New Years in Charleston

Every time I seep back into Charleston on I-26 from Atlanta I start to mellow out. And yes, I am already mellowed by my time in Atlanta and simply from being in the South but it's those Palmetto trees and Spanish moss that get me into a valium vacation care of Mother Nature.

I arrived on Tuesday 30th and just got back to NYC today. There was loads of boozing naturally, but more exciting than that was my new passion for the bicycle. Now I haven't been on one in about 15 years since Claire and I used to sit on each others handlebars and peddle to the cafeteria at the College of Charleston, but I hopped back on this trip and had a blast.

I know Jorgen tried to get me on a bike in Copenhagen numerous times but I refused, mostly because of the cobblestone streets, but also from my fear of falling in front of all of his Danish friends.

This year I had no choice. I decided to be spend thrifty and not keep my rental car all week in Charleston so my only option was peddling. Abby and I took Claire and Marco's bikes out for a spin and ended up on a bike and beer cruise down to the Blind Tiger. We had so much fun we forgot it was New Years Eve and we had a car picking us up in an hour. So we peddled like mad men uptown wearing New Years top hats and blowing horns provided by our kind bartender.

New Years Eve was a blur as usual but the next day was amusing tooling around in Abigail's 1974 Buick convertible out to Folly Island to make a 'Beeramid' with her boyfriend Brenden and brother, Nick.

Yesterday I again was on the bike enjoying a crisp day in Charleston with the scent of the paper mills wafting into town. I toured the Nathaniel Russell house at 51 Meeting Street then took a spin through the Wells Gallery, one of my favorite spots in Charleston for Low Country art.

Last night we had an amazing dinner at Lucca, the new hotspot in town and handily diagonal from Claire's home. She lives in an up and coming area and for this resto to land here is a gift from the neighborhood God's. One day it will happen in Harlem!

Now I'm back and I feel out of whack seeing salt on the streets and people hustling about. But I have one more day to savor of vacation until the mad mad world starts spinning once again.

It's all going to be fine in 2009.