Friday Meg and I headed back to Sumter to visit the Jewish History Center – two weeks in a row for me. Because the Torah that belonged to the synagogue there and that was the subject of the study that was done on its history was found to have originally been from Prague, and because Meg is going there on a cruise this summer, she wanted to go back and see it. This time, though, the entire museum was open, so we really enjoyed seeing it. It was small but so well done that we just really enjoyed it. I got a couple of pictures of the permanent exhibits.

Thursday night Lindee got up our annual restaurant week – it’s called Queen’s Feast since Charlotte is called the Queen City – and she, Addie, Meg & I went to check out Drift, a restaurant on the lake that we had all been wanting to try. I was sort of disappointed in the food, but the company could not have been better. Meg was our photographer as we were heading inside.

My friend Gail Goodrich Hargrove creates a calendar every year with pictures that she has painted – she is so talented. I love January’s amaryllis picture.

Last Sunday Meg & I left church after Sunday school to meet her daughter Hope and Hope’s roommate Abigail at the Columbia Museum of Art. There has been an exhibit there for the past several months that I had been meaning to tell Meg about, with pieces from the fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen, and his personal photographer, Ann Ray. Of course this could not be further from something that I know about, but both Meg and Abigail were fashion design majors in college, so they were ALL fired up about it. We learned that she began photographing him when he was just starting out, and as it turned out, at that time he had no money so he paid her in clothes that he designed. A lot of the ones on display at the museum were pieces he had gifted her. I thought that was very cool.

I, of course, had never heard of the designer, and actually neither had Meg, but Abigail was all excited, and even Mallory and Lindee both knew about him. Huh. They had this little photo place. Ann Ray called the times they got together for her to take pictures their Rendez-Vous, so I loved that this was the quote that was on the wall – and perfect for a picture with my bestie.

Saturday I stopped on the way to the church league games at my favorite local food truck for one of their delicious chai teas – perfect in that freezing weather 🙂

Normally Mason doesn’t want any of us at his basketball games – we’re not sure why – but last week he let us come. I was so excited I got virtually no action photos, but did get this one of him inbounding the ball, and of him going through the handshake line after the game. Fun evening.

When I got to their house to pick Clara up for school last Monday, I think it was, she was so excited to introduce me to her new kitten, Newt – named after some character in The Maze Runner, I think she said. He is a beautiful little tuxedo cat, and seems to be settling in perfectly.

Last Saturday we were in Rock Hill to see Charlie & Adam in their church league basketball games. Not much on the action shots, I’m afraid. I did at least get this picture of Adam out on the court – #1.

Sherri came up for the day to see them play, and then we went out to eat lunch before she headed home. I got this picture of her with the boys as we were leaving the restaurant.

Friday Jeff & I picked Mallory up when she got out of class at 11:00 & headed to Sumter. Mal & I had been planning this visit for some weeks, and of course Jeff wanted to go and see her, too. Our goal was the Temple Sinai Jewish History Center, where we wanted to see the temporary exhibit about the history of the Torah that they have there at the synagogue. When we arrived right next to the parking lot was a beautiful little park that had been erected in memory of the victims of the holocaust.

Alas the lady working there told us the museum was closed for the day due to some sort of issue with the heating system. When she told us that, I asked if it would be possible to even see the Torah exhibit, because it is supposed to be dismantled the end of the month, and as it turned out, it was in a different part of the building than the rest of the museum, so we were able to see it. One of the members of the congregation had spent some years researching the history of one of their Torahs, and the story of what he found was so interesting. They knew that it had been created in 1815 in Czechoslovakia to celebrate the birth of a family’s son, because that was what was embroidered on the band that was around it. Where all it had been since then was so interesting, especially the story of the Torahs during the Nazi regime. This was one of the plaques.

Because we couldn’t tour the museum we had time to stop by Swan Lake there in the town of Sumter. It is a huge park with a couple of enormous ponds, and dozens of different swans of I think ten different varieties. They were beautiful. That park is also an Iris Garden, so we want to go back when the flowers are all blooming. I know it must be absolutely gorgeous.