Monday, December 21, 2009

A little of this, a little of that

So I finally graduated. Yep, I made it. Somehow.

This past week, I have done a little bit of traveling. On Thursday, I headed to Charleston with some friends. Played a little basketball (got schooled) and did a little running (got cramped). That night, we went to downtown Charleston and went salsa dancing. By the way, I can't dance. No matter how hard I try. It's impossible. But that has never stopped me.

We went to Southend Brewery and Smokehouse for the salsa dancing. They had a $5 cover charge. Never have been a fan of a cover charge. But I guess since they had a live DJ and had to pay him, they needed to pass on those costs to the consumer. Thanks capitalism.

There were several things I liked about Southend. For one, it was a microbrewery (well, they had their own beers, but their "vats" were encased and really small, nothing like Hunter Gatherer here in Columbia, so I think that they make the beer elsewhere). I tried two of their beers and had to say that they were actually very good - and only $3.50!!

Another thing I liked was that the restruant was actually 3 stories (they have both an elevator and stairs) and they have a "gawking" area set up so you can look down on the people below you. On the 3rd floor, they have another bar, dart boards and a few pool tables. Unfortunatley, they had already closed the bar - or so the bartender told me - so we couldn't play pool. Ever hear of coin slot operated tables?! Anyhow...

The music was good, the atmosphere was overall friendly (minus the short stocky black guy who came over to where we were sitting and said "this is my table" like 8 times. Yeah, I heard you the first time.) I would defintly recommend hitting this up if you're in Charleston sometime.

Then Friday I went to Aiken, SC and Augusta, GA. Never really have been to either of them before. Didn't actually do anything in Aiken. But Augusta was a very nice place. They have a great layout for their downtown, with parking on both sides of the street and parking lots built in every other block in the middle of the road. Very nice, very convienent, and very busy.

We went to a place called Firehouse (I think) and it was pretty interesting. In Georgia, unlike South Carolina, they don't have a smoking ban in bars. Not a big fan of laws governing our actions, but have to say I do like SC's laws a little better. But they had fair prices on their drinks (domestics seemed priced about $2 each) and they had a few local microbrewery beers on tap. Besides Firehouse being where the local wildlife of Savannah hangs out, it was a good place. Had a pool table and a very tiny bathroom. Just FYI's. I was also told the womens bathroom had showcurtains for dividers. Now that's classy.

Next up for me will be - hopefully - Boston and Philly. Maybe NYC? I don't know yet, but I'm going to try to get up that way sometime after Christmas. More to come...

2 comments:

Jesse Ford said...

The giant brass contraption in the middle of Southend Brewery, behind the 3 story tall wall of glass is the actual brewer.

RJ said...

I saw that but it looked pretty small...or maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention?