From the Desk 6/9/2008

This morning I shut off the alarm as soon as it rang and slept for another 45 minutes. After suffering what felt like 3rd degree sunburns and being sore from our workout from yesterday Hickey and I decided to skip the morning routine in favor of more sleep. I got up eventually and met Amy in the kitchen. We collected all we needed to begin making a breakfast feast for everyone. With minimal guidance, Amy became a master at the French toasting. I made the batter to dip the bread in and fix the scrambled eggs. Amy and Beth cooked the bacon. The gas stove top we were cooking on was very nice and cooked things very quickly, which meant that the food was ready before most of the people were. Everyone ate and was satisfied with the deliciosity of their breakfast. (see, siblings can work together on stuff!) After breakfast I worked a little bit on the puzzle while Hickey cleaned....and cleaned, and cleaned...I think he may have even repainted the baseboards. After getting everything in the kitchen up to Hickey's standards we grabbed some stuff and headed out for our short road trip for the day.

Amy, Jon, Hickey, and I drove to Lady's Island to eat some lunch at the much hyped, Shrimp Shack near Fripp Island. It took us a little over an hour to arrive at our lunch destination. We passed many things along the way that we would visit on our return trip. At the Shrimp Shack, there were many good-looking things on the menu, but I decided to go with Jon's recommendation of a shrimp burger. This was my first experience with this particular dish and it was not what I had expected. The burger part itself was tasty, but when mixed with the flavor of a regular bun, the mixed tastes were confusing to my brain. It was good, but not something I would order again. Across the street from the Shrimp Shack is the Gay Fish Company, which was featured in the movie Forest Gump (but renamed in the movie as the Bubba-Gump Shrimp Co.). We stopped off at Barefoot Farms in search of their legendary homemade peach salsa. They were sold out when we arrived, but Amy decided to try pineapple salsa and some raspberry jam instead. Our next stop was the Carolina Cider Company. Amy and Jon had remembered seeing a sign advertising cherry cider and wanted to satisfy their curiosity. We stopped off and sampled not only cherry cider, but muscadine cider also. The later tasted similar to grape juice but produced a much bolder flavor. They sold peach salsa so Amy and I bought some for comparison from Barefoot Farms. We left from there and returned to the house to relax for a bit.

We didn't eat dinner with Tom, Beth, and Jake since we ate lunch around 1:30. We instead went down to the beach to take some pictures. We took pictures along the shoreline, under the pier, and on the pier. The sunset made for perfect lighting and some great pictures. I have included several of those here for you to ooh and aah over. We walked out to the end of the pier where there were still lots of people fishing. There was one man fishing who started to reel something in and then there was a large crowd gathering around him as he used his net to bring in his catch the rest of the way. He had hooked a baby shark! There were lots of people who brought their children over to see and touch the creature before he did the right thing and release it back into the water. I must admit that it was really unique seeing a shark up close, but it also made me think about the fact that it was in the same proximity that we were swimming in yesterday. It kind of reminds you that when you're in the ocean, you are a guest in other animals' worlds. As Amy and Jon walked back towards the house along the beach, Hickey and I decided to run as the temperature was cooling down to a comfortable level. We ran past the house without realizing it and then ran back past it the other way to find Amy and Jon with no success. We eventually realized that Amy and Jon had begun walking on the sand near the walkways and we had actually passed them twice. So we walked back to the beach access and met Amy and Jon to return to the house. We soon became hungry so Hickey and I finally decided to go buy some frozen pizzas and snacks. We went to the nearest Publix and found it to be closed (at 10:00?). We eventually found a Piggly Wiggly that was still open and procured our food. We returned to the house, fixed and our food. Hickey and I worked on the puzzle for the rest of the night while Amy and Jon watched Semi-Pro. The others had already gone to bed and after the movie Amy and Jon went to sleep. Hickey and I remained awake to finish the puzzle no matter how long it took. Apparently, it took until 2:00am to finish the puzzle and we found that it had 3 missing pieces when we finished. Too tired to look for the missing pieces, we turned in for the night to rest a little before driving home tomorrow morning.

Meditation for the day: Revelation 2:3 "You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary."