The Endless Beach

7:00

7:01

7:02

7:04

7:06

7:08

 I was up at 6:50 and had to really hustle to get down to the beach for the sunrise.  I threw on my clothes, grabbed my camera, hit Bert's for a coffee and power walked to the beach, making it with about three minutes to spare. Sun rises today at Folly Beach at 7:01.  On the way back, I stopped at Bert's to refill my coffee, talked to one of the old hippies with a pony tail running store.  A good guy, he came down eight years ago with his wife for a visit and never left.  He loves paradise.  People here are really pumped about living at Folly Beach.  I would be too except in the summer months of high temperatures and humidity.  April seems like an ideal time for a visit.

Beach Welcome

Monday morning, we relaxed with coffee, had breakfast, and finished my blog by 9:30.  Evie wanted a good half hour to get organized and ready for our walk, so I drove off to see both ends of the island. The north end stops at a short walk to the tidal flats, which cover the west end of the island.  The south ends at Folly Beach County Park which looks across the Folly River to Kiawah Island.  When I got home, Evie was ready for a walk, so we drove north to where we stopped yesterday's beach walk and parked out car. There are public access points almost every half mile where parking is also available for a fee.

Walking The Endless Beach

We hit  the beach and it was like we had this vast sandbox to ourselves, only it seemed endless.  We walked for a good mile and a half out, running into perhaps 10-15 people on our trek, then back, for a total of 70 minutes of walking.  That was enough for me as my feet were sore, my back, my whatever, too.  We drove back to the cottage through the lovely neighborhoods of Folly Beach, a couple of blocks from the water, streets lined with oaks, forming a cathedral like ceiling over the homes and street.  It's a really attractive part of town, with mostly locals I assume.

We went to the beach at noon, later than usual because of our hike.  It was warmer than Sunday, in the 70's and remained another glorious spring day on the beach.  The crowd had lessened from Sunday, no doubt, but still there were lots of people near the town beach, less as you moved off to the north or south.  I stayed until 1:30, came home and finished off the hoagie from the day before, had some pita chips and hummus and I was a happy boy, ready for some reading and a nap, which quickly ensued.

Beach Woman

I went back down to join Evie just before 3:00 and she was enjoying the sun and water.  We stayed until 4:15, and Evie took another swim, did some body surfing or getting knocked over by waves, one or the other.  And we took another walk to end our afternoon, before returning home at 4:45, ready to shower and get the sand off.  It's everywhere in the house now as well, from shoes, towels, toes, and anything else we took to the beach.

When we returned from the beach, we relaxed, then showered, and got ready to go eat around 6:30, once again hoping to find a seat at Rita's.  As walked downtown, people were huddled outside of various restaurants, waiting to get in and Rita's was the same.  The bar, however, had a couple of open seats so Evie quickly slid by the crowd and got our seats.  We were happy, ordered a couple of beers, perused the menu and ordered for a first course, a huge plate of Rita's Signature Nacho platter, with pulled pork, the works, topped small cubes of cut up watermelon.  It was easily enough for the two of us.

Rita's Signature Nachos

At first, we were by ourselves, open seats on either side.  Then a couple sat down next to Evie and they started a conversation, then another couple sat down next to me, and we started a conversation and a half hour later, we emerged from our conversations to ask for the bill and go for a walk. The couple I talked with were a riot even though they are Trump fans.  They run a restaurant in New Jersey, hate the taxes and the governmental intrusions, and bought a house down here on St. James Island to be near their kids.  Their kids, 25 and 28 years old, are driving them out of their mind and the wife was happy to tell me.  Their daughter, 12 weeks short of her degree in philosophy at the University of Charleston, just dropped out of school to be a waitress, driving them both crazy.  She up and left their house in a pique, even took the frozen food she bought with her own money.  The son hopes to move into their house this summer but is not not too excited about having them stay there, as it will ruin the dude beach vibe.  Both dislike passionately Obama and Hillary because they have been bought and sold by big money.  They like Trump because he is crazy enough to blow up the system.  Perhaps they are closet nihilists.  Anyways, we got along swell, loved talking with them, especially because they could not believe I was seventy two, had a daughter almost fifty.  How could I not like them.  Evie was equally engaged with the couple next to her, who were from Atlanta, and were down here with their son and his friend.

Enjoying Beer and Tacos At Taco Boy

After our conversations, we decided to walk out on the pier, to see the twilight but it was already dark so there were no spectacular views.  After our intense bar talk, it felt good to get outside, feel the wind and cool air, while we walked out to the end.  We were still hungry so we walked back into town and stopped at another neat restaurant and bar called Taco Boy.  It was not very crowded at 8:00,  so we easily found a bar seat.  Evie ordered a skinny pineapple margarita with tequila, pineapple juice and soda water.  It was great.  We both ordered tacos, mine was a Baja mahi mahi taco, Evie's was chicken.  They were just right, so we walked home around 9:00, happy and full of food, drink, and talk.  We watched the first half and part of the second half of the NCAA finals and missed the ending.  Oh, well, I saw the game winning shot on YouTube this morning so I did not miss much.  What does it say about us that we cannot stay up to watch the Final Game.

While I am sitting here, a vacation, besides breaking up a routine with a new place, new faces, new routine, also changes your TV and iPad schedule.  For example, since leaving home on Friday, I have not thought once about the Republican election yet at home, we were aware of all the juicy tidbits of the day on any network.  The only TV we have watched has been basketball; other than that, I hardly know what is going on in the world and it feels great.  Is Trump still running?  Has Paul Ryan stepped in to save the Republican okoles?  Don't ask me until next week.