Today is the official launch of the To Live Forever: Journey to Charleston Contest. I was prepared to beg. And bribe. And threaten my friends to put this package together.

I didn’t have to do any of that. When I approached Chef John Ondo and Chef Nico Romo, they responded in less than 60 seconds: We’ll do anything for you, Andra. Dean Andrews came through with luxury rooms at the exquisite Zero George. My dear friend Kristin Cobb offered cupcakes from Cupcake. The fellows at The Belmont wouldn’t stand for the package to be without Thunderclappers.
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A haunted ruin. An ancient highway. Faint swishes of skirts through corridors. A cacophony of whispered crushes mixed with bird song.

According to the Daughters of the American Revolution, Elizabeth Female Academy was the first college for women in America. Whether that’s true or not, I saw a scene there on a chill morning in October. It played out like technicolor on the side of ragged brick.

All that was missing was a very special character.Continue Reading