Cirque du SEWE

I know everyone has this blog on an RSS feed, so I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update it for you. It seems like so much has gone on in the last few days or weeks. I can't even remember the last time I posted!
The boys and I headed up to Charleston this past weekend for SEWE, which stands for Southeastern Wildlife Exposition and is pronounced See-Wee. When we arrived on Friday evening, Squeege's godfather Chad babysat the boys with his girlfriend Jen so that Mark and I could have a nice dinner and an adult conversation. It was awesome, and we definitely need to do it more often.
However, the next morning was an interesting one. We arrived at Marion Square in Downtown Charleston, and we were immediately bombarded with camouflage pants, dogs, and....camels? My only question is...

...since when do we have camels in the Southeast? Am I missing something? Is there just a large camel population that has been largely unnoticed, and that is why SEWE is trying to "expose" us to them by offering $5 camel rides inside downtown Charleston? Thank God someone has finally brought the truth to us. I've lived here my whole life without even knowing that camels were running around, starting little camel families, and then getting hit by cars, just like deer.

After checking out the indigenous Low Country Camel (binomial nomenclature: camelus redneckus, thanks Erin), Squeege went to the falconry exhibit, where he met this dude:

A trained killer, this falcon can pluck your eyes out with one of his razor-sharp claws. Despite this fact, Squeege walks right up to it, and in the meekest, sweetest little voice says, "Tweet-tweet." I think the falcon must have spoken a different dialect, because despite Squeege's multiple attempts to communicate with the bird, he was rebuffed.

Onto the next, at this veritable smorgasbord of animal delights. We visited the Serpentarium, which held many local snakes, including this fella:

Doesn't he look sweet & harmless? Apparently all of the little chitlins thought so, because they all fearlessly petted him and tried to pick him up. Squeege even punched him, which I thought was a good sign...of insanity.

After all of this fun, we started with a little potty break...


And then took a real break. Jen and Chad were cracking Garrett up. So cute.

And then, we needed a little refreshment, so we headed to Virginia's, which is a cool little Southern restaurant right beside Marion Square. I then decided to ask my husband if I could pierce my nose, which is something that I've wanted to do for a while, but never thought he would go for it. Surprisingly, he had no problem with it, so we went to Factor Five, and I got my schnoz stapled. Super-painful (and I've had a tattoo, my bellybutton pierced three times, my ears pierced twice, and my tongue pierced- that one was on a dare and I took it out the same day I got it done, but it was totally painless, surprisingly) but I really like it! Almost immediately after that we had to head back to Bluffton so I could go to work. It was a quick, but super-fun trip. Charleston is always a blast!

To view more photos from this weekend, click here.