Dear Reader:
Somehow, someway….The Ya’s ended up with the best planned winter retreat of all by simply reversing when we did our annual meals and adventure shopping. We usually held off to the last day or two…but this year…we jumped right in with our “last supper” on Friday night and our adventure day with lunch out on Saturday leaving Sunday and part of Monday to just be together.
The highest anticipation is always when we first pull out….Brooke was at the house right on time Thursday morning…and we were beyond excited. It seemed like we had waited an eternity to get to the mid-winter retreat. Our tenth year anniversary retreat!!!!!!!!!!!! We didn’t want to miss a minute of it!
We made good time and arrived in Georgetown around noon with a hour to “kill” before Jackson arrived from Columbia. Hummm…an ‘hour to kill’- shoe store. And we found such a cute one!
But before we went in the store we found a walk-through to the pier along the river front…it was windy! We got two nice couples to take our arrival pictures. They were so much fun….hailing from Pennsylvania. When we asked where…they said very close to home of the famous groundhog….Punxsutawney Phil! (Gobbler’s Knob)
We told our friends to thank Phil for his upbeat prediction about an early spring. One of our friends said we might need to sign a petition soon if things went the way some wanted them…to have a robotic groundhog! You have got to be kidding me. Hopefully that awful idea will die on the vine…if not I will be heading up a petition drive. Really! Is nothing “sacred” any more…or safe from technology?
Brooke and I separated in our browsing around.. but I soon found her in the cutest shoe store!
She told me about the most comfortable shoes I would ever put on….I tried them on and never took them off…walked right out of the shoe store with them on. Lise Jacobsen (never heard of them before…but Brooke swore by them-she has two pairs!)
But it wasn’t just the thrill of finding a fun shoe (though we women do love it) but in “Head over heels” the two attendants were so much fun…we ended up with trying on shoes, shoes, and more shoes all around a carousel. Other customers came in and got caught up in the fun and soon we were swapping, telling stories, and making new friends. That’s the best part-meeting new people in new places.
Thursday night the weather reports were kinda “iffy” with tornado watches and windy forecasts…Friday morning…we walked out on the porch to witness first hand the results of that first windy night.
Friday the winds were so turbulent no one could stay out on the porch for long without getting hit with debris or something falling…so we huddled inside until around 5 when we got ready to go eat at our favorite haunt….Chive Blossom!
Again, what made the eating experience memorable…was our neighboring table…a fun couple who just wanted to join in our conversation and vice versa…with all of us laughing so much it was hard to swallow…but somehow we managed. I even took a ‘before’ picture of my meal so I could remember it when I got home.
Crab cakes, golden yukon smashed potatoes, asparagus and dill sauce! A meal to dream about.
Saturday the winds were finally calm again…though it was chilly. Our first stop was the annual Hammocks Shops...the girls especially like the Pawley’s Island Shoe Store. I had gone to one other store first so by the time I got there….the Ya’s had all found a pair of shoes and were having a blast with clerks (Leslie and Linda)…laughing and joking. I was glad to be a part of it…a real family feeling.
We asked Leslie if she could come take a photo of the “Four Blues Sisters.” We each had purposefully worn our Land’s End blue jackets we gave each other for our birthdays this past year….believe me…those coats felt good ….the sun was out but it was in the high 30’s and 40’s starting out.
Leslie and Linda then came up to us and asked if we would agree to let them post our photo in this week’s store posts. They like to feature fun customers and showing their store as a great gathering place for stories and immediate friendships. We told her “certainly” and then she got some information from us.
Sunday afternoon…this popped up on the shoe store’s website.
This post made our trip! If we all make it our mission statement to be kind, fun, and attentive in any situation…it turns a typical blah ordinary day into a memorable one with laughs and memories…we love ya Leslie and Linda!!
So until tomorrow….Cinderella was right…”One shoe can change a life”...and if not a life…a moment of ordinary into extraordinary!
“Today is my favorite day”.….Winnie the Pooh (More Pawleys tomorrow!)
ichaseferalcats
John Turner
Legally Ohm
Becky Dingle