After spending time with my father in Pensacola following mom's passing, I am back home safe and sound. Yesterday we made a detour to Charleston to enjoy some local sites before attending a taping of Antiques Roadshow and having some stuff appraised. So...

1) Passed by the church where the idiot shot and killed black worshipers. We did not plan this, and it was a solemn moment. It really makes you wonder how sick a fuck you have to be - racist or not - to do something like that.

2) Made it to the South Carolina Aquarium. It was a pleasant experience, with lots of live demos, animal interactions, touch tanks, and sights to see. Aquariums, by their nature, can only be so interactive - and they did a great job making this one as interactive as possible. Oh, and there may have been otters...

*Seaweed Squee*

I took a pic of Tina with her otter swag, so keep pestering her until she tweets it and uploads it here!! (Actually, spare money was tight but they had some great sales going we took advantage of).

3) Visited the Fort Sumter Museum next door. Taking the ferry over to the fort was an extra charge we could not afford, but the Visitor's Center was very nice and informative.

4) We then went to our hotel for the afternoon/night. It claimed to be a Motel 6, but I think it was more like a Motel 5. Sketchy is one word for it. Despite being a no-smoking room the room reeked of smoke. Some stuff seemed very modern and up to date, but the TV and air unit (both of which did work fine) seemed to belong to another age. But on the upside, right in front of it was..

5) Osaka Habatchi and Sushi Bar. It was very unassuming on the outside, but very nice on the inside. Sushi was affordable and very, very good. The only downside was our appetizer came out after we were finished with out rolls - I suspect our server had forgot to put the order in at first. Oh well. Overall still a good experience.

6) After a.....sleep, we got up (very) bright and early and got to the convention center for the Antiques Roadshow. Man, I am glad we got there early because it allowed up to get in and out early ahead of the other 4999 people coming to get stuff looked at. As far as that goes, Tina had 2 things appraised - a 1st edition copy of How the Grinch Stole Christmas with a broken spine that was still worth $200-300, and some Animalympics animation cels that seemed to stump them a bit. They basically said they were worth what she paid for them, and that they were an investment that simply had not matured yet. I took some costume jewelry from my grandparents that they said represented high-end, art deco costume jewelry from Germany/Czechoslovakia and was est. at $100-125 (nice, considering they found it in a house they had bought). And finally the one we really went for - my copy of Charles Darwin's "On the Orgin of Species." It turns out I was correct, it IS an 1st edition of the American printing, and they suggested getting it rebound, not restored. A professional rebinding (he recommended an English person by name) could run $1000-2000, but the book itself could fetch $2500 at auction, so even if done there would still be a return on the investment. In any case, I was expecting it to be worth more in the low to mid hundreds, so I was pleasantly surprised. After that we headed back home and am now resting up.

It was a nice diversion after all the stress of the last 3 weeks, one I sorely needed. So time to collapse and gather my strength for the coming work week. Ugh, not looking forward to that.....