The last time I was leaving town and leaving my baby (this blog) behind, I was headed for the crossword tournament, where trophies rained down on me and I felt utterly fabulous. Tomorrow I leave for Hilton Head Island, SC, with Mr. Tangerine and Ben. We'll be meeting up with my in-laws and spending a few days at the ocean. It'll be warm (whereas it's been so chilly near Lake Michigan all spring), it'll be cheap (the in-laws are paying for the condo), and it'll be relaxing (see ocean, above). But, darn it, it won't offer any trophies. Can I possibly be content with merely...a vacation?
Better to sit here contemplating that than to get off my duff and actually, I don't know, pack or something.
I can also contemplate the guilt of vacationing in a gated resort area of an island that didn't used to have resorts. It used to have regular people living there, people who spoke Gullah and were descended from African slaves, but most of them got booted out by developers over the last 50 years or so. I read all about it at One Good Thing—check it out. It's a heart-breaking story, and I will be mindful of it when visiting the private beaches and outlet malls.
See y'all next week!
Update: Just checked the weather forecast for Hilton Head. The flippety-flipping high temp for Monday will be 63! (The other days will reach the 70s.) So much for tank tops—it'll probably be a tad warmer in the Midwest. Grr. Repeat after me: "The ocean is lovely. You hate to sweat. This will be perfect."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
You aren't going to be around to read this 'til after your vacation, but oh well.
Some Gullah still live there, just on the string of islands off the coast of Georgia/South Carolina. This group of people is what inspired the musical Porgy and Bess. I have a classmate (and friend) whose family is from there as are her direct descendents. It's kinda cool.
How you feel about the ocean is how I feel about gigantic lakes. Having lived on the ocean for most of my life (Peanut was 6 months old when I moved up here, 'til then I was never more than 20 min from it), I find it odd to refer to lakes as having "beaches" and "coastlines." I even got to see grand 'ol Lake Erie again this year and the Niagra River before it turns into a rather large waterfall.
Heh, I even got to see the lighthouse in Buffalo and the large port that was at one point its livelihood. Talk about culture shock. Learning that lakes could have lighthouses was something I had never thought of before.
hi orange!:)
i hope you have fun... or at least get to relax.:)
Post a Comment