It was in May of 2022 when I finally got to spend a week in Germany, my long awaited return trip after moving back to the States. Long before I knew when I'd be doing this, I'd already known it was going to be split between Stuttgart, the city where I used to live, and Munich, the biggest city I didn't do a big trip to.

Gem & Jam happens every February in a fairground on the southern edge of Tucson, Arizona. It's meant to coincide with the annual Tucson Gem Show, which I have to admit I only found out about after I learned about the music festival. I had a friend in Arizona who invited me to check this one out, and since I didn't have anything else going on I took a couple days off from work for the long drive and bought my ticket.

I spent most of the week after the Hulaween music festival visiting Savannah and Charleston, which I really loved. When I planned this trip I wanted to squeeze one more city into it, and I decided on Charlotte, the biggest city in North Carolina, not knowing much else about that city. It's a huge city but didn't have the charm of those other two.

After my all-too-short taste of Savannah, I was on my way to another, similar Old South city: Charleston, South Carolina. The two whole days I spent there were the best part of this whole week.