I am SO glad to be home! We had a great vacation. I was able to relax, and just read a book, several times. Lesleigh was great about doing things with the kids so I had a break. It was great to sleep late, eat very liesurely meals, and do what I wanted, most of the time.
I got my car back Friday and it drove like a dream, Les reported. She drove it home. I knew the air conditioner thingy was going out. I am just glad it was fixed and we didn't have to alter travel plans.
Before we left Hilton Head yesterday morning, Lesleigh took the kids out to the beach very early, and they learned about sand dollars and starfish, and watched the sunrise over the Atlantic, which is amazing. Mike threw starfish back in the ocean. We are trying to teach them to be very respectful of sea life, and not exploitive and destructive.
We spent a lot of time yesterday with mother's cousin Frank, who is like a brother to her. He and his wife have a beautiful home just off the Georgia coast, near St. Simon's Island. The kids swam in the pool, and we had a nice lunch. Frank and Karen both do amazing woodcrafts and make gorgeous wooden bowls and containers, giving new life to old wood. (We keep our two bowls on the mantel, as they are so beautiful.) We had dinner last night at a place called The Crab Trap, on St. Simon's, and had a wonderful meal. Frank's daughter and grandson joined us. I had crab cakes which were wonderful. Michael had shrimp creole, and Alesia had mahi mahi, a new fish for her. Everything was great, but the drinks. The water there is , um, different. My Sprite and Mike's water tasted odd. I got him a bottle of water and he was happy. The lowcountry also has a distinctive smell, of marshes and mud and sea life, and it can be disconcerting to folks not used to it...
The trip home today was bittersweet, as all vacation endings are, to me. We stopped at Denny's for lunch, and Mike was reluctant to drag himself out of the car and eat. After we got to the table, and he was Mr. Grumpy, I finally just lost patience and went to the restroom and gave Mother the signal to try and persuade him to eat. When I returned, he had ordered pancakes and hash browns. He ate an entire order of big pancakes, a plate full of hash browns, and part of Mother's club sandwich. Then he informed us that we should stop and get more snacks to eat in the car. I laughed. When we walked out of the restaurant and I asked him if he had gotten enough to eat, he said NO. I think he is growing. Just a hunch.
Here are a few photos from vacation... I will post more later.
