Andrea goes to the races.

I had absolutely no idea what I was in for when I got off the ship this morning in Charleston.  Almost immediately after leaving I started to see scattered people in running gear, some with numbers pinned to their shirts.  As I got closer to King Street, things got more and more packed with people, to the point where it was almost impossible to move around on the streets.  Unawares, I was heading toward the finish line of the Cooper River Bridge Run, a 10k event that had almost 40,000 people running.  No kidding.  After safely ensconcing myself in Caviar and Bananas (the coffee shop...just to clarify), I looked the race up online. It's here: The 32nd Cooper River Bridge Run and Expo | TheDigitel.com I had no idea it was such a big deal.  Charleston is a bit of an exciting mess today, with so many people everywhere, runners who have finished the race relaxing in every corner and in every café, the streets littered with paper water cups, and more pairs of Nike's than I've ever seen in one place.  I spoke with one middle-aged runner who had just finished the race.  She does it every year since it falls near her birthday, as a celebration of another year of living and good health.  After successfully completing the race today, she plans to go home and drink copious amounts of vodka until she passes out, then sleep the rest of the day.   Hmmm.  

This has been a week of running into the unexpected.  Besides the race today, last Thursday I was walking in Cocoa Beach, Port Canaveral, and turned the corner to find a huge marching band giving an outdoor concert at a Ron Jon surf shop.  I couldn't believe my good luck!! I love marching bands.  They were a high school band from Beaver City, Ohio, on their spring break tour.  This was their last concert after spending the week around Florida at all the Disney Parks and Universal.  What luck to turn the corner and catch them performing!  And I tell you what - they were REALLY good.  Drum corp good.  It gave me warm fuzzies to watch them, made me miss my marching and drum corp daysm and brought back memories of going on that same Disneyworld band trip 6 years ago.  I just loved it....how lucky was that?  

Anyway, today is an absolutely GORGEOUS day in Charleston, and I'm going to head over to a park to sit and soak it in, while making my weekly phone calls.  Today begins another new cruise, with a new pianist I have yet to meet.  Hopefully this will be the last change of band members for the rest of my contract.   His name is John, and I look forward to meeting him later this afternoon.