12/4/15  Friday

Party night - Night on the Town - in Beaufort, SC. Similar to Portland, ME's First Friday with less focus on art or Freeport's Sparkle Weekend with similar focus on merchandise and getting in the spirit of commercial Christmas. Bay St, the street next to the bay oddly enough, was closed off for about 4 blocks. There were food vendors, most of proceeds went to various charities, some string quartets, bands, carolers, several small ensembles of young people, some dance performances including a young woman/girl with Down's Syndrome who did a lovely ballet solo to Nutcracker Snow queen or the pas de deux (familiar music but...).

We picked up our friends, Jon and Alice, as their dinghy was suspended out of the water (Jon's work project for the day),

Those are Jon's legs under the motor. Alice on the deck

and met our friend, Brian, and we "painted the town". Not. But we had a great time looking in some art galleries and other shops and landed ourselves in a family restaurant for dinner. Lots of stories of sailing, boating, stupid accidents, stupid boaters, etc. Brian, who is maybe 15 years younger and single stayed to walk the street again while we old(er) farts headed back to our boats by 2030. Fun. These are people we will definitely stay in touch with. Jon and Alice will continue into FL after they return from Christmas in CA. Brian is staying here indefinitely, perhaps to relocate here, as permanently as permanent is these days.

This has been a fun stop...a little shorter than the NC Beaufort. We felt we'd outstayed ourselves in NC. This time we're here only 5 days AND we have friends here - boating friends. So this has a greater sense of community. However, we're ready to leave tomorrow.

This morning we took Amelia to the vet to check on her weeping eye. Ms Kitty was treated for this in August. Conjunctivitis, needing salve in both eyes even though only one looks effected, perhaps due to stress. So, Alice and Jon dropped us off and picked us up in their rented car. David and I borrowed the courtesy car to go get prescription cat food for Amelia's Kidney Care. And we took Grace into the dock to give her a drink (fill the water tanks w/water) and get ourselves showers, preparing for the evening's revelries.

All in all a delicious day.