Is this real life?

I started working at First Pres for my summer internship about a month (maybe a month and a half?) ago with the middle schoolers and LOVE it. But this past Tuesday has been one of the highlights so far. Here's why.

Every Tuesday morning, we have a Youth Staff meeting at Joe Friday's. It's a 5 minute walk from the church off Houston Street that serves breakfast and lunch food with some delicious coffee drinks. I'm like a walking billboard for this place, and I will have to write a post solely dedicated to this yummy, family run, comfy coffee nook. But that's for another day. Today, I'm going to tell you about my adventures from this past Tuesday.

Jerry is the interim youth pastor for First Pres--so the youth staff consists of me, Jerry, Carolann, Baxley, and Jeff Reid (the other summer intern). Jerry suggested that we do something fun as a staff before the summer got too hectic. After bouncing around some ideas, Jerry goes downstairs and comes back up with an unreal suggestion-to take a day trip in a plane. How is this possible, you ask? Well, Jason Lord is the son of the owners of Joe Fridays. Jerry, a man of too many connections to count, knew that Jason has his pilots' license and a 6 person plane that is more or less his for the time being. WHAT?! Jason offered to fly us on a day trip--he would fly as long as we paid for the gas.

We finally decided on going to Charleston, somewhere that none of us had gone before that met our needs--tons of sightseeing, yummy seafood, and only a 2 hour flight to get there. Early Tuesday morning, we made our way to the Chattanooga airport to meet Jason and off we went!

Inside of the tiny, tiny plane

The view from my window

We landed at the Charleston airport, stepped out of the plane with our Escalade waiting on us....uh.....we had requested a 7 person van, but they couldn't get one in time. So we were charged for the van but instead got an Escalade. This is the kind of life I could get used to, but don't need to because then I would be too spoiled for my own good.

First stop: Magnolias. YUM. That's all I can really saw. Appetizer: Fried green tomatoes over grits. Main course (for me): Fried soft shell crab over risotto with a papaya salsa and sauteed squash. Next stop: Caramal apples, ice cream, and fudge samples. We were stuffed, but it was worth every calorie.
Followed by: Dolphin watching at the pier, gawking at the obnoxiously humongous cruise ship, and soaking up the sun.

The whole group!

We walked through the shaded market in the middle of downtown and talked about our plans with the students for the summer while we cooled off. Once we all found each other again, we agreed that it was time for some air conditioning and icy cold water.

After regaining some energy, we strolled through some of the cute parks downtown and admired the beautiful older homes. Before we knew it, we had to head back towards the airport. Even though it seemed like all we had done all day was eat and walk around, we agreed that it was better to eat now when we were sort of hungry rather than put it off until we got home and were starving. Schlotzky's was calling our name.

We took one more group picture and piled back into the plane so we could help back to the 'noog.

The view doesn't get much better than that!

I wish my camera took better pictures at night, but this is all that you get! it. was. breathtaking. It made me love my city even more, if that's possible.

All in all, it was a highlight of my year. Seriously, I've worked for a Ribbon Company where I was on TV and then got a shopping spree and now this. Is this real life?!? All I know is that I am beyond blessed and don't deserve any of this. I loved spending the day with the youth, getting to know them better, and do something that I definitely wouldn't get to do every day.