Sullivan's Island

This month has been a whirlwind of back-to-back trips. It's been A TON OF FUN but has left me with about 1000 pictures to sort through and that deflated day-after-Christmas feeling. It's like we compressed all the fun of an entire summer into the month of June. Sigh.

The brief summary of the month's comings and goings is this: spent 9 days at the beach in South Carolina with assorted friends and family. Shortly thereafter the boys and I spent 4 more days at the beach in Virginia with friends from Richmond. Came home in time to celebrate my birthday and put tubes in Oliver's ears (he is already hearing better and his articulation is improving, too. Poor guy has had persistent fluid in his ears since January). Left again a few days later with Ryan and the boys to visit friends from Ithaca who recently moved near Lynchburg, VA. Now we are home and I'm trying to establish a routine. Elliot is sick again (why, I wonder? could it be the constant onslaught of new germs/kids we expose him to???)

Since it might take me a few days (weeks?) to post about all our recent adventures I'll stick with our first trip, to the beach near Charleston, SC.

 

We rented a house in the most charming beach town called Sullivan's Island. It was just perfect. The house was a 100-year old cottage that was stylishly, but not fussily, appointed. The owners have three small kids so the house was very kid-friendly. They had toys and games and a train table and chalkboard wall in the bunkroom and a playhouse outside. The beach was just over the dunes in the backyard.

 

Sullivan's Island has a fascinating history. It is sort of the ignoble Ellis Island for African Americans. Some 40% of African Americans have ancestors who came through the notorious "pest houses" on the island during the height of the Atlantic slave trade. It is also the site of Fort Moultrie, a Revolutionary War fortification from which the colonists successfully defended Charleston. Much more recently it has been in the news as the home of philandering SC Governor Mark Sanford. (Little did we know of the drama that was brewing just down the beach!)

My dad and Abby and Adam couldn't come down until Tuesday night but the house rented from Saturday to Saturday so we invited some friends from Raleigh, the Becks and the Harrises, to spend the first 3 days with us. We PACKED the house with 6 adults, 8 kids and 2 teenage babysitters. It was so much fun! The kids had a blast playing together at the beach, in the playhouse, on the porch, on the lawn. And WE had a blast while the babysitters bathed, fed and put our kids to bed.

 

 

      

The guys cooked an absolute feast on Sunday night. Matt and Ryan had been planning this meal for weeks. We had shrimp and scallops, steak and grilled corn on the cob and vegetables. It was delicious. The guys truly outdid themselves.

 

The "grown-ups" all went in to Charleston for dinner on Monday night. What a cool city! We were all plotting how we could move down there permanently (perhaps a trip in July or August would change our minds).

On Tuesday we visited Ft. Sumter, learned a little more about the "War of Northern Aggression." Did you know that South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union and that a cadet from the Citadel may or may not have fired the first shot of the Civil War? Well, everyone I talked to after our trip to Ft. Sumter knows now because I made sure to mention it a few dozen times. Still not sure why I found that so noteworthy.

On Tuesday we also said goodbye to the Harrises and the Becks, and hello to my Dad, and after several unforeseen delays, Abby and Adam. Abby and Adam celebrated their "pre-niversary" on Sullivan's...their wedding is planned for June 5, 2010. Congrats in advance guys! 

While Dad read the paper, I surfed the web, and Ryan took extensive pictures of downtown Charleston (I hope he'll post a slide show of his pictures soon), Abby and Adam dove into their roles as nephew wranglers.

  

 

We had dinner one night on Shem Creek, fresh seafood right off the boat!

Our friends Bianca and Mark and their adorable twin boys joined us on Thursday. In the second half of the week we took in some highbrow culture at the Spoleto Festival in the form of a bizarre Scandinavian play and a French opera from 1900 about free love and parenting teenagers. Interesting and thought provoking indeed. Adam also treated us all to dinner at the MOST AMAZING restaurant, McCrady's in Charleston. Check out Cackalacky Kitchen for full details.          

Thanks, Daddy, for making such a memorable trip possible!