The Sand Covered Pickle

We spent a lovely, relaxing week at Edisto last week. It was fabulous to be at the beach! Meredith came down the night before and we managed to cram all four of us (Charles, Emmy, Mer and me) in the car along with all our stuff. Hooo boy, did we have stuff! We thought the car was packed full on the way home from Ohio (we brought home the bride and groom's extra stuff, wedding clothes, and their canine), but we were just as crammed, if not more so, this time. We had planned to eat in most of the week so we took a lot of food stuffs, which of course takes up lots of space! I wish we'd taken a picture of the car, but alas, there is not photographic evidence. There are, however, lots more photos of the week in the new August Picasa Album, so check them out!

People keep asking "what did you do?!?!" Um, well, we went to the beach, we went to the pool, and we watched TV. That really about sums it up. Edisto is quite remote, there isn't a lot to do there, which is partly why we like it! We didn't go shopping, we went out to eat only once (although we did get takeout the last night because we didn't want leftovers and we had to get pizza on our pizza night because the crust we brought along wouldn't rise), we didn't take boat tours or rent bikes, although those are surely lovely things to do. No, we went to relax, and relax we did!

Emmy of course spent some time at the "lake beach" on Lake Eerie, as I shared with y'all earlier, so we knew she'd enjoy being back at the ocean. We took her down to the beach every day but one, and we also took advantage of the condo's pool area every day. She got quite good at walking on the sand and she was okay with us taking her in the water, although she didn't love putting on her life jacket. She really preferred to be on the shore, splashing in the water at the edge, or playing in the sand.

Speaking of sand, oh my, was there sand. Those of you who frequent the Carolina coasts know this type of sand: teeny tiny shells. It's larger than "regular" sand and it sticks.to.everything. We found a delightful sunblock called Super Goop that I have been happily applying to Emmy's fair skin every day. It's light weight, not super greasy, but as it turns out when combined with sand it's like GLUE. We've been home, what, 6 days? And I'm still finding flecks of sand in her hair. Plus, when you pick up the sand covered pickle, you then get more sand on you in places you didn't mean to get sand. Especially if she likes to hang onto your bathing suit and oh, say see if she can find that shell she dropped down your front! Thanks Emmy! Charles, Meredith, and I all had to scrub ourselves down hard with a washcloth every day to remove said sand!

Emmy added "bird" (BRRRRIIRRR) and "peaches" (chuz) to her vocabulary while we were there. She loves birds and the beach was of course full of sea gulls and pelicans. I think it was our first full day that she was suddenly hollering "BRRIRRR" and pointing and I realized indeed, there were several sea gulls nearby. She loved walking along and trying to get close to them!

While Emmy was napping or down for the night, Mer, Charles, and I watched trashy TV. Well, some of it was Trashy (True Blood, Season 1, thanks Mer!) and some of it was a bit less trashy (The West Wing, Season 1). Mer is now in search of the 2nd season of The West Wing and we have already had Netflix deliver the first disc of the 2nd season of True Blood to our home.

The condo we stayed in was very nice (loved the decorations!) but pretty small. Definitely only a place for 4 people! We were on the marina, so we had a nice view of the water, but we had to walk to the beach. The walk was not so hospitable, so we ended up driving. We all agreed that in the future we'd rather be closer to the beach and definitely not in a condo. There's just too much noise if you have sleeping children. The first night there were a gaggle of drunk rednecks hollering at each other from one of the boats to the balcony next to us, and Charles had to ask them to keep it down. It was pretty nice and quiet (the complex was very empty) for much of the rest of the week, until people started showing up closer to the weekend and a herd of elephants who bowled all day/evening moved in upstairs from us on Wednesday night. This affected Emmy's napping on both Thursday and Friday, but we are just grateful that it was quieter early in the week and that she slept through the night all week. She did wake up a little earlier than usual each day because we were unable to completely block the light so when the sun came up, she was up not long after!

Mer and I were glad to visit Edisto again. We hadn't been in, oh 15 or 16 years. We grew up going with Dad's family every year and we had lots of good memories. Of course it has changed a lot...a lot of houses have been torn down and replaced with much bigger ones, the road has been widened (we think), there are new restaurants and shops, but overall it still has the same feel...it's small, quiet, and there aren't any high rises or lots of commercialism to it. We were a little taken aback at how much the beach is sloping from erosion, and one family we talked to said that they had noticed a big change even in the last 2 years.

So now we are home, still a little sandy, a little more relaxed, and a little more tan. Well, Emmy is tan (how did I give birth to a child who tans??), Charles' tan is peeling and mine never really existed except for on my feet. :) We had a great week and can't wait to go back!