Sun/Moon -- City/Sand

QUESTION: What do you do when the bars are closing but you aren’t ready for bed?
ANSWER: Chicago's North Avenue Beach

Granted, it wasn’t exactly cool with the authorities that we were hanging out on the beach at four in the morning, but whatever, we really wanted to watch the dawn. We left Messner’s, stopped to pick up a couple bottles of cheap peach champagne, and headed east.
After a lot of running, ducking, bobbing and weaving (to avoid being seen by "the man" who works for the city driving the giant beach combing truck) we dove behind some foliage that offered us some protective cover and popped the corks.

To my left - Lake Michigan and a beautiful rising sun.
To my right - my favorite skyline and a setting moon.

My feet and the Lake


Chicago and the Moon


Kiki and the Bottle


The Bird and the Dawn


Thomas and the Sand

Daytripper Part II

Here are a few selected pictures from the fabled excursion to Charleston. DISCLAIMER: Being that we are men, we don't take good pictures. Don't hate.

Not bad for 7:30ish AM.

Is he pondering Occam's Razor or is he thinking about eating the poor unsuspecting gnomes?

2/3 of the men being half naked isn't bad.
(Note Saint's enormous biceps)

She was a decoy that Masonic Jeremy sent to try and trap me. It didn't work.

This is my doppelgänger; I see him out of the corner of my eye sometimes.
He looks like me but with bigger jowls.

There were a few more pictures; Blogger wouldn't let me load more than 5. Sorry.

Daytripper Part I

I woke up to Slash playing "Sweet Child O' Mine" in my ear at 6:30 yesterday morning. I stumbled out of my room to make sure my other roommates were showing signs of life, and smiled at the empty growler that had held a half gallon of Ball and Chain IPA the night before. Eric, Andy, and even Matthew were stirring, so I went on about slapping myself to make sure I was awake.

Eric just arrived in town Wednesday night from his solo road trip to San Francisco. He and I were originally headed to Turtleback in NC to slide off a waterfall or two, but that night we decided the beach sounded like a good idea.

We piled in the '98 Park Avenue at seven and dropped by Matthew's Starbucks to get some free coffee and muffins. We had a couple of hours ahead of us, so we did what all highway rockstars do: we compiled an epic playlist. Matthew's iPod rotated clockwise around the car (Matthew, Eric, myself, and Andy) a few times with each of us selecting one song before passing it to the next. I think we got out of order once or twice, but we never repeated a song, and we only had 4 band/artist repeats (without Journey being one of those).

These songs got us from Greenville to Folly Beach:

1. Horse With No Name- America
2. That’s What You Get- Paramore
3. Save Tonight- Eagle Eye Cherry
4. Semi Charmed Life- Third Eye Blind
5. Turn- Travis
6. Mouth Like A Magazine- Showbread
7. Tango Till They’re Sore- Tom Waits
8. Beautiful Day- U2
9. I So Hate Consequences- Relient K
10. Guantanamera (Live)- Pete Seeger
11. Everlong- Foo Fighters
12. O Praise Him (All This for a King)- David Crowder Band
13. Mr. Jones- Counting Crows
14. Don’t Stop Believing- Journey
15. Sea Of Heartbreak- Johnny Cash
16. You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling- Righteous Brothers
17. Ezekiel 25:17- Samuel L. Jackson
18. This Is How I Disappear- My Chemical Romance
19. Swing Set Girl- MxPx
20. We Built This City- Jefferson Starship
21. I Disappear- Metallica
22. Say It To Me Now- Glen Hansard
23. I Ain’t No Da Vinci- Leonardo Buscemi
24. Fistful Of Sand- Five Iron Frenzy
25. Time- Hootie & the Blowfish
26. The Blower’s Daughter- Damien Rice
27. Oh! Darling- The Beatles
28. Still Fighting It- Ben Folds
29. Prepare for War- Dragonforce
30. Third World Think Tank- Five Iron Frenzy
31. Say It Ain’t So- Weezer
32. If- Bread
33. I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight- Cutting Crew
34. Trusted- Ben Folds
35. I Shot the Sheriff- Bob Marley
36. American Pie- Don McLean
37. Misery Business- Paramore
38. Alaska Or Bust- Andrew Peterson
39. Fake Palindromes- Andrew Bird
40. Estrella- Brave Saint Saturn
41. Roxanne- The Police
42. Crazy Little Thing Called Love- Queen
    
43. Stockholm Syndrome- Muse
44. Learn To Breath- Switchfoot
45. Learning How To Die- Jon Foreman
46. Cheeseburger In Paradise- Jimmy Buffet
47. Picture- MuteMath
48. Immigrant Song- Led Zeppelin
49. Zombie- The Cranberries
50. Have You Seen The Rain?- Credence Clearwater Revival
51. Forgot About Dre- Dr. Dre feat. Eminem
52. That’s Me Trying- William Shatner feat. Ben Folds and Aimee Mann
53. Heavy Metal Drummer- Wilco
54. For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti- Sufjan Stevens
55. You Say- Vertical Horizon
56. A Llama Eats A Giraffe (And Vice Versa)- Showbread
57. My Guitar- Jump, Little Children
58. All Along The Watchtower- Jimi Hendrix

Lilo once scolded me for lack of playlists on my iPod; I do believe this makes up for that one.

Once we reached Folly Beach (10:30ish), I ran into a problem: I didn't know what beer I wanted to drink on the beach. I shall forever laud the staff of the Red & White convenience store next to the public access to the beach because their selection is excellent. Being a beer snob, I didn't expect much. Yuengling, maybe Sam Adams Boston Lager if we were lucky. Not only did they have the two preceding beers, but we found such blessings as Harpoon, Guiness, Harp, Bass, Sierra Nevada; they even had one of my personal favorites: Flying Dog Doggie Style. I was giddy; it was like watching an episode of the Ninja Turtles as a child and finding out that the mutant frogs would be guest starring. Andy and I decided to split a six pack of Sierra Nevada.

After applying our incredibly expensive sun block, Eric and I charged the ocean like wild Scots on the battlefield against the English oppression. Once we were in the water, I promptly tackled Eric, which somehow developed into us trying to beat up the ocean (like in that one episode of Pete & Pete).

The Atlantic soundly defeated us; that thing is relentless. I ambled back to our encampment on the beach, stopping briefly to explain to a few people that no, I was not an angel, merely Celtic by descent and I always glow blinding white when I am shirtless.

Pulling out an apple, and cracking open a beer promptly at 11:30, I felt freer than I have in a long time. There's been a lot on my mind for the past year, namely the waning health of a few people who are very dear to me. There's something about a red delicious and a lukewarm pale ale on the beach that is very therapeutic. I think the fact that my buddies and I were easily the least attractive group of single men on the beach and not caring added to the excellence of the moment.

We left the beach smelling like fresh air and saltwater, and I caught up with a high school friend on the phone (she's now a Charlestonian). We didn't get to meet up, but I had an excellent conversation with her, and we rekindled a dormant friendship.

We wandered around Charleston for a bit, calling to gloat to folks about our excellent day. I was in such a good mood that I apparently sounded drunk. With the help of a college friend, we found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant on the bad side of town and filled our bellies full of beef and hand-cut fries.

We arrived back in Greenville around 9:30 or 10:00. I went to bed fairly early, being pleasantly exhausted. I'll be posting some pictures soon (hopefully accompanied by witty captions). Matthew and I decided it will be remembered as one of the top 5 days of our lives; this one day was better than an entire week's vacation in Atlanta. I mean seriously, I woke up in a good mood this morning, that's not what I do.