Newport Shipyard

While slightly lost in the neighborhoods, I kept an eye out for houses and rooms for rent.  There was something haunting (in a lovely way) about this place, and realized what it reminded me of after I looked closer at my pictures.  The buildings loom up like old weathered ships, with strong masts tangled among ropes.  Surely each vessel has its own secrets of beauty and heartbreak, loss and discovery, greed and sacrifice, desertion and rescue, hate and love.  It seems possible that travelers could at any moment choose one and raise the anchor and sail away to adventure, adding to the unspoken tales.

 A ship cat keeps watch.

 Tiled floors scrubbed clean with sea water.

A house docked behind a twisty tree.

 Slightly oceanic looking plants, probably home to some city crabs.  Okay, bedtime for me.

Savannah

Each day began with meeting bright and early to read our Bibles and ended with curious late-night discussions.  Perfect bookends to any day, let alone four straight days.  And in between: extensive walks, new friends, an impromptu party (a large gathering of friendly people at Seth's house eating their fill of delicious food prepared with a smile by his housemate, Brad) tennis, vintage stores, hidden bookshops, friendly animals, caffeinated drinks, porch-swings, more outstanding homemade meals, heartwarming hospitality, strange stories, much laughing... I'm not sure how visiting Seth at SCAD could have been any better, except that I wish I'd packed sunscreen.  Also I could have done without the goodbyes at the end.

I don't know what else to do here except thank Seth and his friends for being so kind and generous... It really was a breath of fresh air.  I mean the actual air was thick and muggy, but the people were absolutely lovely and I haven't felt so encouraged in a long time.

Here are the snaps I took, with random editing and comments.

Sitting among the cat books.

(Trying to get the perfect selfie to document our two-hour-anniversary of friendship)

I was actually a little obsessed with these great girls and their adorable house.  All three are studying fibers at SCAD.

Reid chopped some vegetables and later read us a book.

Thanks to Ashley for being a wonderful tour guide and photographing us with this nice donkey.

Tea was sipped, FIFA was played, National Geographic magazines were flipped through...

Another friendly shop pet.

I asked Seth to take a nice picture of us.

Photo credit: strangers

 The End

Everything's Fine

Maybe someday I'll admit that I recovered from a slight social anxiety panic attack one morning by wrapping myself in a strange creature-blanket under storm clouds or smoke or something (via pen and paper, if you were wondering).  

Like, this wasn't me thinking, 'oh this would make an interesting picture'.  It was literally the only thing I could think of to do.  

But it also probably had everything to do with my addiction to caffeine... A few sips of coffee before I entered the public world and I probably wouldn't have been so stressed.  Thus also considering "Everything's Fine" as the title, because of course everything was.

I guess today will be the someday.