Thunderstorms, Golf and Easter!

It's been a busy few weeks here in Charleston, and the weather went from "spring" to HOT (well, for us anyway).  It has been in the 80's here the past few weeks, and that means we started to turn on our air-conditioning.  Normally I wouldn't dream of turning it on this early, but the humidity in the air makes it a must.

Since it is getting nice and hot out, our little garden in the back is just growing and growing!  I can't wait to see what it produces.  The farmers market down the street from us has such amazing produce, that hopefully what comes out of our back yard will be just as good.

Along with this spring humidity, we have also gotten some spring thunderstorms.  Having grown up in Seattle where it just drizzles, I hadn't really had the opportunity to see what a true thunderstorm is.  The thunder is really something else, it's so loud that it shakes the house.  It's weird though, because there is no rain... until about 5 minutes later when the heavens open up and a downpour comes.  It is truly a sight to see.  Below are some photos from our back and front porch of how the rain is just pouring down, it is warm though, so it's not too miserable.

It only rains for a few hours in the day, so it's a nice break since we both know that there will be sun again!

As for sun, yesterday we decided to play golf with some of our friends.  We had a groupon for a course up in Summerville and Mike and Christine were nice enough to trek out there with us.  It was hot and steamy on the course, at 11am we were all sweating, but we were ready to get out there, until...  we were told by the starter that this was perfect weather for alligators...  Um, excuse me, WHAT!??  We were warned that although they hadn't lost anyone on this course, it does happen, and that we needed to make sure we were on the lookout for any around water features, if you ball goes down to the water, just leave it, there could be an alligator waiting to bit your arm off..  Well, that was something we had never dealt with before... Needless to say, we were all a little bit on edge..  Below are some pictures of the course, and the wildlife!  Notice on one hole, the tee was about 5 feet from a very large mama alligator, yeah...  my first shot definitely went into the water, I was a bit nervous!

 First hole water feature with turtles in the front and an alligator in the back... lovely...

 Cart path, alligator swim spot...

 This little guy was in the middle of the fairway, I didn't want to hit him, so Christine came and moved him...  Great idea!

 Until she went to put him in this pond...  You can't really see it, but there's a lovely alligator swimming there, looks like we know what's for lunch.

 Tee on the 17th hole, if you look right by the end of my club, you'll see the mama alligator...

 By the men's 18th hole tee, lovely...

For reference as to how close they were!

Needless to say, it wasn't the best golf game of our lives, but fun, and a great way to spend a Saturday.  A much needed gin and tonic was had on the back porch when we got home...

Today, is Easter.  We were excited for our first Easter in the Lowcountry, and woke up bright and early to get to church...  we were at mass by 7:30, and it was packed, standing room only by a lot of people, they were pouring out of the doors!  We wanted to get some brunch after church, but nothing was open yet, so we hit up Starbucks, read the paper and waited.  At 10 we headed to Locklears and had some wonderful brunch.  Crab Cake Benedict for me, and a Cainhoy Country scramble for Blake (scramble with crab, scallops and a yummy creamy garlic sauce).  The best part of the morning was we got to sit outside!

Tonight we'll be making a ham and having our friend Lauren over for dinner...

Hope everyone else is having a happy and restful Easter as well!