Verdict: Charleston is a Good Place, afterall

My special Charleston Saturday did not end with my last blog post--I wandered around the city admiring the staunch palmettos mingled with magnolias, bright flowers and green shrubs. The area near the river was super gorgeous, houses that share features with New Orleans; ie lots of iron-wrought gates. The weather was sweaty, swampy, humid nasty, but I still enjoyed wandering and meandering around, especially as I kept seeing those tacky horse drawn carriages filled with tourists (or a bride & a groom in one case). I have some great photos to post but B has them on his computer...so they're coming.

I did some research to figure out WHERE to end up for dinner. We tried "Sesame Burgers and Beer" in North Charleston, and it was ab fab. The prices were incredibly cheap and this place offered creative burgers made on either: beef burger, turkey burger, chicken burger, or black bean burger. I got the sliders to try a whole bunch of them, and Ben and I were both impressed with the "everything here including our buns and ketchup is made from scratch" and the use of local ingredients. mmmm!

Later that weekend we trekked out for a "weed and feed" at Greenleaf Farms in Barnesville, GA, where we weeded for several hours and then were treated to a huge feast, thanks to the farmer and his wife (who works at Dynamic Dish here in Atlanta). See, he sells at the local Decatur farmers market, and has the best fresh and delicious arugula in this world. We loved seeing all the goodness out at his organic farm and got to delight in the farmers world. I immediately said "I want to own an organic farm!" and 3 hours later, sloshed in mud and with an aching back, retracted my statement.

It's pretty incredible that I'm actually posting this right now because this week has been probably the most busy ever since I moved to Atlanta. I was working with a conference of grantmakers here for several days, requiring me to arise at 6 something and return home at 9 or 10 something. Those days were hard. That plus lots of other jobs are keeping me busy from before daylight to after dusk.

But somehow we managed to sneak in Beer Club's third meeting yesterday. The theme was "seasonal" and we got lots of fall ales and harvest ales and oktoberfests. The end results were surprising: top 3 beers: Duck Rabbit's Wee-Heavy Scotch Ale tied with Sierra Nevada's Harvest Ale, and second place went to Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale. They were all fabulous!