Lil' Jonathan comes for a visit

Our friends Jonathan and Rebecca brought their son Jonathan Jr. over for a visit today. Junior is destined to be best buds with our soon to arrive son Will. We are already having dreams of play times together at the new playground the county just built near our house. Here is a good picture of Lil' Jonathan catching a nap with his mother Rebecca.

Enquiring mind wants to know

This is for Jennifer's dad who wants to see a picture of Scout with her summer haircut.

Memorial Day

We spent Memorial Day in the mountains of North Georgia. Our friends Erik and Katherine have a cabin they built adjacent to the public dirt bike trails in the National Forest. Erik is an avid rider and so are Roy and Missy (Jennifer's brother and his wife). So this was a much anticipated dirt bikin' rally for them. Here are a slew of pictures of the wonderful day we had there.

The shower

Jeniffer's mother and sister in-law threw us a shower when the family visited this Memorial Day weekend.They really went all out. They had sent virtual invites to our friends scattered across the country and many of them sent us presents through Amazon. This is a picture of the decorating they did of our dining room.










As you can see we were showered with gifts.










This is my brother in-law Roy. He took the shower games with appropriate seriousness.












Jennifer loved all the presents for Will. Here she is showing off one of the thoughtful gifts we received.

The Reception

Exquisite is about the best adjective I can use for the reception held at the Hibernian Hall. Everything was done in the best possible style. One of the most memorable details for us was walking through a chorus of Gospel singers as we arrived at the hall.

Here is a link to a page on the history of the hall. http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/Charleston/hib.htm
My father passed on a book to me on this trip called A Team of Rivals, which is a recounting of how Abraham Lincoln became president and then immediately installed his rivals as members of his cabinet. Ironically, this hall was the site of the contentious national democratic convention that nominated Stephen Douglas, contributing to the victory of Lincoln in the presidential election.

Wedding day in Charleston

Our day began inauspiciously when we took the tour from hell of Charleston. More than once our tour guide directed our attention to the former residence of a signer of the "declaration for the consititution." And this was one of his slighter offences. Here is picture of the tour bus so
you know whom to avoid if you visit Charleston.



The poor tour aside, Charleston is a beautiful city and well worth taking a tour of. If I had it to do over again I would use one of the horse drawn tours or do a walking tour. One of the coolest places to tour was the Citadel. Here is shaky picture from the tour bus of a wedding recessional.


The wedding ceremony for Marc and Anne was in this wonderful historic chapel near the Medical College in Charleston. It is called St. Luke's and it has a rich history beginning with its sevice as a shed for the Federal Arsenal in Charleston. Later it was converted to a chapel for the Porter Academy. The chapel was filled with beautiful stained glass and intrriguing plaques. The plaque on our row commemorated the boys from the academy who had perished in the Great War. Here is a link to a page on the history of the chapel http://www.musc.edu/stlukeschapel/history.html

These are some pictures outside the chapel after the ceremony had finished. Notice the picture of one of the rickshaws waiting to whisk guests to the next event. These rickshaws appeared to be a very popular way for people to get around the old city.

First night in Charleston

We arrived in Charleston tonight for the beginning of the festivities for cousin Anne's wedding. The event tonight was a rehearsal dinner cocktail party at the historic Rice Mill Building, which is situated on this gourgeous marina. Unfortunately I did not think to break out the camera until darkness had fallen, and seeing that I still have yet to read the camera manual in any sort of depth the pictures I took of the marina view were worthless. But I did get these few pictures of the extended Stuckert and Walton clan enjoying each others company. On the way back to our hotel we drove through downtown Charleston. What a picturesque city. We hope to get many usable pictures of the fascinating buildings and homes when we go sight seeing tomorrow afternoon.