Vacation!
After working hard, Sara and I thought we were due for a little vacation. My Aunt contacted me awhile back to invite both Sara and I to South Carolina for my Grandmothers 90th birthday/Mothers day. What friends we had left in Ithaca were also pressuring us to come up for graduation. Unfortunately, they coincided. We took that as a perfect time to take a week off. We were going up to Ithaca Friday to Tuesday. And Wednesday to Sunday go to South Carolina.Charlie and Quinnen drove up on Friday night visited with us at the house a little and then we left for Ithaca.
We had an amazing time there seeing everyone we wanted and even getting into the senior week spirt by playing beer golf. I even went on a side adventure with Garrett and Trinity to Six Flags Darien Lake. After finally getting there we only had to pay $10 to get in and there were no lines on the rides. We did every big coaster once and the best one three times. It ended up being well worth the drive. We also ended up having a sweet BBQ after beer golf. During which our good friend Pete fell off a fence that happened to be only held in with one screw. He gave everyone quite a scare but ended up being okay. I'm sure he was a little sore in the morning though. Click the picture to see it better.
We had a great time in Ithaca and I hope the actual graduation went well.
It was off to South Carolina early Wed morning. Our plane left at 6:30 am, or at least I thought, once we got there an hour early for security, I realized the plane didn't actually leave until 7:30 :-) Oops! After two short flights we were there and my Aunt picked us up. The main reason for this trip was because I wanted Sara to meet my grandmother. As well as seeing family I hadn't seen in awhile, including my grandmother. We arrived and Sara and I went in to see her. She had been doing fairly well until about a week before we got there. She had just turned 90 and had been doing fairly well. It was hard to see her at first because I was expecting the grandmother I remember, minus a little mental abilities. She was down to about 80 lbs. and could barely talk. The first thing I said to her was "How you doing grandma?" And her reply was "Better then you," as a smile cracked across her face. I introduced Sara to her and she seemed to understand we were going to be getting married. She said "There is so much I want to tell you that I won't be able to" And after that she got really sad and mellow, I think realizing the state she was in. We sat with her for awhile just holding her hand. We would go in occasionally during our visit to check on her and be with her, she mostly slept. Sara even went in to just sit and talk to her alone, which I was glad she could do. She became less and less aware. And in my mind I hoped she wouldn't have to live much longer like she was. Friday morning we all got up and went to the beach. On the way hope we got a call letting us know something was wrong. We arrived and found out that Grandma had passed away. It was sad, and hard to hear. But I was happy that she had gone peacefully and both Sara and I were able to say goodbye.
While visiting we were also able to enjoy the beauty of South Carolina. My Aunt and Uncle had a beautiful place on the lake, here is a picture of the moon rising right in front of there house.
The lake is very shallow with crystal clear water. One beautiful afternoon I convinced Sara to come out in the Kayak with me to a nearby cyprus cove. All weekend, and even before we left I had told her about the gators in the lake. So as we paddled around every turtle that jumped in the water I would claim was a gator. As you can see we were having a grand ol' time.
In the back corner of the cove I think I see something that looks like a gator and point to it. Not realizing that off to our left there is a real alligator about 10 feet out. It swims towards us until its about 3 feet from the boat then dives and swims under the boat. It was probably about 6 to 7 feet long. I was amazed and Sara was less then amused. I wanted to get a good picture of it up close but at that point I think Sara was questioning wether she should still marry a man who was putting pictures before her safety. This is the best one I could get. (Click to see it larger)
We left the cove at a fairly fast pace. Once back on shore everyone found it very amusing that Sara had seen a gator so much talk about it. She even got the nickname Gator Bait from my family. My cuz in law, Ben, and I thought it would be a good idea to go back out and find it. Equipped with a camera and some ham we left again. After paddling around the whole lake to no avail we gave up. We didn't have Gator Bait with us and knew it was a worthless endeavor.
The whole vacation was amazing and I was really happy to see and spend time with my Ithaca friends, family and most of all glad I was able to say goodbye to my grandmother.
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posted by Todd Johnson @ 8:27 AM
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