In my mind I’m goin’ to Carolina..

Welcome back everyone, I’m still trying to catch you all up on my recent travels and adventures.  Three weeks ago I left you with my trip to Bruges and the incredibly moving and powerful visit to the Canadian Vimy Ridge Memorial in northern France. I meant to post this part of my travels two weeks ago but I had a mishap with my computer and I may or may not have left it with my friends in Cologne for the week (I did)… Oh well, I have it back now and here is part two!

The Last time the entire Rogers and Messick familia were together!

Not long after my trip to Belgium, I returned home, back to Charleston, South Carolina to see my family for the first time since January, almost 5 months prior.  On the agenda for the next week was my mom’s birthday, Mothers’ Day, and my best friend Garrett’s wedding in Atlanta. For those of you that might not know him, Garrett and I have been friends for over 20 years now, going all the way back to pre-k and tee ball (when my dad and Dr. Royster used to coach us).  We’ve stayed close ever since with trips skiing in Colorado, fishing at Tanglewood and Charleston (and Miami), and fun weekends meeting up in Nashville and Winston-Salem.

Charleston, Nashville, Atlanta, Beaver Creek, and Miami

But, being back in Charleston is such a different atmosphere than Europe. The smell of the saltwater in the air and the pluff mud at low tide are things you don’t realise you miss until you’re surrounded by them again. Not to mention all of the things you take for granted until they’re not a part of your daily routine anymore.  Like the great weather, looking for alligators in the ponds, keeping an eye out for dolphins while on the Wando River, and seeing the Ravenel Bridge and the church steeples of downtown Charleston highlighted as the sun goes down.

Can you see the sunshine? Can’t you just feel the moonshine?

I remember the last time I flew home from Europe, I was so sad to be leaving Salzburg and Austria.  At the time, I wasn’t sure when I would ever be able to go back, so even though I was thrilled to see my family again, it was bittersweet having to say goodbye to such an amazing place. But this time, I could just focus on how amazing it will be to see my parents and my Seattle family again, especially my chunky little nephew who I could only see over FaceTime and who was growing so fast!

My favorite nephew

I arrived in Charleston on a Saturday, and had until Wednesday afternoon before I flew to Atlanta for the wedding. It was a great weekend, full of boat rides in the harbor and back up in the marshes. The weather was fantastic all week, as it usually is in Charleston and on Tuesday we had a great birthday dinner for my mom on Shem Creek. Russell, of course was the star of the show as we all love him so much. He had just figured out how to pull himself upright but was still wobbly on his chubby legs. Now, he’s a pro and is just now walking when I FaceTime with Alicia and the family. We also spent some time planning our next family trip to Europe at the end of September, and it looks like we’re going to be headed to Barcelona, Spain and we’re all so excited for that!  But.. before I knew it, my time in Carolina was up and it was time to fly to Atlanta.

Shem Creek, Charleston SC

I flew out Wednesday afternoon, and Garrett picked me up just in time for dinner at the Ponce City Market. We had some beers and some great Chinese food at one of the weirdest tables I’ve ever seen in a restaurant. It looked as though it was some ancient Chinese skee-ball table and our chairs were these massive wooden thrones. All in all, it was pretty bizarre but the food was incredible and we were both stuffed before heading back to his and his soon to be wife’s new apartment and watched our favorite drinking show, “Mountain Monsters.”

If you’ve never seen it, it’s definitely worth the watch just for the laughs and how utterly ridiculous the concept is. It’s a show following a group of over-weight rednecks from West Virginia that attempt to track and capture different “mountain monsters,” such as bigfoot (which apparently has multiple species), wompus beast (looks like a bobcat pretty much), the moth-man, and other myths and legends from the Appalachian Mountains. The show follows the exact same plot line every single episode, the crew drives to some back-woods location, they talk to a “witness,” they do some nighttime reconnaissance where they have an “encounter” that isn’t caught on camera, then they meet another “witness” with a blurry photo or video “proving” the existence of said beast, they then attempt to make a trap to catch it, and at the final nighttime hunt they corner the beast, get it into the trap, but it escapes and they all claim to have “proven” it exists without a single shred of evidence. Add that and a few beers and you end up laughing for a few hours before calling it a night.

The Georgia Aquarium

The next day and a half up until the rehearsal dinner felt like a blur almost.  But the quick run-down is that we picked up the groomsmen, met the bridal party to all catch up and get drinks, then went to the Georgia Aquarium (which is fantastic, the tank in the photo above holds 4 whale sharks, and 3 manta rays among hundreds of others fish), before all heading to the rehearsal dinner Friday night. The food and venue were great and Laura and Garrett (mainly Laura, sorry bud haha) did a fantastic job planning and scheduling everything that weekend. And again, before we knew it, the big day was upon us.

Sean, Demone, Garrett, myself, and Michael ready for rehearsal

The next morning Garrett comes down to the hotel room the groomsmen were sharing, “slightly” hung over from the night before. He hops into one of the beds and requests from his groomsmen, and I quote “an orange Gatorade.. Not a Powerade, a Gatorade, and definitely orange.” Now, this wouldn’t be too big of a deal if we weren’t in Atlanta, home of Coca-Cola, owner of Powerade.. Gatorade practically doesn’t exist in downtown Atlanta. Almost all vending machines, small convenience stores and corner-stores in downtown Atlanta are full of Coke products. The fact that we were also, I don’t know maybe 100 yards from “the World of Coca-Cola” museum didn’t really help our search either. But, being good groomsmen we tracked down a CVS and found some “ORANGE GATORADE” for our buddy.

A few hours later as the the groomsmen were supposed to be getting ready for a pre-wedding photo shoot with the photographer, we had a curveball thrown our way. Garrett remembers (just in time, I might add) that he had left his wedding present for Laura back at her mom’s house in Marietta, about 30 minutes away. Garrett and I race back to Marietta, avoiding Atlanta’s traffic as much as possible (thankfully it was a Saturday), go into Ms. Webreck’s house, find the gift and wrap it (impeccably) before sneaking back out with nobody being the wiser. What we didn’t know, was that we weren’t the only ones rushing around and barely missed the recovery of the bride’s veil from the upstairs closet!

But an afternoon of relaxing and having a few drinks to ease the nerves before the big night had disappeared with zero drinks and zero relaxation and as we got back to the hotel we all knew that we had to get showered and cleaned up and to the venue in about 20 minutes. Luckily, Garrett’s dad and my parents were both staying at the same hotel so Garrett used the shower in his dad’s room, while I ran to my parents’ room. I called them but didn’t get an answer but as luck would have it, the maid was just cleaning the room and I somehow convinced her to let me shower in their room and we all made it to the venue just in time.

Speech-DONE… Time to have some fun!

Overall, the wedding was great, the venue was really neat, the pastor did a wonderful job with the service, the bride and groom looked fantastic, the food was delicious and most importantly everyone got along schwimingly and had a blast. I was honored to be the best man and that I was able to say a few words on such a special occasion. And although giving speeches isn’t exactly my forte, I thought I got down enough of your wedding cocktails (african sundowners) before and during my speech to do a decent job of it before getting a little choked up near the end (it appears I’m beginning to take after my papa in that regard). It was a perfect way to spend my last full day in the states.

The Wedding Party

But before I headed out the next afternoon, I got to eat breakfast and spend some time with my mom and dad for mothers’ day which was really nice. We had a few hours to talk and relax and just like that they had to begin their long drive back to Charleston and I was headed to the airport to get on a flight back to Bremen where in 24 hours I’d be meeting a few friends from University (Sam, Zack, Josh and Chloe) who had started their European vacation earlier in the week in Amsterdam. And while the thought of seeing them the next day definitely cheered me up and gave me something to look forward to I have to admit it was tough saying goodbye to my family and to Garrett and Laura, who are practically family to me now as well.

Not much has changed in 20 years

I’m definitely going to miss all of you and I can not wait until I see my parents at the end of September in Barcelona, and all of my friends again in December when I come back for Christmas.  There is more family I won’t get to see though up in Toronto, and I miss them just as much and hope to get up to the Great White North as soon as possible to give them a squeeze as well.  Until then, thanks for the incredible memories and no matter where I am in the world, I’ll always have y’all and Carolina in my mind. Auf Wiedersehen!