“There is Magic in Old Town” – at 10th Annual Historic Bluffton Art and Seafood Festival

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10th Annual Historic Bluffton Art & Seafood Festival (Photo by Chris Katon)

Bluffton, SC – I spent the better part of Sunday immersing myself in the sites and sounds of the 10th Annual Bluffton Art and Seafood Festival and one things for certain, this once sleepy artist community is exploding with energy.

“There is magic in Old Town,” said Bluffton resident Ed McCullough. “Great things are happening here.”

We were talking about two renovation projects that he’s involved in, along with the exploding growth of the Bluffton Promenade.

McCullough, who is founder of the Bluffton Farmers Market, couldn’t be happier about the positive vibe of the day.

Both sides of Calhoun Street were lined with 100 vendor booths of artists from across the South East showcasing beautiful paintings, photography and other original art.

Two dozen local restaurants including Red Fish, Mulberry Street Trattoria and Joe Loves Lobster Rolls were on-hand to cater the event.

Bluffton Middle School Junior Naturalists manned touch tanks with Taco the Turtle, horseshoe crabs and fiddler crabs to share information about Low Country marine life.

Collage Illusion is an award-winning technique of collage art on glass by artist Carl Crawford of Columbia, SC. Crawford uses a mixed media style to create an illusion of an oil painting. The technique has earned him numerous national awards, including Most Creative for the 2011 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Introducing Dropcast, the latest trend in digital sharing

A Map for That

Introducing Dropcast: The mobile app and desktop publishing tool is the latest trend in digital sharing. It allows users to post words, images, videos and music onto digital pins.

[Written by CK while working at Content Manager for RJR Interactive]

The Gatsby Car

The Gatsby Car

Hilton Head Island, SC – We enjoyed a great time at 2013 Concourse d’ Elegance Motoring Festival held at Port Royal Plantation this weekend. My favorite car was this beautifully restored 1928 Packard 443 Roadster, owned by Charles Mistele of Bluffton, SC. It was winner of the 2013 Peoples Choice Award and is adorned with original Roaring 20’s color scheme of rich cream, deep green and polished nickel. The car is additionally equipped with duel golf club doors and adaptive headlights, which move when the steering wheel is turned. (Photograph by Chris Katon)

Inside the oldest church in Charleston

Inside the oldest church in Charleston

Charleston, South Carolina – This was my view of the organ inside St. Michael’s Episcopal Church from Pew #43, where both George Washington and Robert E. Lee once worshiped. The site, located at the intersection of Meeting and Broad Street is one of the “Four Corners of Law” as each corner represents a different branch of the law – city, state, federal and God’s law. In the plans for the original, walled city, the lots at this intersection were reserved for public buildings. Constructed in 1752-1761, St. Michael’s is located at the southeast corner and was the site of the first Anglican church. On the northeast corner is City Hall, where a 1791 portrait of George Washington is on display. At the northwest corner is Charleston County Courthouse, where the first S.C. State House once stood. At the southwest corner is the U.S. Courthouse and Post Office, which was destroyed by earthquake in 1886, then rebuilt. In St. Michael’s Churchyard two signers of the U.S. Constitution are buried.

Exploring Oneonta Gorge

Exploring Oneonta Gorge

The Oneonta Gorge is in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon. The U.S. Forest Service has designated it as a botanical area because of the unique aquatic and woodland plants that grow there. The basalt walls are home to a wide variety of ferns, mosses, hepatics and lichens, many of which grow only in the Columbia River Gorge.

A Historic Kayak Tour of Old Town Bluffton

A Historic Kayak Tour of Old Town Bluffton

Old Town Kayak Tours – Bluffton, South Carolina

Old Town Kayak Tours was my choice for a unique 70th Birthday present for my Dad and will recommend the tour to everyone that I know.

We enjoyed an amazing afternoon on the May River learning from historian and guide Jeff Fulgham who explored Native American, Colonial and Civil War history during a gentle paddle from Bluffton Oyster Factory Park.

Jeff talked more than he paddled during our gentle cruise south past Palmetto Bluff, discussing the history of Native American tribal culture in the Low Country.

Schools of baitfish jumped from the water in front of our kayak’s. A bottlenose dolphin surfaced, trolling the estuary and beginning to feed.

Jeff shared a story of English occupation of Hilton Head Island and the role that pre-Civil War conditions affected the role of Bluffton during the Civil War.

We turned north on the May River and were paddling past the old Hunting Island Plantation when a shark thrashed in the water in front of Dad.

I learned some back history about his first book “The Bluffton Expedition: The Burning of Bluffton, South Carolina, During the Civil War.”

Jeff has a second book in progress that provides an in-depth look at the British and Spanish occupations from Charlestown to St. Augustine along his treasured coast.

He was raised in historic Bluffton and had paddled his personal kayak along the route we took on our tour hundreds of times before ever thinking it could be a viable business last year.

For more visit http://www.lulu.com/shop/jeff-fulgham/the-bluffton-expedition-the-burning-of-bluffton-south-carolina-during-the-civil-war/paperback/product-21107203.html