Our annual beach trip came earlier than usual this year. We usually have all summer to look forward to our trip, and by late August or September, the beach is fairly empty.
Vacation schedules at work, vacancies at our friend's beach house and visiting friends from Denver aligned to make June the best time to go.
We also had a fuller house than we've ever had. At one point, every bed was occupied!
Sawyer and I drove down Thursday morning, after missing the final day of Vacation Bible School because he had a fever. I hated to bail on the craft room, but I didn't want any other kids to get sick. And after some Tylenol, his fever went down and he acted OK.
It took two hours to pack the 85 bags of stuff I thought we might need, a lot more stuff than we usually take. We finally hit the road, and Sawyer was asleep in less than 40 minutes. I enjoyed two things I rarely have in the car anymore: quiet and music I like.
Sawyer slept a couple hours and woke up just in time for me to point out swampy land on the roadside. And just like it seems we always do, we hit the stretch where there are no places to stop JUST when we are ready for a break. This year, I had to worry about potty breaks, but Sawyer is part camel so one stop was enough.
He was getting very antsy, and frankly, I was eager to stretch my legs a bit too. We did a drive-by detour in the tiny town of Chadbourn to see some old train cars.
After that, we talked about all the things we were passing: cornfields, barns, ponds, fire towers and other country sights.
We were so far past lunch that we weren't all that hungry, but we finally came to a McDonald's so we stopped for a bathroom break and ice cream. After the old ladies there oohed and ahhed over how cute Sawyer was, we hit the road for another hour and a half.
Finally, we made it. And as we rolled into the normally quite area of Cherry Grove, we passed packs of teenagers. I knew it was going to be a very different vibe than our usual stays.
I carried most of our gear up and rested a little before we donned bathing suits and walked to the beach. It was approaching high tide and was already after 5 p.m. so the beach was pretty empty. Sawyer was a little timid about the waves. He came up to me once and said, "Mom, will you help me be brave?"
Mostly, Sawyer wanted to pick up sand or shells and throw them. We played for an hour or more and then headed home. We took showers and arrived way past dinner at the grocery store, where it took us an hour to find and decide what we wanted. (This grocery store is one of the coolest places. It has so many odd beachy distractions.)
We ate cereal for dinner because it seemed the fastest and easiest, and I still had to make the beds. Sawyer finally crawled into bed close to two hours past bedtime. He slept fitfully and woke up coughing and with the fever again. My arm also was killing me (I've had this terrible shooting nerve pain through my right shoulder and arm for a week). It was a long night , and I was glad I'd get reinforcements Friday.
Day 2 (Friday)
Ray and my mom were set to arrive separately Friday, and we weren't sure exactly what time. Sawyer was DYING to go back to the beach. I knew we'd have to be home to meet my mom so we hit the beach early. The beach was packed with more teenagers. I got hit on the back of the head with a lacrosse ball while minding my own business under my umbrella. No "sorry," "my bad" or "you OK?" from the stupid boys playing near us. Besides lacrosse, other kids (see how old I am?) were playing volleyball to one side and soccer in front of us. I told Ray if I got hit by another ball, it was going to get booted into the ocean.
We left after lunchtime to get cleaned up before my mom arrived. She got there about 4 and offered to take Sawyer back to the beach. I left to hit the hardware store to see if I could find a new beach wagon (the one we use at the house is far past its prime and practically fell apart when I tried to use it.) I stopped back by the grocery store for dinner, and Ray (who arrived an hour earlier than I expected!) convinced me to get steak after we discovered the house had a grill and charcoal. I bought the largest steaks EVER. He and I cooked dinner: the grilled steaks, fabulous sweet corn on the cob, grilled asparagus and steak fries for Sawyer and Grandmother. It was so yummy.
After ONE more trip to the grocery store that night (for some allergy medicine and honey for Sawyer and ice cream for Ray), we went to bed. Sawyer woke up again that night and slept with Grandmother.
Day 3 (Saturday)
We lingered on the porch of our beach house a long time before getting up and getting ready for the beach. Ray had to make his Starbucks run, so he joined us a little later. Sawyer had fun playing with Daddy, and I think Ray enjoyed it, too. They swam (he was a still a little scared even with a float on), built a sandcastle and flew a kite. Ray was swooping it around, doing trick moves and scaring every passer-by on the beach. It was so nice to just be able to sit in my chair and watch.
We all headed back to the house about the same time and took turns getting cleaned up. We pushed and pushed until Sawyer took a nap, and I iced my arm while enjoying a book.
For dinner, we ventured to Calabash, N.C., which was ... not surprisingly ... packed on a Saturday night. Thankfully, we weren't starving because we had an hour wait to get seated. Sawyer, Grandmother and I killed the time walking around the docks and looking at the fiberglass fish (like sharks and marlins, which Sawyer calls stingfish). It was not just a full moon but a super moon, so the water level was too high to walk around the docks ... they were all flooded.
We got another great table by the window and had a pretty good meal (though I won't order scallops there again). After dinner, we checked out a poster in the lobby of South Atlantic fish and I pointed to a stingray and told Sawyer it had the same name as Daddy. He's been calling them "hey rays" since. (He hears me call "Hey, Ray!" and thinks that's his name.)
Day 4 (Sunday)
Ray and I had planned to spend the day together at an IDPA match about an hour away, but my arm was hurting so badly that I didn't think I could shoot. He went on without me and decided to drive home from there instead of having to leave so early Monday morning. I was so sad for him to leave and not to get to hang out with him, especially since we had someone to stay with Sawyer.
It was incredibly hot and muggy, so instead of going to the beach, we drove to two Home Depots (including Shallotte about 30 minutes away) to buy a
To kill some time, we visited this mud flat area, where we saw tons of fiddler crabs and a few people fishing, and then we fed the ducks and turtles in the pond behind our house.
One more trip to the grocery store for spaghetti ingredients, and we were ready for my friends from Denver to arrive.
The Milsteads pulled in a little after 5, and the kids got reacquainted while the adults chatted. Jennifer and I have been friends for almost 15 years. We met at The Herald newspaper in Rock Hill; we both started on the copy desk straight out of college. We became great friends and eventually married guys we met at the paper. Through all the years, changing schedules, moving across the country, getting married, new careers and kids, we've remained friends. We went to Denver last year to see them, and they came to the East Coast this summer to catch up with lots of friends and family.
It just worked out that Jenn wanted to take the kids to the beach, and we were sort of already planning to be here.
My mom cooked dinner, and we coordinated three kids eating at a table that's not so kid-friendly. After that, we walked up to the beach. It was high tide with rough waves (because of the full moon) but nice warm water. Keeping the kids, especially Annie who'd never seen the ocean, out of the water was impossible. Pretty soon, they were all drenched. The adults were pretty wet, too. But we were all laughing at the sight of them rolling in the waves and having so much fun.
Annie was fearless and would've easily washed away if we hadn't kept an arm on her. She got completely washed over by big waves a few times and just came up giggling for more. The boys did well on their own, and Sawyer quickly got over his fear with Elliott nearby. The poor kid's shorts were so loose they started washing off so he just ditched them and went with the redneck swimsuit: Thomas underwear.
We knew then we'd be in for some challenges when bringing them back to the beach the next day. We debated getting leashes for them!
After bedtime, Jenn and I stayed up catching up on our lives and the other places she'd been on their trip east.
Sawyer woke up in the night wanting me, so Grandmother woke me up. After getting him back to sleep in my bed, I was jolted awake again about 5 a.m. by a big thud and a scream. He'd rolled out of bed and had a giant goose egg on his head. The poor kid just can't catch a break.
More to come in Part 2 of our week at the beach ...
No comments:
Post a Comment