an Italian painter. I'm sorry, I am not an art person, so I don't remember who or what it was called. I remember contemporary German artist called the piece something like "Lieftenbrodge", or whatever is actually German and not germanglish for Life Bridge. The first was light and airy, full of women cavorting up a staircase and into a house, aging as they cross. The second was a mirror image, except dark and sad, as the old women come out of the house and are led down the stairs. Pretty nifty.

We had a nice little lunch on the river front, in the type of restaurant that you would find on any water front in the states. Speaking of food... I think it is time for my rhapsody. Ahh, the meals we have had! On the way to the Hostel in the Forest, we stopped in Abbeville for lunch at the Hog Wild.

There were posters in town touting the annual Wild Boar Festival (we just missed it), so we though a place called Hog Wild would be perfect. Plus it was one of only two places in town.

It was a Sunday afternoon, and the place was packed with the after church crowd. They all knew each other, were all dressed up, and they all had the greatest accents! We were sitting next to a table with a baby, and I think every diner in the place stopped by at least to coo and play. Somehow that is even cuter with a southern drawl.

We filled out our little paper order form (is that a southern thing? Mary Mac's Tearoom in Atlanta had it too), and then feasted. I had sweet tea (how could I not?), which somehow tasted miles better than any kind of sweetened tea we have out here. Christy and I kind of ate family style, which just means liberal stealing and sharing. We had ham, fried chicken, collards, sweet potato souffle, broccoli casserole, cornbread, and for desert, banana pudding and blackberry cobbler. It was great! With the people, and the red checked tableclothes, and wood porches and alluminum roofing design on the interior, it almost felt like we were at a church picnic.

At the end of our trip we had a dinner at Mary Mac's Tearoom, a place right across from our hostel that served great soul food. The atmosphere here was much more refined, fanned napkins and cocktails before dinner, but it was the same great food. This time we tried fried green tomatoes and pot likker, which I think was a kind of collard greens soup with bacon. Excellent.

Okay, that's enough about that. I will be back to baked beans and canned Campbell soup soon, so I have to just relish this a little.

But first, Christmas at home! Luminaria, carols, fudge, Lebchuchen, bulging stockings, jumping up on my sister's bed to wake her at 6:59, getting socked by same sister, reconciling with sister over gold coins and stollen. Ahh. This will be a nice vacation.

Ah shoot, I feel done here, but I haven't said anything about Rufus Wainwright or Charleston. They were both great. Grand, beautiful, lavish. Charleston had a little more history than Rufus. Actually, he did have quite a bit, considering he was playing with his sister, and they did one of their father's songs, and Martha did a song that was on their mother's album.

Charleston was much more gentile than Savannah, or at least that was the feeling I got. We did some shopping, and a lot of walking.

Okay, I really am done now. Oh, let's see, knitting news. I ain't done squat, but Christy finished a very nice lacy looking scarf for a Christmas present. I didn't even try to get my needles in my carry-on luggage, and I didn't check anything, so no knitting for me! Now that I can't do it, I'm craving it. I may have to stop at a LYS in a day or two. (Is that the right acronym? I am not a very good knitting blogger.)

Okay, now I'm done.

Except for this quote that I simply have to post, from Ursula LeGuinn:

It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.

Okay, and while I'm at it, this one from Wallace Stegner:

The driver of an automobile on a lonely road is a set of perceptions mounted in the forehead of a mechanical monster...the only real world is the narrow cabin from which he sees unreal shapes writhe by,
fences and trees and bridge rails, the mouths of culverts jammed with tumbleweed, the snaky road with its parallel-and-then-unparallel lines, the ruts of rainy drivers still unerased and serpentining...

Oh, just read the book. "Big Rock Candy Mountain". It's all good.

All right, I'm really done now.

Comments

[Stonering]

Yes, LYS is the right acronym. Local Yarn Supplier. I'm enjoying reading about your travels. I live in Oregon, but spent all my life until 4 years ago in central Florida, so it's fun to see you enjoying the deep south in Georgia. Florida is so far south it comes out the other end -- lots of northeners. Georgia is deeper south than centrao Florida. But I was in Georgia often enough that what you've written about has a familiar ring to it.

[Tara]

I completely understand what you're talking about. The excitement of heading to a place that is simply the embodiment of the concept known as "home" after an extended absence.

Dude, I'm flying back to Oregon Monday at a bright and shiny 6:30 a.m. I've only been gone for six months doing my own wandering around the states that eventually lead me to Minneapolis. It really is about time to get into a tickling fight with the siblings. Followed by a verbal fight shortly there after. Just to reconcile in time to leave them all.

Ahh, home. It's place I can't stand. Yet can't stand to be without.

[alison]

You know what? Filling in a paper order form at a restaurant is a Taiwanese thing, too! I love it when I get handed one with no English on it. I just want to say, "Oh, come on, now."

Happy holidays, Bethany!

[Rob]

OK, you have just succeeded in making me homesick for Atlanta--between the sweet tea at Mary Mac's, mentioning the hostel (which I've parked behind/next to countless times when going out or heading to eat), and other Southern things......thanks for a great read (via our mutual bud Rachael.......)