THE BEACH!

May 16-17:

I arrived in the afternoon of Friday May 16th. Kevin and his lovely wife Chaiss met me at the Beach house. We hung out for a night, discovered a new turtle nest the next morning, played on the beach for a bit, and then I took them to the airport. It was a shortlived time with the newest McConnell couple but it was good to catch up with some friendly faces. The McConnells were gracious enough to allow me to stay in the beach house until Craig and the rest of the crew showed up on Monday night. However, because I was going to be there Sunday and Monday, it allowed one of Craig's friends Blake (Bloads) to come a couple days early.

May 18-19:

Bloads and I hung out Sunday and Monday. We played bocce most of the time. It was a pretty even match up... and he was even having to play left-handed because of recent surgery on his right hand. Sunday evening we went into Folly beach proper (if there is such a thing) and ate at a Crabshack. It was a stretch for me, but we split a bucket of crabs, shrimp, oysters, sausage, corn, and potatoes. I have a history of not being much of a seafood lover, but I really liked the crab and shrimp... I'll still pass on the oysters though.

Late Monday night, Craig, Say, Jen, and Will finished their marathon drive from Beaumont, TX to Folly Beach, SC. I think it took them somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 hours. It was good to have the whole crew there.

May 20-25:

With the arrival of Craig, also came the opportunity to try out surfing. The first day they were there it was really windy and very choppy with continuous waves pouring in. Craig gave me one of the surgboards to paddle out. I got owned by the ocean. I battled trying to paddle out past the break, but the waves kept pushing me back. I worked at this for about 30 minutes then reallized that I was no further out then I was initially. That was a little demoralizing, I still had some fight in me, but Craig got a calf cramp (in which he yelped when it happened) and we decided we'd wait for a better day to give it a chance. We made it out a couple more times over the course of the week, but the waves were never that great (according to Craig).

The rest of the time consisted of the group doing anything from bocce, volleyball, frisbee, golf on the beach, soccer, football... needless to say it was a great time on the beach hanging out with good people.

One of the days we hosted Craig's local family (Grandpa Joe, Grandma Pat, Uncle Bob, Aunt Catherine) for a happy hour. It was good talking with his family. I learned a little bit about the difference between a catch (Larger front mast) and a schooner (larger rear mast). Uncle Bob and Aunt Catherine then had us over for happy hour on their catch and I had the opportunity to see one a little closer.

We also had one incredible dinner in which we went to Magnolia, one of Charleston's signature restaruant... excellent.

Bloads left on Friday, Jen, Say and Will left on Saturday.

Craig and I hung out Saturday and Sunday unitl I took him to the airport on Sunday. And so ends the Folly beach experience. A great time.