Memorial Day in South Carolina

Last year we spent Memorial Day weekend in South Carolina with our friends Tina and Michael, and this year we were lucky enough to do the same. Both times, Rob and I have come home completely relaxed, well-rested, and sore from laughing for three straight days. This year there were ten of us at the beach house, and it was a weekend packed with sunny mornings on the water followed by rainy afternoons of endless games of cards, homemade piña coladas, bottomless chips and queso from the grocery store, and our beach tradition of a Saturday early bird hibachi dinner at a Japanese steak house, which had us back at the house well before 6 PM for more cards (and queso). 

I really haven't been to the beach with anyone but Tina in some time--I wrote this post in 2014 after her Dewey Beach bachelorette, when my parents were breaking up and I was wondering what family trips might look and feel like after a divorce. I hadn't thought much about trips with friends before that point--maybe because we hadn't done too many of them, but Tina and Michael's house in Richmond has always been a place that felt a lot more like a second home than a place to spend a weekend away, so until we started vacationing together I hadn't really given any of it a second thought. Regardless, it's been such a gift these past few years to get away and relax with some of your favorite people.

I have always been blessed with friends who feel more like family, and multiple times over the past few days--as her husband and mine stood under the porch grilling burgers together or while Tina and I chopped fruit over glasses of wine and reheated cheese dip and wiped down the coffee pot before heading the the beach to catch whatever sun was left in the forecast--I was once again overwhelmed with gratitude for these rituals we've put in place as we've grown up. And I'm already looking forward to the next long weekend.

I hope you had a beautiful holiday, wherever you were.