Lazy Days

Our beach vacation is over now, but we had a great time! Lazy days of summer. We head back to London tomorrow, but I'm sure my mind will be drifting back at the beach in no time.

Seaside

We got to the beach in South Carolina on Friday and have been having a great time! My mom, sister, nephews, aunts, uncles, and cousins are all here. We've been eating, sleeping, and chilling on the beach--about the only things you can do around here. And I've been having a great time taking iPhone pictures, using my most recent favorite app, tiltshift (all of these are with the tiltshift app on my iPhone). We've tried bringing our Canon on the beach, but it's been so humid and windy that condensation forms on the lens and doesn't want to go away. That's also because it's coming from out from the AC. But that's okay. It just means more fun with iPhone pictures.

King's Farm Market

Back down south again today for some good eats. The significantly better alternative to the Piggly Wiggly in Edisto is King's Farm Market. It's a little farther out, but worth the drive for some homemade pie. Not only are the pies great, but the fruit and veggies can't be beat. We needed some basil but didn't see any, so we asked the nice lady who was working there if they had any, and she said she'd go pick some! She walked out to the garden then was back in about a minute with our hand-picked basil. It doesn't get fresher than that. The market also has really cute country charm: fresh flowers in rustic tins for vases, a great vintage stove stands in for display, and some vintage items for sale, too, like "nostalgic" signs. They even have chickens out back.






Speaking of food, I guess I haven't mentioned yet how much Andrew cooked while we were at the beach, like his own homemade peach pie, which we ate in addition to a number of King's Farm pies (oink, oink). When I say Andrew's homemade pie, I mean the crust, too. YUM. He also made homemade pizza on the grill, homemade--get down good--sticky buns, and burgers with some local grass fed beef. He's quite the gourmand. Beach eats were good eats for sure. Shown below, Andrew's peach pie, or in this case, beach pie!

Bye Bye Beach

Today we made it back home to San Francisco. Lois is a pretty well-seasoned traveler, but today's flight was the hardest one so far for all of us. She SCREAMED most of the 5 hour flight home while arching her back and attempting to twist around, and to top it off the flight was incredibly bumpy. Alas, I wished I was back at the beach. I have the memories, though, and a few more Edisto seashells to add to our collection. Sun, sand, sea--I miss you already.

Shells.

Morning sun.

More sea oats.

Cash in his PJs on the beach.

A beautiful day.

Lois looking cute.

Me and Lois in a sunset pose.

Sunset.

Cash and Wyatt going on a boat ride.

Crashing wave.

Rainbow umbrella.

See you next year, Edisto.

Fun in the Sun

We're having a wonderful time at the beach! Edisto is a great beach vacation spot. When I was growing up we used to go to Destin, Florida sometimes for summer beach vacations. I loved going to Destin. The sand there is white and fluffy, and the water is clear blue-green, at least that's how I remember it. I also remember high-rise buildings. No high-rise buildings in sight here in Edisto. The shoreline is just dotted with cute beach cottages, some small, some large, with the Piggly Wiggly at the end of the road. Beyond heading to "the pig" (its unfortunate nickname around here) for that necessary gallon of vanilla ice cream to go with Andrew's peach pie, there isn't much else to do around here besides lounge on the beach with a book. It's pretty much perfect. Tomorrow, though, I think we might leave our flip flops at the beach and head to a most beautiful place.

My Birthday Present

For my birthday Andrew and his mom gave me a macro lens, and it's amazing! It's a bit of a bittersweet gift since our really nice camera went missing, but it fits on my sister's camera and will fit on our old camera as well, so I'm still excited about it. It's a Sigma 105mm macro lens. You can get a really close image of your subject without actually being that close, but you can get a whole lot closer to a subject than with a standard lens, just a few inches away, and the detail is incredible. Here is a picture I took with it at the beach. I should have used a tripod, but the picture is still nice. (I had another flower picture here, but I deleted it because it was a little too blurry.) I can't wait to show you more pictures from the beach.

9 Month Birthday . . . from the beach

We're at Edisto Beach having fun in the sun, and Lois has been modeling her collection of bathing suits. She has more bathing suits than her mommy and boy does she look cute in them. Lois celebrated her 9 month birthday on the 10th, but I thought it would be fun to wait until we got to the beach to take her birthday pictures. We don't have internet access at the beach (a good thing, really), so I'm at the local bookstore writing a few posts until we have access again, and keeping them short since the caravan is going to leave me if I take too long. Here are pictures from yesterday--Lois' first day at the beach! It was so fun.