Saint Simons

This morning marked the first day of "the trip:" Saint Simons Friday and Saturday, Budapest Sunday throuh the next Friday. Getting here was no problem after the cat rodeo, which went about as expected - after flushing the cat out from under the bed, I ran around to the other side of the room to catch him, only to see him run back under the bed again. On the second flush, he ran into the closet, where I was able to nab him and put him into the cat carrier for his ride to Midtown. After that, the drive from Atlanta to Saint Simons only took about four or five hours.

I woke up this morning in the King & Prince Beach Resort on the southern tip of Saint Simons. Not bad, but not nearly as nice as The Cloister at Sea Island on the north side where L. and I spent the Fourth of July weekend. But I can think of far worse places to wake up.

The morning was spent in day one of the two-day Georgia Environmental Law Seminar - a junket, basically, for Atlanta's legal community. Three of us went and had lunch (blackened grouper sandwiches all around) in Saint Simons Village. The afternoon was spent in conference calls with the office, a couple miles run and a quick dip in the ocean.

The Irish novelist James Joyce used the terms "snot green" and "scrotum clenching" to describe the ocean, which says a lot about the Irish attitude toward the sea. The ocean here at Saint Simons, to maintain Joyce's vernacular, was "piss warm."

Dinner consisted, once again, of blackened grouper, but this time at a different restaurant with different company.

So that's the first of two days here at Saint Simons. Tomorrow is Day Two of the Conference and the beginning of my journey to Budapest.