Cody and Brooke arrived in early June. Cody came down a week earlier than Brooke who had stayed in Illinois to perform in a dance recital before coming to South Carolina. We took Cody to watch stock car racing one evening at the Anderson Motor Speedway which is only about 15 minutes away from Scott’s house. I had never watched car racing and found it entertaining. We all got into it but all were frustrated by the stop-and-go nature of it. Every time there was a spin out or wreck the cleanup crew and tow trucks had to come out and clear the track then the cars would start again. I was glad Scott had thought to bring hearing protection because the noise of the car engines was uncomfortably loud. The people watching was certainly interesting!
Scott enrolled the kids in a week-long kayaking camp that took place on the Green River. They got lots of paddling experience and instruction and even got to work on their rolls. Scott and I hit the lower Green one afternoon prior to picking the kids up from their camp and I got to experience the Green from inside a kayak for the first time rather than in a tube. I am working to get comfortable kayaking and building my skills.
It had been a long time coming but in late April I finally announced my decision to relinquish my Riverbend contract and step down from leasing it and doing the day-to-day management. I took Scott and the kids riding one last time to take advantage of having access to horses before the Riverbend era of my life wound down. Everyone swapped around onto different horses. Scott and Walter hit it off and they were cruising around the arena trotting and cantering. Walter is notoriously bouncy but Scott had no trouble staying balanced on him which was pretty darn impressive. Mocha and Brooke made a good pair and she was able to trot around on him. It was funny watching Buttons and Cody. Buttons typically doesn’t like jumping but kept making beelines to little jumps and walking over them. The funniest part of our ride was when Scott got on Buttons- Scott’s feet nearly reached the ground!
In the middle of June we did a beach day trip down to Folly Beach with the whole family. It makes for a long day but can be done because Folly is only about 3.5 hours away. It is one of the closest beaches to Charleston. The set up was impressive (a huge tent, table, beach chairs, boogie boards, copious amounts of snacks) and made for a comfortable day of lounging around on the beach and enjoying the water. We ended up making another Folly day trip with just Scott’s kids in mid July. Scott rented a surfboard for the day and they took turns surfing. The summer before they had taken a day of lessons and everyone did a good job remembering how to do it this year.
Afterwards we took the kids on a quick tour of downtown Charleston. We walked through the historic Charleston Market on Meeting Street and I bought some famous benne wafers for the kids to try. Benne wafers are rich thin sweet toasted sesame cookies with a cracker-like consistency. Their heritage traces back to the 1700s when slaves brought the sesame (or benne) seeds over from the Caribbean and they became an integral part of Gullah and Lowcountry cooking. Brooke liked them so much that she experimented with making them on her own after we got back. She made a few different batches and we all devoured them.
https://www.southernliving.com/recipes/benne-wafers
The benne wafer experience inspired me to introduce the kids to more Southern dishes and I decided to try my hand at making tomato pie. It is one of my favorite meals but I had never made it on my own. I was pleased with the outcome and they were very well received despite everyone’s insistence that something called pie should be sweet and therefore be a dessert… I tried to remind them that chicken pot pie, and shepherd’s pie are famous dishes and are savory, not sweet, but I’m not sure my point got across. We routinely have the same discussion about crepes- I stand by that they can be both savory and sweet, but the rest of the family insists that only sweet ones are acceptable and savory ones are an abomination. Facepalm Anyways, I made one tomato pie with bacon and one without. I feel like the secret is in using Duke’s mayonnaise, heirloom tomatoes, and copious amounts of basil. I also introduced Brooke to caprese salad and we enjoyed playing around with various iterations of that over the summer.
https://www.annebyrn.com/recipes/2019/8/11/homegrown-tomato-pie
In late June we packed up the raft and headed to the Chattooga with the O’Connell family for a day of rafting on section 3.5. We awkwardly humped the heavy raft down to the put-in and felt like Minions again doing it- we all got underneath it and put it on our head/shoulders and stumbled blindly down the trail. We had a great day on the river and stopped to play on the rope swing about ⅓ of the way along the trip. We beached the raft prior to the Bull and scouted out the rapid and ate a lunch that Kathy had brought. Aside from getting the giant raft wedged between rocks on our approach to Double Drop it was a perfect run. We had a lovely day on the river with great weather and company. The trek back up to the parking lot with the raft on our heads was the least enjoyable part of the day but was comical nonetheless.
In early July Scott rented a pontoon boat and took the whole family out to Lake Jocassee. Scott and Pepe dove at the diving “playground” on the lake during the first part of the day. The sun came out and we then toured our way along the lake to find all the various waterfalls that flow into Jocassee. Many of them were quite impressive and a few of them created perfect swimming holes which we enjoyed. We found Jumping Off Rock and anchored there for a bit and enjoyed leaping off the rock into the lake. We tubed some and spent lots of time just floating on pool floats in the lake. It is such a pretty lake and has very little development which is nice.
The paddling club hosted a day on the Nanthahala river during the middle of July and we participated. The kids did their PFD (personal first descent) on the lower Nanny and aside from Brooke getting tipped over at a small rock and taking a swim, they had a great day. I had rented a ducky (an inflatable kayak) and got tipped over within the first 5 minutes of my trip at the notorious Pattons rapid and took a very scary and ice cold swim down the river. Luckily Scott was downriver and rescued me and my equipment. The Nantahala is about 48 degrees year round and is famously cold. We had a potluck lunch after with the Foothills paddling group and then headed home.
A few days after our Nanthahala trip we took the kids to Gorges State Park on the SC/NC border to see Rainbow Falls and to slide off of Turtleback Falls. The Horse Pasture river runs through this park and has some spectacular whitewater and waterfalls. I hadn’t slid off Turtleback Falls since college and worked up the courage to do it a few times. We all had fun and took turns holding the dogs at the base of the falls while the others slid. We ventured down to Rainbow Falls after and enjoyed sunning ourselves on the giant boulders at the base and swimming in the pool below it. It made a spectacular backdrop for photos.
In late July we took in a Greenville Drive game downtown. None of us are huge baseball fans but it made for an enjoyable evening. The following day we took the kids to Furman University. Scott had booked a photo shoot for Brooke as an early birthday present and Furman is so picturesque so it was the perfect spot. The photographer is someone I know from Pony Club and she captured a lot of beautiful shots. Scott, Cody and I wandered around the campus while they were taking their pictures.
The kids headed back home in late July and we were sad to see them go. We had enjoyed the time with them and had a fun and action packed summer. The kids had gotten attached to the dogs and were sad to say goodbye to them.
