musings of a shell seeker: April 2009

Fabulous Fripp Island, South Carolina - April 20-26, 2009

Once again, Jaime and I were honored to be invited to spend a week with friends Kathy and Rob at their amazing oceanfront beach house on Fripp Island, South Carolina. This year, their friends Wanda and Alan also joined us from the Tampa, Florida area (where Kathy and Rob reside when they're not globetrotting).

We enjoyed incredible weather - warm days and cool nights - and spent the week biking, walking the beach, swimming (well, kind of; the one time I actually planned to swim, it was low, low tide, and I had to walk what seemed like miles out into the water!); visiting historic Beaufort, SC, and eating wonderfully well! We ate most of our meals at the house, taking turns cooking (smoked salmon, steaks, fresh salmon, tuna salad with fennel (thanks to my niece Kim's recipe), gourmet chicken salad, rum cake, chocolate chip cheesecake, and many more luscious treats! We also dined out two nights at a fantastic seafood restaurant where Jaime and I had the best soft-shelled crabs we'd ever eaten and a wonderful Mexican restaurant. Sadly, I have had to return to my diet this week. Boo hoo!!!

This is the gorgeous beach house that Kathy and Rob share with 12 other families. Each family gets to enjoy the house four weeks each year - one week per season.

Wanda, Alan, Jaime, Jane, Rob and Kathy on the deck of the beach house.

South end of Fripp Island at low tide.

Early every morning, Rob would take their dog Ebony (as well as Wanda and Alan's dog Sheila) for a walk on the beach. I took this picture the one and only morning I was up early!

You never know what you're going to find on the beach. I thought this was an interesting piece of driftwood.

Early in the week, Jaime and I had lunch in Beaufort with old friends John and Diane from Wisconsin who just happened to be staying at Hilton Head Island while we were on Fripp. Hilton Head is the next island south of Fripp, and Beaufort is more-or-less midway between the two on the mainland.

Although it was hard to tear ourselves away from the island, Kathy, Rob, Wanda, Alan, Jaime and I did spend another wonderful afternoon in Beaufort enjoying a horse-drawn carriage tour of the historic district. Here's Jaime patting "Rocky", the Percheron that pulled our carriage.