Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 618

Here are the questions to our middle of the week Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here on Wednesday (9/3) to share your answers. See you there! 

1. Next Sunday is Grandparent's Day. Share a favorite memory, photo, recipe, or something you learned from a grandparent. 

2. What's a quote from a book (besides The Bible) that has stayed with you? 

3. What's your number one food pet peeve? 

4. What's one thing about you that is still the same as it was when you were young? 

5. September is National Preparedness Month...does your family have an emergency plan? Do you have some sort of preparedness kit you keep on hand? If so, tell us one thing that's kept there. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

It's All Hodgepodge To Me

Welcome to this week's edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. So glad you're here! If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for the blogger before you. Here we go-  

1. When someone finds out what you do or where you're from, what's a question they always ask? 

When I was in college in Tennessee Saturday Night Live had a regular skit with Joe Piscipo where someone would say, 'You're from Jersey? I'm from Jersey. What exit?' People thought it was hilarious to ask me the same when I would say I'm from New Jersey. 

Of course I'd reply Exit 4 because everyone in New Jersey knows their exit. 

When people are considering retirement or a move to the lake they often ask what we do to fill all that free time.  I tell them there's no shortage of things to do here, and what to say no to is more of a problem. 

2. Did you participate in 'Greek Life' when you were in college, or have children who did? If so what was your experience like? Taking another tack...have you ever been to Greece? If not, is that a destination on your bucket list? 

I was in a sorority and it was a wonderful experience. I made lifelong friends, was given many, many leadership opportunities, I developed skills I've used in work and volunteer positions all of my adult life, and found joy in helping others too. Philanthropy is a big part of sorority life, and if all you know of Greek life is what's portrayed on television or in the movies, your vision of the experience might be inaccurate. 

I have been to Greece, but haven't seen the whole country. We were in Athens in 2005 and had a fabulous time there. Can you tell it was warm? 

The ancient buildings, the history, the beautiful Aegean, the food...such a fun trip. 

3. Do you like Greek food? If so what's your favorite dish?  

I love Greek food. Who doesn't love a Greek salad? That's probably my favorite, but I enjoy lots of different Greek dishes...gyros, spanakopita, tzatziki, and of course baklava. There's a Greek restaurant in a little town outside of Asheville as you're heading towards Tennessee that is so so good. Whenever we're going that way we try to plan our trip around a stop there. 

4. What incredibly common thing have you never done? 

A tattoo? 

5. What is a telltale sign that you're upset? 

I'm an open book and you can probably tell just by looking at my face. If I'm on the verge of tears (which happens easily if I'm mad or sad) you'll know it.     

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I might have gone down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to find pictures of our trip to Greece. 

Look at those young teenagers there. Gulp. 

Monday Morning Musings

Hi Friends. I'm jumping right into the Hello Monday link party this morning, hosted by Holly and Sarah. This is where we chat about our weekends, and here's how ours looked. 

Fun. Fun is how it looked. 

Once upon a time I went to college and was part of a sorority and this weekend ten of those girls came to the lake for a reunion. 

We've gotten together at various times over the years, but were definitely overdue for another in person gathering. Four of us live within an hour of one another, and one of the girls has a house on the same lake as me, so we decided to invite everyone here. 

Three of us organized the food and we had half the group sleep at my house and half at the second lake house. Two of the girls flew in from a bit further away and arrived Thursday night. One  was a bridesmaid in my wedding and she's been to the lake before, and the other I hadn't seen in 40 years. 

We just picked right up like we'd all been together yesterday instead of yesteryear. 

Everyone convened at my house for breakfast Friday morning and the rest of the group rolled in throughout the day so the whole gang was together by late afternoon. 

The weather. Eh. Not the best, but then not the worst either. We didn't see the sun but it didn't rain us out either. We spent the entire day Friday sitting on my patio talking and catching up. Actually the clouds made it really pleasant for patio sitting and it was a super relaxed day. 

Hubs was a rock star all weekend long. He has also known these girls four decades, and enjoyed seeing us all together. He waited on us hand and foot, and cooked the most delicious pork BBQ for our Friday night dinner. We had pasta salad, baked beans, corn on the cob, and cole slaw too, and one of the girls aka another one of my bridesmaids, brought a scrumptious strawberry pound cake from a Tennessee bakery for dessert. 

We stayed up late and talked about all manner of things including old memories and our young(er) selves, new challenges, long ago mischief making, life in the third act, family, food, travels, work and not working, grandchildren, and in some cases what in the world we've been doing for the past forty years. There's nothing like a solid 48 hours spent with friends who knew you when you barely knew yourself. 

Saturday morning breakfast happened in whatever house you slept in, then my house loaded up on the boat and hubs motored us over to the other house. The weather wasn't ideal, but you can't come to the lake and not get out for a boat ride, can you? 

We spent the whole day Saturday at the other lake house. Some of us floated, some tried the paddle board, and some relaxed on the dock. There were lots of little conversations happening as everyone caught up with everyone. It was just a really lovely, special day. 

We all went back to my house for dinner. I'd made baked ziti earlier in the week and froze it before baking, so easy peasy and also super delicious. Another girl made a yummy salad and garlic bread and we sat outside under the twinkle lights and laughed ourselves silly. 

It was another late night, and then before you knew it the sun was up and it was time to say goodbye.

The last car load pulled away around 1 o'clock and I started some laundry, opened the weekend mail, we listened to our Bible recap, and hubs had a nap. He earned it after acting as the cabana boy-grillmaster-bartender-D.J., and chief 'could you bring us _______' guy all weekend long. 

He washed dishes, refilled glasses, ran up and down the stairs for whatever we left up or down the stairs, chauffeured us by boat, all without a single complaint, irritated tone of voice, or roll of the eye. He wanted the weekend to be fun for me and it absolutely was. 

He's a keeper. 

The last semi-large reunion we had was also lakeside. It was 2018 and we got up extra early that Saturday morning to watch Prince Harry marry Meghan Markle. Time flies, doesn't it? 

The world has changed a lot in four decades. When I was an 18-year old freshman phones were on the wall, we wrote checks when we needed money,  and computers were the size of a whole entire room that I had no need to enter since my major was not business. 

Our school was in a small town without a lot going on, but we made our own fun. We didn't take a lot of pictures so the memories live mostly in our heads. 

Today the students there have phones in their pockets, Apple Pay at their fingertips, and laptops with streaming services for their favorite shows they can watch any time of the day or night while typing a paper they'll email not print. The town has grown, the campus has grown...

...but we're still here making our own fun.

So what did you get up to this weekend? 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 617

Here are the questions to this week's Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here on Wednesday (Aug 27th) to share answers with the world wide webbers. See you there!

1. When someone finds out what you do or where you're from, what's a question they always ask? 

2. Did you participate in 'Greek Life' when you were in college, or have children who did? If so what was your experience like? Taking another tack...have you ever been to Greece? If not, is that a destination on your bucket list? 

3. Do you like Greek food? If so what's your favorite dish?  

4. What incredibly common thing have you never done? 

5. What is a telltale sign that you're upset? 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Excited About The Hodgepodge

Welcome to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post. Be sure to leave a comment for the blogger before you, because comments make the blog world go round.  Here we go...

1. What's worth standing in line for? 

Boarding an airplane for a trip somewhere fabulous, security for a college football game or live concert event, the restroom when you're in a public place. 

2. Tell us about a favorite food related memory. 

I have so many I don't even know where to begin. An anniversary dinner at Cliveden House? Our long leisurely lunch made by an adorable Italian chef overlooking Lago Maggiore? My 50th birthday dinner at Asiate high above Columbus Circle in NY City's Mandarin Hotel?  

Those are all favorites for sure, but something about this question made me think of childhood, and one of my favorite food memories from childhood would be Thanksgiving dinner. 

My mother would spend the whole day (or two) cooking and we kids would help. My little sister and I were usually in charge of setting the table and pitting the grapes for our traditional dessert fruit salad. There was pie too, but to this day we all make fruit salad with fresh whipped cream as another option. Purple grapes, chopped apples, sliced oranges, and a can of crushed pineapple stirred over all. 

My mother has an artist's eye and she made holidays and special dinners look and taste so lovely. She set a fancy table in the dining room with the good china, and we always had an appetizer of shrimp cocktail in crystal glasses which was such a treat. 

Sometimes another family would join us and we always got dressed for dinner. No jeans, no loungewear, no excuses for not being at the table on time. Our best manners, cloth napkins, family chatter. 

That's me front left, and my little sister looking like an absolute angel on the right. Those dresses! I wish I still had them and could pass them on to my granddaughters. My teenage sibs are standing in back, and my dad must have taken the picture. That perfectly roasted turkey is just waiting for his expertise with the carving knife, and there's the shrimp cocktail on my momma's plate. 

Sometimes someone will pose the question, 'if you could go back to just one day in your childhood which one would you choose?' I might pick this one. 

3. What are some things you find particularly peaceful or calming? 

The lake off season, reading on the porch, a walk in the woods, the sound of a waterfall, waves lapping the shore, and snow falling at dusk. 

4. Is there something you do now that gets you just as excited as it did when you were a child? 

A few things come to mind, but I'm going to say my birthday. Nobody's surprised are they? It's no secret I love my birthday and it's almost here. I mean it will be here in a month, but close enough. I love thinking about the year that's ending and the one I'm running in to. I love hearing from family and friends, love a card in the mailbox, love a new beginning and...

I love my super delicious chocolate cake with the raspberry filling and chocolate ganache overall that hubs gets me every single year. 

5. To what degree are you in touch with friends from grade school? high school? college if you attended college? 

I'm in touch with all of the above to some degree or other. I'm mostly in touch with grade school and high school friends through the miracle of the Internet, but there are some I see in person still from time to time. 

I'm in regular contact 'in real life' with a number of my college friends. We had college friends here last weekend and have more college friends coming to the lake this weekend. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Got a question for you...do you allow anonymous commenters on your blog? What about a commenter with a name and a profile and even a picture, but that's it. They've opted not to share their profile? What about a commenter with nothing more than a name in their profile? 

I've had a couple of these lately and I don't know if they're real bloggers who choose not to share their profile, if they're some sort of scammer, or if they're AI? I don't allow anonymous comments on my blog, but I'm also hesitant to post comments from people who technically have a profile, but I have no clue if they're genuine or it's something sketchy. Your thoughts? 

The Weekend Rundown

Good Monday morning friends. We had a fun weekend catching up with college friends, floating, boating, wining, dining, and just being together. Linking today with Holly and Sarah for their regularly scheduled Monday morning weekend recap party, and here's how ours looked-

Two couples we've known since way back when we were fresh faced college students in beautiful East Tennessee, made a trip to the lake to spend the weekend. The guys were fraternity brothers and have remained close…

Their girlfriends turned wives have also always been close...

Everyone arrived around lunchtime and we sat on the deck chatting, then decided to move ourselves to the water because the air was toasty. 

One of the girls brought her famous super-secret-recipe of a savory cheesecake for an appetizer and it was delicious as always. One of the guys is in the food business and brought some pre-cooked ribs for us to warm up on the grill for dinner. Of course about an hour before dinner the skies opened up and it rained buckets well into the night.  

We have had so.much.rain. but no matter, we warmed the ribs in the oven, added roasted vegetables, deviled eggs, and a pasta salad and we ate in the dining room instead of on the porch as planned. It wasn't a late night as everyone was tired. 

Not too tired for this yummy key lime pie though. This recipe is a no-fail keeper. 

Saturday morning dawned bright and beautiful and hubs made bacon and eggs on the griddle outside. We dined al fresco, then loaded up for a day of boating. With kids back in school and sports taking over the calendars of so many, the lake in August hums a quieter tune.  

We love it. We packed the coolers with assorted snacks and beverages, then motored back to a cove, dropped the anchor, and whiled away a few hours on the water. 

A small but somewhat black cloud rolled in, but we weren't worried. The forecast was for maybe rain later in the day, but that black cloud started to grow and we decided to pack up and head back to the dock. My daughter1 was going to drop by with her kids to say hi to the friends who've known her all her life so the timing was good. 

Not quite good enough though. When we came around the bend the sky was ominous. Luckily we were already wet because we had to fly through a downpour before coming out into sunshine on the other side. It was the kind of rain where you can't see your hand in front of your face, but hubs managed it like a pro. 

Daughter1 stopped by the dock with two of her three littles. One grandson is playing soccer and one is playing baseball and never the twain shall be conveniently meeting at the same park, back to back. C'est la vie. Her hubs took the mancub to baseball and she did the soccer run. Little Miss was along for the ride. 

We had dinner reservations at a nice local restaurant that evening. Hubs and I have only been there once before and we enjoyed the food. We've heard it can be a little loud, but as hubs said, 'well, we're a little loud', so we booked a table. 

It was absolutely fabulous. We were seated and presented with a chef's treat which was the most delicious little morsel of cacio e pepe shortbread topped with a dollop of parmesan aioli cream. 

We raved about them so much the chef sent us out another bite. He seriously should package and sell these. We also shared their 'Wellington' poptart starter, another delicious item. The whole evening was pretty much perfect. 

From the food, to the service, to the friends around the table it was a solid ten. Bonus fun fact Nikki Haley was a few tables over enjoying her dinner too. We didn't interrupt to say hello, but we absolutely considered it.  We came home and stayed up too late playing our favorite card game Swoop. 

Sunday morning one couple got on the road right after breakfast, but the other hung around long enough for a boat ride and an early lunch on the lake. 

Once we were back at the house they loaded up their car and hubs and I planted ourselves on the couch for an afternoon siesta. 

It will be a week of regrouping here, changing all the beds, washing towels, getting groceries and meal prepping for another round of company this weekend. It's still summer here and we're not mad about it. 

So what kind of fun did you have this weekend? Are you in fall mode or still hanging on to summer? 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 616

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here on Wednesday (August 20th) to share answers with the internets. See you there!

1. What's worth standing in line for? 

2. Tell us about a favorite food related memory. 

3. What are some things you find particularly peaceful or calming? 

4. Is there something you do now that gets you just as excited as it did when you were a child? 

5. To what degree are you in touch with friends from grade school? high school? college if you attended college? 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

FORE! It's the Hodgepodge

Welcome to this week's edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for the blogger before you. Here we go-

1. August is National Golf month...do you play? Do you enjoy following golf? Have you ever been to a professional tournament? 

I do not play golf, but I enjoy following golf. Not in an over the top way, but I have my favorite players. Golf is huge where I live and lots of my friends play. It seems like a commitment, and it already feels like I don't have as much time as I'd like for my current hobbies, so have resisted joining in this one. 

I enter the lottery for Augusta tickets, but so far we haven't won. Hubs and I went to the Barclays when we lived in NJ one year. 

His company had a booth there and if you worked a shift you got in to the tournament. 

Our shift was first thing early morning and only lasted an hour so we had the full day to watch players. It was a lot of  fun. 

Also I like golf clothes. Does that count? 

2. Astronaut Jim Lovell of Apollo 13 fame passed away this past Thursday. Are you interested in outer space and what's happening today in terms of space exploration? If space travel became common in your lifetime would you go? How do you personally relate to the idea of exploring something vast and mysterious...does the idea excite you, intimidate you, or something else? 

I'm interested in space, and my hubs is super interested. He often shares with me things he's reading relating to space, and I also follow a couple of space related sites on social media. 

I won't be venturing in to space, but that has more to do with my propensity for motion sickness than a lack of interest or fear of the unknown. 

3. Describe your communication style in three words. 

Too many words. 

4. Do you have a favorite cookbook? A favorite celebrity chef? Do you watch any cooking shows on TV? 

I know you can get any recipe you need or want online now, but I still love cookbooks. There's something so aesthetically pleasing to me about a hold-in-your-hand cookbook. I have a few favorites depending on what I'm making, and I know which book has my squash casserole recipe, which one has my favorite peanut butter cookie , which one has the stuffed peppers we like, and so on. 

I go to my Joy of Cooking book often, and have several Junior League cookbooks from around the south that have recipes I love in them. I have quite a few cookbooks that are lovely but probably not well known. I like Nigellas cookbooks and own a couple of hers, and I own some of the Pioneer Woman cookbooks too. 

Some of my favorite well known chefs are Bobby Flay, Ina Garten, and Geoffrey Zakarian. And while he's maybe better known as an actor I love following Stanley Tucci too. He has some wonderful recipes! 

My daughter2 and I always watch The Great British Baking Show Together when new seasons roll around. I like The Kitchen and the chefs there. 

5. As a child did you have any back to school traditions? If so, did you carry on those same traditions with your own children? Do you have any back to school traditions you've started on your own? 

The only real tradition I remember from my own childhood would be buying new back to school clothes and shoes. We didn't do a first day photo that I can recall. I do have my 'school pictures' that were taken at school sometime during each year. 

My girls definitely got new clothes prior to a new school year. Then they'd have a little fashion show for dad. I took a front porch first day of school photo most years. 

Those back packs don't look heavy at all. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

When hubs and I were leaving Harbour Town to go back to our airbnb in Palmetto Dunes on Thursday night I spied something pink out of the corner of my eye. I told hubs I thought it might be a Roseate spoonbill. 

Now I know that sounds like a true old lady thing to say, but y'all they are such beautiful birds and I've never seen one up close. I don't care if I sound like a Progressive commercial, these birds are unusual and so pretty.  

Also, we've always loved seeing birds in the wild. That's not something that happened once we hit a certain age. Yes hubs turned the car around for me so I could see for myself,  and there they were-

Their beaks look like spoons. 

Your fun fact for today. Have a nice week everyone! 

A Summer's Tale

I mentioned in yesterday's post that there was one anecdote from our week in Hilton Head I wanted to share separately. But first, the back story. 

Because there always is one on From This Side Of The Pond. 

Also, it's not as much fun if I just get straight to it, so let's roll back time to the 1990's. 

Remember the 90's? 

Thirty years ago but whatever. Hubs started working in 1985 for the company he then stayed with for thirty years. The company's headquarters were in Northern New Jersey and we lived there two different times during his career. He started as a rep in Richmond, but we moved not too long after (1989 to be exact) to the main office in NJ. As hubs says, those were some of the most fun years of his work life and this was mostly due to his colleagues. 

Colleagues who became friends. 

New Jersey geography is funny. It's a tiny state but there are many many towns squished side by each and lots of traffic. Lots. Hubs office at that time was situated almost in NYC. Not quite, but close enough you had to get into all the Lincoln Tunnel traffic just to get to work. 

I know young adults today talk a lot about how they can't afford to buy a house, but let me just tell you in 1989, five years married, working good jobs, and we bought a house with no air conditioning, a one car garage, an hour+ commute in some of the world's worst traffic, and a mortgage interest rate of more than 12%. 

Hey, the 90's wasn't all neon windbreakers, beanie babies, and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. 

I'm not saying it's not tough out there today, but our expectations for the kind of house we'd live in were pretty small. 

Anyway, what does all this have to do with Hilton Head in 2025? 

I'm getting there. This post is 90% a trip down memory lane and 10% present day. Back to the 90's. Work friends lived in various towns all around the office town. Nobody lived in office town, and very few lived in the same town as any other but that didn't stop us from socializing together. We thought nothing of driving 45 minutes to have dinner or go to a party at someone's house on weekends. 

We were all young (ish) and most of us were raising children and trying to get ahead, but also loving life and sharing life and encouraging each other in whatever way we could. It's a mega ginormous beast of a company today, but back then it still felt a bit like family. 

After five years in  New Jersey (that first stint) we moved to Maryland, still with the same company, and other friends moved around too. Some we kept in contact with for decades, are still in contact with today. Some have visited the lake and some were in our lives for just a season. When we think back on those friendships, those early hard years of working like crazy and raising children, we think of them with tenderness. 

Okay, back to 2025. Finally. We had plans to go into Harbour Town on Thursday evening, but the kids were worn out and decided they wanted to stay home and order pizza, so hubs and I were on our own.

We walked around for a bit and had a drink at the Quarterdeck's Umbrella Bar in the marina there. 

Charcoal roasted oysters and spicy strawberry margarita with a view. 

We shopped a little then decided to grab dinner at The Crazy Crab. So cute! It's exactly what you think of when you think of a beachside restaurant with it's nautical decor, fishing nets, that sort of thing. 

We'd ordered our food when we noticed a family being seated at the table beside ours. There was a mom with her three small children and what we guessed were the grandparents. As they were seated hubs said,  'that guy looks just like Dan C'.  So I looked more closely at his wife and said, 'you know I'm pretty sure that IS Dan C.' 

Dan C. and his wife are some of those 90's work friends I mentioned above. Friends we haven't seen since the 90's. 

So hubs said, 'Dan?' and the guy immediately turned his head and then he did a triple take before giving hubs a big hug. Their daughter was born about a month after my youngest, and now here she is with her three kids, and we're all grandparents trying to cram thirty years of catching up into an aisle conversation at a Hilton Head restaurant. 

We exchanged new contact info and since they live in HHI now, and also want to come our direction sometime, we hope to make another get together happen. 

I'm a sucker for a small world story. Hubs and I marveled at the odds of this happening and they're miniscule. We've had a few in our lifetime and they always make me feel grateful. I guess some would call it coincidence, some say serendipity. I say it's just one of the many ways God shows us He's got this whole big-little world in His hands. 

Linking today with Joanne at Talking About It Tuesdays 

About Last Week

Good Monday morning friends. Trying to get back in the groove here after a week away so lots to catch up on both in real life and in blog life. Grab your coffee because I'm going to jam a week's worth of activity into a single post. It's my niche. 

Actually I have one more related anecdote to share in it's own post so there will be a p.s. tomorrow. 

Linking with Holly and Sarah and their Hello Monday hop, and also with Kym and her most recent Everyday Image photo prompts, which this time around are -at home, station, selfie, beginning and/or end, pebbles, and scenery. 

Let's get to it...

We live on a lake so typically stick close to home in the summer months. We haven't taken a whole family vacation since my oldest daughter got married, so this year we decided to get the entire gang together and head to the beach. 

We chose Hilton Head because a.- it's beautiful and b- it's a reasonable drive from here. Daughter1's hubs couldn't stay the whole week due to his work commitments so we wanted to make the location somewhat convenient for him. 

~scenery~

Hilton Head is beautiful. It's lush and makes you feel like you've escaped somewhere tropical.  The whole island is very well planned and signage is low, so you're not looking at billboards every few yards. 

~scenery~

The landscape features beautifully manicured lawns and golf courses, soaring Palmettos, threadlike Spanish moss dripping from the trees...

...and beach grasses growing along sandy dunes. 

~scenery~

We rented a house through Airbnb and it worked out well. It was situated near the front end of the Palmetto Dunes section of HHI and the location was perfect. 

~at home~...for the week anyway

The property backed up to the lagoon,  home to so much beautiful and interesting wildlife including huge chatty osprey, blue heron...

...or the grandpa birds as my grands call them, and something called snake birds. If you've never seen one they're wild. They look like a snake as they come out of the water, but then when you see the body you relax because you realize its a bird and not a snake.  

Of course there was the neighborhood alligator present too, because no trip to the island is complete without one. 

The house had a little dock perched over the lagoon and it was not designed with little people in mind. 

I think they left one section open to pull kayaks in and out, but we kept a tight grip on the kids eager to watch the gator. 

The pool was a big hit...

The house had three suites on the lower level and two bedrooms upstairs, one with bunks, for the kids. There was a big table for dining and we ate most of our meals in because dining out with five under the age of 8 is not an every night kind of thing. I'm sure I don't need to explain lol. 

We all drove separately and hubs and I took our time getting there. We took the back roads because I-95 is one of the worst roads in America and we love small town USA. My favorite thing about a road trip is seeing something new, especially if it's historic. A sampling of my google history from the drive shows the following-

Gold mines in South Carolina, Redcliff Plantation, images of purple sage (relating to our audio book), egrets vs. herons (all egrets are herons but not all herons are egrets), the Long Cane Massacre grave, does Spanish moss kill trees-the answer is no, and what is a Barbados nut plant

There's more but you get the idea. It was a nice ride and there was zero traffic. We stopped for lunch in Bluffton, about thirty minutes before reaching HH, a casual spot that had the most delicious blackened mahi taco-

So good, and they came with a warning-ha! 

As we got nearer the ocean I could just feel the tension leave my body. Salt air does that. 

Initially when we saw the forecast for the week we were a little nervous. There was a lot of rain predicted and while we did have some rain it was mostly overnight and we had beach time every day. We had rain one afternoon just as we got back home, but mostly the cloud coverage and breeze made it really pleasant for sitting, especially with small children. Daughter2 brought a tent with her but they only set it up a couple of days.  The sun shone but the clouds kept it from being too much. 

This is where I planted myself pretty much on the daily-

                ~my station~

We arrived Saturday afternoon, unloaded and set up house, then grabbed dinner at a beachside spot in Palmetto Dunes. The weather was threatening but didn't let loose until we were back home. 

We typically spent mornings at the beach, and half of us packed lunch and stayed into the early afternoon. Daughter2 and her crew went back to the house for lunch so they could settle Sugar for an afternoon nap. Our house was about a quarter mile from the beach so a super easy walk on a wide paved trail designed for both walkers and cyclists.  

I didn't walk. I drove, and actually hubs drove me because I'm still nursing my ankle. I wore the boot off and on and kept it wrapped while on the beach. I didn't do any swimming which was a little bit sad because I love to be out in the waves, but that didn't seem sensible right now. Hubs and I did take a couple of short walks. The sand was flat and packed and the beach is wide, so really nice for walking. 

Everybody thought so...

Daughter2 and her family also drove to the beach because the amount of gear with kids this age is a lot.

Daughter1 pulled a wagon loaded to overflowing with sand toys, boogie boards, a beach bag and her little miss, and then the two oldest boys rode their bikes. What a treat to ride a bike on the beach! 

The first few days we were there hubs also hauled his surf rod and assorted fishing gear down to the ocean to see what he could catch. Not a lot, but he and the boys had fun.  

Afternoons were spent mostly in the pool, napping, working puzzles, and in general relaxing until it was time for dinner, usually eaten at home. My son-in-law picked up fresh shrimp to go with the steaks he grilled. We each took charge of a meal and that worked out well. 

We went out for a big family dinner on Monday night-Skull Creek Boathouse for those who frequent HH.We went on the early side and didn't have to wait. It's a great spot, with a pier you can walk out on, wonderful food, and a pirate ship playground for the kids which they loved. 

Little Miss rocks the beach waves. I'm having fun buying matching dresses for the grandgirls when I can. These are from Stitchy Fish and they were so cute, and the fabric was really nice. 

As an aside, I try not to post pics of my grandbabies faces on my blog these days. Every now and then one will land there, but I check with mom first. My oldest especially doesn't really want their faces on the Internet and I'm also not posting swim suit pics, which is what most of my beach photos are. 

Okay, back to what I ate because I know that's why you're here. I had stuffed shrimp and it was scrumptious. Our server took a pic of us all at dinner and we took a few snaps of the whole family out on the pier later. The weather was delightful and I'm so glad we were there this week instead of the one prior when all anyone could talk about was the heat. Which was outrageous. 

One night we went to Shelter Cove for ice cream. I had Eskimo Kisses which was coconut ice cream with chocolate truffles covered in fudge. Yum! One grandson who shall remain nameless dropped his before we left the shop, but the server was really nice and gave him another. Vacationing with kids is not for the faint of heart lol.

The boys were skeptical when we told them the pebbles under their feet were mostly crushed oyster shells. True story though. 

~pebbles~

Hubs and I went back to Shelter Cove Friday afternoon to browse a gallery I'd seen that had some pretty things. Still looking for jut the right thing for our outdoor dining space. My son-in-law grilled fresh swordfish and more shrimp for dinner that evening. We taught the oldest grandsons how to play Mexican Train dominoes this week so there was one more game before everyone did some packing for our Saturday check out.  

Can't forget the selfie prompt. This is as close as we got...

~selfie~

A man on the beach noticed our attempt and helpfully intervened. Also, he was from some small town near St. Louis where hubs mother lived a long time ago, so a lot of conversation happened too. Hubs is firmly in the 'never met a stranger' camp. Not sure why I'm not wearing my sunglasses, but it was evening and I guess not bright? 

Except I'm squinting so it was bright enough. This is why I don't take selfies. Too much overthinking. 

And suddenly it was Saturday. Leaving is the hardest part. You wake up and take your coffee outside like you've done every day since arriving, and you smell the sea air and then sadly you remember you're getting in the car to head home instead of to the beach. Boo. 

Here's how it started-

~beginning~

Til next time...

~the end~

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