Apologies for the lack of blogging. I (yes the lady who said when she retired she was not going to do anything) have been working such a lot recently and so yesterday we had a day off. A day of Christmas shopping - very productive and most gifts bought, and of going into the adjacent town of Bournemouth, having a lovely meal at prezzo and seeing their fabulous Christmas lights. I am a Poole girl at heart, but I have to admit the illuminated trees in Bournemouth gardens were quite spectatular.
Barb you asked if I buy Starbucks mugs from where we travel. In a way I kind of wish I had started doingt hat a long time ago as we would have a pretty amazing collection now, but as I don't really drink hot drinks we haven't any, other than one from Pike Place, the first Starbucks every opened. I also learned my lesson from the Hard Rock Cafe. we used to collect their glasses and have a lot of them from all over the world but they are so special I don't like to use them in case I break them and that is utterly stupid. I have all these glasses that never get used. Mmmmm - maybe I will make a new year resolution to use them.
Today I am thankful for
- a lovely day off
- getting several big jobs finished at home
- Christmas -I love it. Our lights get switched on tonight
Thursday 25th October
The One Where I Met the Newest Member of the Family
It was another early start but that is nothing new this holiday ... places to go things to see. However, we did delay a little as we knew that on the east coast it would be the sunrise, not the sunset that would be fantastic. And oh boy it was. Just to go outside on our balcony and see such wonders was amazing, I ended up singing ‘come and see what God has done’ for the rest of the day. Island Vista had proved to be one of our best hotels.
There was no breakfast provided and so we forced ourselves to go have a Denny’s breakfast and wonderful it was too. I had my very favourites French slam. We drove out of Myrtle Beach and were fascinated to pass not one, not five not ten but 14 mini crazy golf places ... most pirate themed. Clearly if one wants to vacation at the crazy golf Capitol of the world it is Myrtle Beach ... who knew!
Our plan was to visit Charleston today. It wasn’t a bad drive, just a few hours, but we knew we were u sure of what to see and do when we got there. Our Sat Nav had a very interesting route to take us in ... our second time driving around cruise liner docks this week! However, we were again very lucky and found somewhere to park on the street right by the waterfront for just a couple of dollars.
We walked along the waterfront, saw Rainbow Row, which was very disappointing, and then wandered some side streets and soaked up, the beauty of Charleston.
It had some very very old sections and some beautiful churches. We then returned to the car and drove round so let more.
Charleston seemed to be the city of BIG architecture and I really enjoyed visiting it. It had something of the feel or New Orleans without the music and the bustle.
Finally, we headed back out of town to the Hobby Lobby which was amazing. They had 50% off all Paper Studio and I went a bit made. I was able to pick up D ring albums for just $10 each and refills and vinyl and paper and stuff! The car is pretty full now. It was at this point I realised I wasn’t feeling well at all. Things were not right in the bladder department and it became clear that things were getting steadily worse. I was visiting the loo every quarter of an hour and still bursting to go. We called it a day and headed to Beaufort, our next stop.
We had selected Beaufort as my cousin (well second cousin if you want to be technical) lives very near there, but we had no idea when we booked that it was such a beautiful and historic town. sadly the weather was against us and alongside the fact that I just wanted to lie down, we saw little of this beautiful town
I had a lie down before we went over to see my second cousin Abbie, her husband Lee and their three gorgeous children. I stopped at Walgreens on the way to try and get something to help. How bizarre was that? In the UK I would have k own where to go, what to get, but in the US I had no clue. I had to ask the pharmacist who was very helpful and pills bought, the first one taken, we headed to Abbie’s.
It was wonderful to see them all and I was so thrilled to meet Benjamin Lovatt, named after my grandfather and his great great grandfather. He was so tiny, just a few days old, and so utterly adorable. It was great to see them all and I even got special goodnight hugs from Penelope. Pizza eaten, stories swapped and gifts given ... I had made a special book for Benjamin about his namesakes and also given him his great-great grandfathers watch ... it was time to go.
Now if you are faint-hearted skip this. The pills I was taking said that it might make your wee bright yellow/orange. Oh my goodness... I could have illuminated Broadway. It wasn’t bright it was luminous and lurid. However, joking about the colour aside I really wasn’t very well. I was up and down dozens of times in the night and when I was in bed I was shivering so badly with a high temperature that every part of me aches as I was so tensed up with the cold. It wasn’t a great night and we were both a little worried. Part of it was due to me not drinking enough I am sure. On an average day at home, I drink only mint tea and about three litres of water. I had not been drinking nearly enough out of fear of needing the loo at inappropriate times and I had also had a lot of diet soda which I don’t drink at home. We hoped this was the cause and that water would fix it.
