coastal therapy

gettin back in the swing of things. the minnie pearl biking event was fantastic.

glad its over. i got sick as a dog for three days afterward. and on that third day we left for paradise. 

apalachicola. for two weeks.

two weeks living simply, graciously and lazily.

we had the perfect groups of friends there on both weekends.

my mama stayed the entire time.

we cooked dinner every nite, never put on make up or dried my hair.

di made us biscuits and gravy in the mornings and kept us in stitches. we ate fresh fish the boys caught. pintos, turnips and cornbread. low country boil and blue crabs we collected in our trap. i only got in the car once, 10 days after we arrived. and most of the time, i didn't even know what time it was.

we played a lot of dominoes. for hours each night. drake played the guitar and sang on the front porch.

so many times i felt like we could have been living 50 years ago and not much would be different.  the tv only dominated on football saturdays {er, well one of the saturdays...the breakdown, chaos and citywide search for the bama/arkansas game could be turned into a sitcom}  i worked for a bit via email in the mornings. cell phone signal is spotty.  we were practically unplugged. so much so, that several of us quit facebook. we called it a cleansing. and over a week later it feels so good to be disconnected and removed from that world.

we took sunset boat rides and read several books. in 12 days on the beach we never saw another soul. not one single person.  we talked a lot. shared a lot. reconnected and rejuvenated.  friends we hadn't seen in years but felt like it was yesterday. friends we count down the days until we see them again.

there was no drama, not one single fight. every day was go with the flow, doing whatever in the world you wanted. ellis ann stole our hearts during her first trip to the beach. we tried to pretend like Writer the golden retriever would fill some of the innocent joy left void of that little girl, but we missed her even more. we talked about her every time we ate homemade ice cream....which was a lot and sometimes for breakfast.

i could talk and talk and tell and tell about all the little things, the fun stories and the special memories made from every single minute that we were there. but i don't know where to start and where to end.  it wouldn't have been the same without every single one of our friends that shared their time with us there. and especially my mama, di & donnie.

it's almost like our two weeks at camp palms is captured in an unexplainable little capsule of time. it's an experience that is so real, so genuine and so unique that its best held close and dear...explained in different words in each person's own way. resting assured that this is simply year one of a new fall tradition that I hope will bring us back together, keep us laughing until we're wrinkly and gray...remembering and understanding the importance of life lived simply and sharing it with each other.