Fripp Island

Last week Emily and I spent some time on vacation with my family at Fripp Island in South Carolina. Along with my parents, my sisters Jennifer and Lauren were there. Jennifer brought her friend, Thirza, and with Lauren came her daughter (my niece), Sara Beth.

On our way there, Emily and I had an adventure at Dulles Airport. Our flight was initially delayed because the plane coming from Savannah was late. Once it got there, we were told the plane was “very hot” and it would need some cooling down before we boarded. This didn’t sound good to me. Not only were we already running late, but I was going to be hot on the plane. Those of you that know me may know that I have a tendency to get motion sick. Usually, planes are not a problem, but being hot somehow triggers my nausea.

But eventually we boarded the plane and it didn’t seem too hot to me. I had certainly been on hotter planes before, and never had the pilots and flight attendants been so apologetic about it. Comfortable enough, I fell asleep soon after sitting down.

I awoke a short time later to find that not only had we not taken off but we weren’t even moving. Soon after that, the plane shut down. I was starting to think something was amiss. The fire trucks I saw out the window confirmed my suspicion. The pilot made an announcement about something overheating and worries about a fire. Luckily, I thought, the circle of fire trucks that surrounded us looked to be a safe enough distance away that if we exploded, the firemen would be OK. That was comforting.

As we sat there sweating (no AC because the plane was turned off), I got a call on my cell phone (they told us we could use our phones). The call was from Orbitz. They have this automated service now that automatically updates you and the status of your flight. Mine was canceled, it said.

Amazing that Orbitz could tell me this before the pilot, isn’t it?

In the end we had to stay the night in DC and catch an 8 AM flight the next day. It was pretty frustrating.

However, once we got to the beach there was plenty of relaxation. Sara Beth was literally learning to walk while we were there so it was great to see her quick progression to becoming an expert walker.

There were a few moments of excitement, however. One was when Emily lost her glasses is in the ocean. The question has been raised as to why she was wearing her glasses in the ocean, and to that I have no answer. I felt bad for her, though, because she really cannot see much at all without her glasses. The good news is that she is getting laser eye surgery next week so she was not too upset by it. Because of the upcoming surgery she wasn’t allowed to wear contact lenses, but I did a pretty good job leading her around the last couple of days.

The next piece of excitement was when Lauren realized the diamond from her engagement ring was missing. She wasn’t sure when it went missing, but was sure she had it after her last swim in the ocean. That, at least, was a relief. We looked all over the house, outside of the house, and in garbage that included many dirty diapers. We had been looking for a while and had all but decided to submit the insurance claim when, looking over the carpet one last time, I thought I saw a glint of blue. I got down to have a closer look but didn’t see anything. But when I ran my hands over the carpet I felt something move – it was the diamond. And there was much rejoicing.

We had been over the area of the carpet many times before but the back side of the diamond blended in so well with the carpet that it was nearly impossibly to see it with your eyes unless you caught the light reflecting at the right angle.

Other than that, most of the time was spent reading, napping, drinking margaritas, or playing board games. Just what a vacation should be, if you ask me.