Cue Random Cannon Fire

Day 18: a photo of your town

This is a picture of downtown Charleston as taken from just outside my office 5 minutes ago...yes I recognize I am totally spoiled. It is true, this is in fact where I go to work every day:

Within 6 months of taking a 2 year fellowship in Charleston I knew that I loved it and could easily stay here...that was 8 years ago...obviously I was right :)

Today is a particularly interesting day in Charleston, which makes it kind of funny that today's picture was a picture of your town. 150 years ago today the Civil War started...yes, I recognize that to most of the world April 12 is not a big deal...in Charleston, it's a VERY big deal, believe me. To commemorate it there has been random cannon fire all day yesterday and today from various places around the harbor which makes it funny talking to people about normal work stuff and randomly hearing a cannon shot :) This morning they had a big memorial thing since the first shot was fired from here at Ft. Johnson towards Ft. Sumter...this is literally a 2 minute walk from where I am sitting right now:

Maia and I chose to have breakfast at the Lost Dog Cafe in Folly and let the crowd of people and buses and cars clear out of work before we headed out here, but everyone who was gathered at the point saw this:
Charleston has this amazing quality of being a city, but not, being a historical mecca but also a college town, having a weird mix of hippies, and yuppies, and regular old blue collar workers...it is all around a wonderful place to live. I love the farmers market and the fact I can get to the beach in 10 minutes, that I can walk people visiting me through downtown and look out at the harbor while talking about sleeping porches and lounging under live oak trees, I love walking in the woods in April and breathing in the fall breeze in October, and as much as the summer humidity kicks your butt, it is beautiful in it's own right. Charleston is a good town to call your town :)