Beach Trip 2014

The Compton – Whompton – Astorian tribes converge together in Litchfield, South Carolina, and enjoy each other’s company for a week.  The Whomptons break the drive into two days – one long, one short – and then truly celebrate once we’re free of the car.

Samantha came on this trip.  While the Whomptons can cram 5 people into the Prius, it’s not a comfortable fit for any length of time and really wasn’t a good option for this trip.  So Samantha drove her Prius too.  Everyone was out of the house by 7 a.m. on Friday and the beach trip began!

Friday was a frustrating day, where it felt that nothing went our way.  The police closed the interstate highway outside of Marion, IL, so we were stopped for a long time and then were diverted on side state roads.  Lunch was in Clarksville, TN, where Samantha was rear-ended so forcefully that she hit the car in front of her.  Yep, a car accident 4 hours into our trip.  We spent multiple hours in Clarksville dealing with the police report and trying to determine whether her car was safe to drive 950 miles there and back.  We decided yes and off we were again.  Our original Chattanooga dinner location was closed so we audibled to an absolutely scrumptious FoodWorks dinner.  (We finally found a meal that defeated Raina – look at that lasagna!)  Then there were multiple accidents in Atlanta, which held us up.  In the end, we arrived at our Atlanta hotel 4 hours later than we planned and went straight to bed.

Saturday was much smoother.  The Atlanta traffic was perfectly reasonable and both Krystal and Samantha happily joined the crowds who drove 20 mph over the speed limit in the SLOW lane.  We arrived in South Carolina in record time!  J  The South Carolina leg is a lot of state roads and we were only stopped once – for the county fair of a small SC town.  We arrived in Litchfield early and ran errands, etc., as we waited for the beach house key.  We had dinner at 5 p.m. and spent the evening visiting the beach.

The week had a lot of firsts.  Raina learned how to ride waves on the boogie board by herself.  Krystal learned how to body surf.  Eric and Raina constructed an elaborate tunnel system in the sand.  JoLynn and Emily saw a loggerhead sea turtle nest.  Krystal and Samantha sacrificed hats and sunglasses to the ocean.  We experienced our first hurricane.  Eric and Krystal ran on the beach during the hurricane.  We stood on the beach and watched Independence Day fireworks in every direction.  Raina and Lola learned to love showers.  The girls watched ET with Jerry.  The temperature ranged from the low 70s to upper 80s (by far the coolest beach trip we’ve ever taken).

And the week had a lot of standard activities as well: eating peaches and other tasty food, reading books, digging in the sand, long walks on the beach, hours splashing in the waves, taking required Compton photos, and lots of games.  We played Bridge, Hanabi, Barbu, Escape from the Temple, Zombie Fluxx, and Lord of the Rings Card Game.  The five year olds continuously played with each other, devising games and activities that were attractive only to the younger set, and Raina felt a tad lonely. 

Our drive back was relatively uneventful.  We were stopped outside of Chattanooga briefly and our plan to return to FoodWorks for dinner was foiled due to fire.  (All the news reports indicate that everyone who works for the restaurant is okay and the restaurant will re-open soon.)  We reached Nashville with plenty of time to lounge around and be tired and crash early, and we reached Saint Louis the next day with time to do the same.  There’s nothing like sleeping in your own bed after a long trip!