Move over Clark Griswold

The day before Kate and I were to leave for the beach, I got a call from Steve Senn that indeed he had decided to work Saturday, and thus, Mom could reschedule her perm from September 26 to September 5 – very desirable for The Mimi. Kate spent the morning at the across-the-street neighbors’ house, Scott packed, and I took Mom and ran errands – the longest of which was to retrieve her refills from the PX refill pharmacy at Fort Jackson.

Packing for the beach took a backseat.

When I finally got home (having gathered up piles of clothes for me and Kate earlier but not really remembering what was in there), I quickly finished packing and loaded the car. We decided to wait for Mike (my brother) to get there since he was only 30 minutes away. We did, visited for all of 20 minutes (within that timeframe he was able to launch into his worry that he’ll lose his healthcare because of Obama) and left. I was really tired – maybe even too tired to go. But faced with the prospect of staying home, I moved on.

Kate was pretty happy in the car, coloring, playing with her Leapster and doing well traveling. I was zoned out completely but thinking of being on the beach with a mimosa (which ended up being champagne and Juicy Juice because it was all we had!) and as a result, realized I was driving in the complete wrong direction. We were in Clinton, SC.

We turned around.

Once in the correct direction, Kate and I both recovered: her, from her whining about it taking too long, and me from a brief yelling through my teeth moment.

We pulled up to the Shem Creek Inn. I had only made my reservation on Thursday – we had never stayed there, but because we eat in that area when in Charleston, it seemed like a reasonable choice. The room was, well, worn. It wasn’t bad – had a garden tub, but was a little tired of seeing tourists over the years. We changed, ate dinner at the Water’s Edge (which I forgot had white tablecloths but proved to be a great time for Kate to learn how to use a bread plate), had a great meal, and went back to the hotel. Kate was hell bent to go swimming, so we put on our suits and headed to the unlit pool area.

We were the only ones in the pool area, although en route to the pool I noticed a young girl drinking coffee by herself in a swimsuit, and she joined us. She was 10 (but looked much younger) named Sydney, from Greer. Unsupervised. So now I’m in a pool that is dark, with an unsupervised 10-year-old girl. Kate asked her where her Mom was, and I think I heard her say, “at the bottle store.” Perhaps I heard wrong, but when I did finally see her Mom walk into Sydney’s room later, I was pretty sure I heard it right. Sydney played with Kate wonderfully, but it got too cold so we left and luckily Sydney did too. Whew. Sydney’s mom could not have been over 25. Sydney had two older sisters and a younger brother.

That night, I was so tired I could not do one thing but go to sleep. Once we got settled, we become extremely cold. So cold I was practically laying on top of Kate for warmth…….you know how you get so cold that the LAST thing you can do is get OUT of the bed? Painfully cold, miserably cold.

So I ran for the thermostat and realized it was set on “on” and not “auto” – so even set at 75 degrees, it was much, much too cold…….once I thawed out, sleep was interrupted at times by heavy walking above our heads (we were on the bottom floor) and hoots and hollers from the parking lot (which our window overlooked). Hoots and hollers at 3 am. Seems that the Shem Creek area on a Saturday night is party central. Who would’ ve thunk it.

The next morning we got up and headed to the continental breakfast. Kate spilled an entire cup on water on the table in the lobby, so we decided to go outside by the pool, which overlooks the creek – lots of cool shrimp boats, etc.. I had to work on U101 journals, but once outside, dew kept everything so wet that we couldn’t really spend much time out there. Kate wanted to look into the creek at the boats, and no sooner had she stood up on a chair then a seagull swooped at her head, missed her, but landed right by the pool. He peed on the concrete, hopped into the pool, and took a drink. Kate was traumatized by the bird, so we went back to our room. I finished journals, she watched TV and we finally packed to head to Folly Beach to spend the day with Kate’s friend Lawton Powers and his family. As we were getting into the car, Kate's lollygagging around somehow managed to open the car door too wide, leaving a nice small mark on a champagne colored Lexus. I left a note, being inspired by a friend whose daughter did the same thing at church, but I think to a worse degree.

Anyway, we love the Powers. Spending time at the beach with them was one of the highlights of the weekend. Kate and Lawton played in the ocean for almost five hours, and I got to visit with Kathryn, Law, and friends Ray and David. We sat on the beach and drank beer, laughed, ate Cheese Its…..a very fun time.

After our long day, we went up to see Ray and David’s new condo, and Kate got a bath with Lawton and Layne (she’s two). I had no clothes for her to change into, so she wore one of Lawton’s wife beater tank tops and a pair of boxers. At least she was clean!

We drove back to Shem Creek, and found Scott there…..so we got ready to eat dinner. We let Scott pick – he chose a favorite place of his, The Wreck. After it took us a bit to find it (they’ve built these million dollar homes along the road and we couldn’t find it), we arrived to a one-hour wait (which I doubted anyway). First thing I notice when I leave our name with the hostess: “no Sunday alcohol sales.” That flattened my sails a bit. As we waited it hit me: if they don’t have Sunday alcohol, then do they even take credit cards?

No, they don’t. And we didn’t have a lick of cash.

But I inquired about checks – they would take our personal check. Thank heavens because by this time, we are hungry.

We order our food and are looking forward to our meal, and when it is finally served, I said to our server, “and my she-crab soup?”

“Oh, right, we’re out of it. Sorry. Just remind me to take it off the bill.” Which she didn’t, and we had to wait for her to adjust…….

The food was really good and different from most other places. Incredibly down home (read: dirty but charming) and delicious for certain.

When I begin to write my check, I write $75 in the little box (instead of $65, which included a nice tip of $19 for two meals since Kate and I shared one), and then I write VOID through it, cross it out, and realize…….

You got it. It was my last check.

After scratching out and initialing through all my VOID and whatnot, I had to be content with leaving a bit larger tip than I expected to. Otherwise, we would not be able to pay. Nice……I just kept thinking how much our server would be delighted with it! We get Starbucks, head to the room, and settle in. Then, once asleep The Dream comes. I dream that we’re outside of our house and we’re talking with some expert bug guy because we’re having bug problems. Our problem is that Madagascar hissing roaches are trying to get into our house from the front door, and some lady at our door is beating them back with a broom. And she’s having to really beat them because they are the size of a dog, like as big and as long as a daschund. And the guy is telling us we HAVE to get them out because if they bite us, they’re poisonous. Not that I really want them in there anyway. Truly, I can even remember in my dream that they are layered looking, like a roly poly. So, I wake up and the dream is so real I struggle to get to sleep.

The next day works out nicely – Kate and Scott swim before we head downtown to eat lunch at Andolini’s (who does take debit), Scott and Kate took a carriage ride, and we peeked around downtown…..went to the outlets briefly and the salesperson at Brookstone is so awful she even says to Scott, “I’m sorry if I was abrupt” – she was horribly abrupt, but we could laugh about it because it was the thematic nature of our weekend away. The highlight was my remembering to bring USC shirts for me and Kate so we could get free Chickfila on the way home Monday……