A Spontanious Vacation

Last Monday my MIL called and said she was going to have a few days off work and did the kids and I want to go with her to Charleston SC to visit with her mother and sister (and family). Tony's Nana was recently discovered to have cancer and has been undergoing chemo treatments after having had tumours removed and is not in very good health. We had been wanting to take a trip over there (about a 7hr drive East of us) as a family but the opportunity to do that hadn't happened yet.

Tony and I have not ever been apart a single night, in a little over 5 1/2 years. The kids have never spent the night away from us except for Jeremiah who's stayed at my MIL's a couple of times. We knew it would be a little strange to be seperated but Tony and I decided that it was a good time for the kids to go see Nana and to visit with the Aunt, Uncle and cousins.

We left Wed morning and arrived Wed night. I took some knitting with me in the car, a little sweater I was working on to send to a friend for their new baby. All I had left to do when we left was add both sleeves and I managed to get one done on the ride over there. Thurs. morning we got up and Nana mentioned that she'd like to have a couple small caps or some slippers because her feet are so cold. The chemo has, of course, caused her hair to fall out and she still has several treatments to go. We went to Michael's craft store and I picked up some yarn (that morning and on the way there I feverishly finished the second sleeve on the baby sweater since I'd only brought one pair of DPNs with me!) Between Thurs afternoon and Monday morning before we left I'd knit her 2 beanie/skull caps and a pair of slipper/socks. I am almost tired of knitting! LoL!

Thurs we took Nana with us and went into North Charleston to the Michael's and then to Border's Bookstore where we hung out for about an hour. Book stores are very special to me. I get a feeling of peace and calm there that I get almost no where else. I can spend hours surrounded by books, the air conditioning and the quiet muzzak and feel well rested when I leave. This feeling of course is railroaded by the fact that I ALWAYS take my kids with me, even with help, you can't look at books sufficiantly while holding a squirming or chasing a running child through the bookstore. It totally kills the outting. I tell Tony that I always feel robbed. This time was no so bad, the Nana's watched over Jeremiah leaving me free to roam and look for books with Hannah for about a half hour before she bashed me in the face with her forehead and gave me a nose bleed. Peace and calm ruined.

Friday cousin Caitlin and I took the kids into Downtown Charleston to the local Market which was pretty neat. Like a flea market but in an old brick enclosure with open ends and sides. We did the touristy thing, buying the kids woven bracelets and Tony a shot glass from the Pirate's Cove memorobilia store. I took pictures of a couple old buildings I thought were particularly neat!

For lunch we went to Bubba Gump's, which is a slightly-overpriced (I thought) but fun seafood resteraunt based on the movie Forrest Gump. The kids' meals were served in cardboard boats with Jennie on the side. It was a neat experience and my fish sandwhich was pretty good, though I make better coleslaw LoL! One of the waitresses was creating a giant side-walk-chalk mural/advertisement which was very colorful! I bought myself a souvenier shooter-shot glass with a little shrimp on the side with the words Bubba Gump.

Saturday Tony's aunt Charlene was off and so was her son Andy so we (me, the kids, Cheryl, Charlene, Andy and Nana) loaded into her Tahoe and off we went to Charle's Town Landing historical site. It was a huge plantation like-deal where you walk for a million miles and see local folliage, wild life, hisorical plaques and facts. Kind of like a museum, gardens and zoo rolled int one. They didn't have any strollers available when we got there so the kids trekked along with us. Hannah picked up sticks everywhere we went which she used to swat at leaves and Jeremiah carried around a map, telling us which ways to go. We didn't get to walk the whole place because by the time we got back to the middle (after seeing the animals) and picked up a stroller for each kid, we were all tired and worn out and needing to get Nana home and it was dinner time. Still, I got some cute pictures and it was a nice outting. I like all that historical type stuff.

It ended up being just as lonely for me without Tony as I'd thought, and worse for him to come home to a big, empty house everynight. Tony is VERY MUCH a people person, he doesn't like to be alone period. He tried to get off Saturday with the intention of suprising Nana and driving over to visit but he had to work. So he put in a vacation day for Monday (which also gave him Sunday off) and drove over Saturday night when he got off work! He got there about 7am Sunday morning. Needless to say we (he, haha) spent most of Sunday sleeping.

Monday we got up, packed and cleaned up our messes, said our goodbyes and headed toward the beach. Folly Beach is only about 20 minutes from where we were but considering we didn't know how to get there, we had to strop and buy towels and a sippy for Hannah (because her bottle disappeared at Charlene's house) and that inolved going into 3 different plazas on the wrong side of the street, it took us about an hour and a half to get there. Sigh.

We finally there, found a place to park that was TADA right near the bathrooms! $1 an hour to park. Crap, we don't carry cash. Scrounge $1 in dimes and nickles off the car floor and head up 3 flights of stairs to the bathrooms to discover this lovely view and the bathroom doors locked--5 hours before the sign says they're to be locked. Crap. Okay, we changed in the car. We had a wonderful time playing in the surf (even though I hate the beach, cause I hate sand.) and the kids LOVED it. We got someone to take this picture of us. We're a chunky bunch, aren't we? We managed to escape unsunburned (yay me!) and with a little bucket of shells which included some impossibly small ones I found with a little hole in them already to make into stitch markers, and 2 beer bottle caps (what?). Jereiah said he had to use the bathroom when we got there (and they were locked), when we left (2 hours later) we asked him if he still had to go, he said no. We get in the car, drive 2 minutes when he starts crying he has to pee. Of course there's nothing but closing up surf-shops. 4 minutes later we're waiting at a traffic light to turn into a gas station to take him to the bathroom when he starts to cry and says he had an accident. Ooohkay. Take him in, clean him off, change his clothes, take the cover off his car seat. Then gas, the rest of us use the bathroom, get drinks and snacks and 40 minutes later we're stuck in rush hour.

It took us until 1:30am to get home (we left the beach at 4-ish pm). Still though, we had a good trip. We we thrilled to be back together again and loved being able to do something vacation-y with the kids at the beach. They'd never been to an ocean beach before (though we took Jeremiah to a Gulf beach in FL).