Justin, Danny and Sarah
Samuel Herbig
We're going to Columbia!
We rode into town early Thursday afternoon to one of the tunes Whitney and I had heard at the Bluebird Cafe just days earlier. Chris Cagle's version of the song was decidedly too "American Idol" sounding when compared to the raw-yet-humerous version songwriter Dave Berg had performed. The sky was blue and it was warm out. After some cooler days, this was a very welcome change of pace. Those leaves were almost making it look like spring!
Introducing our Columbia hosts:
- Justin; budding gun-smith, philosopher-at-large.
- Sarah; professional animal whisperer (not just Beasly!), fiery as her hair.
- Danny; the bouncer, the playboy, the writer.
That's them
We arrived at Justin and Danny's place and after a going to the loo, we headed right back out the door down to the bank of the Saluda river, right behind the Riverbank Zoo. We kicked back with some buds, while Danny's corgi pitbull mix (Pam) Beasly entertained us by most inappropriately barking at people.
Saluda River
When we'd had enough of that we dropped the Beasly off and met with Sarah over at The Kraken Gastropub (FB link!) for a wonderful dinner. Whitney and I have gotten in the habit of sharing an appetizer and one or two entree's which works out great: more variety and we're rarely left hungry.
Justin had to head out for work, but after convening for an hour or two Danny, Whitney, and I drove out to meet up with Sarah for drinks. This was always supposed to be a crawl of sorts, I guess I just didn't realize the scope. In order to reconstruct the night, I am literally going through my foursquare checkins: Delaney's (FB link!), Speakeasy and finally Bar None. Danny really had a longer program in mind for us, but we're no spring chickens.
Now, this sounds like Justin was missing out. Far from it. This guy hears we come to town and what does he do? Well Justin is the kinda guy who'll be damned if he doesn't show up for people. After work, but barely before we had a buzz going.
It was free!
Anyway, back at Justin & Danny's we had a big old slumber party and opened a 1.5 liter bottle of champagne that I still had left over from the wrap of a certain Brooklyn Taxi show I had worked on for a few months in 2013. Apparently, I fell asleep with a cup of it in my hand, while the adults were talking grown up stuff.
As everyone will be positively shocked to hear, I woke up to a splitting headache. I mean it was killer. It was one of those "don't jerk your head too quickly or you might throw up" kind of a Kater (that's German). Drank water, went out to brunch at Cafe Strudel (not German or Austrian, weird, right?) and it's still there. Yikes!
As if all the welcome and hospitality hadn't been enough Danny handed us an awesome road trip mix CD on our way out the door. Danny, if you're reading this: we listened to that mix three times in a row (that's almost all the way to Charleston!).
Wanna squeeze this one in, before we finish the post.
Random statistics (and facts) of the day:
- Favorite SC fact provided by Danny: The wooly mammoth is not South Carolina's state fossil, because dinosaurs apparently weren't created on The Sixth Day (it's a fascinating read, I promise).
- Pickled eggs are pink. And we ate them. While drunk. Thanks Sarah.
- The Canada vs. France rivalry is alive and well. France trounced Canada in shuffle board, after Canada's initial strong showing.