Snapshots From Our Trip

  Now that we are home, unpacked and mostly rested, I thought I'd share a few snapshots from our recent trip to South Carolina. These are in no particular order.
  1. One of the things I wanted to do was have some boiled peanuts and a grape Nehi. (Had to be grape, no other flavor will do.) We stopped at a service  station for gas on the way 6to Myrtle Beach. Lo and behold they had snacks including two larger cookers that had boiled peanuts. One of them was Cajun flavor. I was a little nervous about trying them so I stuck to the original. I dipped the steaming peanuts into a Styrofoam cup that was there for that purpose. I filled the cup about half full as I was afraid the peanuts on the bottom would get cold. Cold boiled peanuts are nasty. I soon realized that I should have taken two cups, One cup for the peanuts and another for the shells. I feasted happily on the peanuts which were pretty good although a bit salty.
   We were wandering around Charleston around by the Market when I stopped by a candy store. This store also had a variety of hard to find sodas. I decided to check and see if maybe, just maybe they would have grape Nehi. They did. I bought a bottle and drank it right away. Nehi tastes best cold. I kept the bottle and brought it home with me. I wonder if you can order grape Nehi on Amazon?
   2. When we got to Jack's condo on Myrtle Beach, we loaded a cart with our luggage and went up to the 18th floor. C tried the key that Jack had sent. There was a problem. The key didn't work. C tried everything he knew to get the key to work. With some help from Davey, the building manager, C was able to find a locksmith who determined that the deadbolt lock was installed upside down and that we had the wrong key. He made us three keys. We gave one to the building manager and we were going to give the other two to Jack.  Once I realized that it was going to be awhile before we could get in, I pulled a book out of my shoulder bag and began to read. I would have pulled out some knitting, but it was too windy. I guess the fact that I stayed calm and collected impressed a couple people. When we returned the keys to Jack, he told us to keep one. We have use of the condo anytime we are in the area.
  3. We drove back upstate to attend the Crane cousin reunion. The gathering was planned for Saturday at noon. Aunt Lois, the last of my father-in-law's siblings, would be there along with as many cousins as could make it. About 19 people showed up. We ate lunch at Cracker Barrel and then went Aunt Lois's house. The plan was that there would be singing and music. Cousin Rachel and her twin sister Dora would attending. Rachel and Dora have excellent singing voices and grew up singing hymns at church sometimes with their Dad, Uncle Fred, who also had great musical talent.
  Once we got settled in Aunt Lois's living room, Jeanette (another cousin)  suggested that all the cousins talk about their lives as adults. Since many of these cousins hadn't seen each other in many years, despite the fact that they live fairly close to each other, this seemed like a good thing to do. There were many touching stories and almost everyone was in tears. I even contributed a thing or two. It was a very special, quite emotional gathering. I truly felt like I was part of this family.
  4. We attended Sacrament meeting at the Greenville Second Ward. As usual I wore a hat.  After the meeting was over two women came up to greet me. They were part of the Greenville Second Ward hat brigade. That is a group of ladies who try to wear hats to church. For some reason they had elected not to wear hats that Sunday. Seeing me made them wish they had. They complimented my hat. I smiled. The blue and white hat that I wore to church was given to me by C's beloved Aunt Mil, who had passed away about six months ago.
  It was a fun trip. We walked in Falls Park which is in downtown Greenville. We ate twice at the Eggs Up Grill, where I had corned beef hash for the fist time. (It's really good.) We ate at Pier 14 in Myrtle Beach. We got sunburned.
   We never made it to Pauline or to Possum Kingdom. That's all right. We were able to spend the time with family. That was the best thing of all......