This Just In- Vacation Does Not Suck

A little surf, sand, and sun never hurt anyone

Greetings from beautiful (that’s not hyperbole) Surfside Beach, South Carolina. Erin and I are here on vacation with some friends through May 1st. Given the Spring we’ve had in Portland, this feels like a reward. After all, we had four inches of snow on April 11th, ferchrissakes.

When our flight left PDX just after midnight Saturday, it was not quite 50 degrees and raining. When our flight from Chicago landed in Charlotte (and surely they could’ve come up with a better abbreviation than CLT?), it was 78 degrees and sunny. The forecast for the entire time we’re here is the mid-to-upper 70s and sunny.

Yeah, vacation doesn’t suck.

It’s a different world here, which is fun and a bit of a challenge. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not in Liberal Portland. F’rinstance, you know you’re in North Carolina when you’re leaving the Charlotte-Douglas Airport, and the first thing you see are the signs for the Billy Graham Expressway. So, yeah, it’s a different world.

I haven’t seen any MAGA hats, but given that we’re on what might as well be the Redneck Riviera, I’m going to keep talking politics in public to a minimum. I’m on vacation, after all. The last thing I want is to be accosted by a Trumper a couple of six-packs in. I’m here to relax, after all

More than anything, I’m enjoying some warmth and sunshine. Even though it’s late April, Portland has had ONE day in the 70s. We’ve also had one day with four inches of snow. I’ve spent far more days in hoodies and heavy jackets than in shorts and t-shirts. So, yes, a change of pace is welcome.

I’ve never been to South Carolina before, but it seems not too terribly different from North Carolina, which I’ve been to a few times previously. Coastal South Carolina this time of year is pretty flippin’ excellent- warm but not oppressive, breezy but not wind-tunnel-like, and just humid enough to remind you that water’s nearby. There are also palm trees in abundance (the palmetto is the state tree). I LOVE palm trees because I’ve learned that where there are palm trees there cannot be snowdrifts. Having grown up on the frozen tundra of northern Minnesota, there were no palm trees. However, in coastal South Carolina, they’re everywhere, and I could learn to like it here.

Erin and I are here with two other couples, one from Kansas City, MO, and the other from Charlotte, NC. Erin met the two other women while they were traveling nurses almost three decades ago, and they’ve been close ever since. I don’t know the husbands nearly as well, but we get along famously and we always seem to be able to pick up where we left off. That holds true even though we might only see each other once every couple of years. It’s a great group to be with for a vacation.

We have an entire week in the house we rented, and while I have NO idea what we’re going to do with that time, I don’t much care. I’m enjoying having nowhere to be and nothing to do, though it will drive Erin nuts before long. I’m still trying to teach her that sometimes doing nothing IS doing something, but I’ve been working on that for 11 years. I’m making progress, but there’s still much work to be done.

For now, I think it’s Monday, but I don’t have a calendar. I also know that it’s not going to matter what day it is for at least a few more days. (What? Me worry??) So, for now, I’m going to enjoy my new reality. My calendar is clear, my mind is blank (that’s not unusual, but I can get away with it now), and I’m not responsible to anyone for anything. It doesn’t get much better than that.

It feels good to be around people who are good company and whose companionship I genuinely enjoy. All six of us are very different personalities, but we all seem to mesh well. We’re all too old to get sloppy drunk anymore, so the potential for over-the-top bad behavior is minimal at best.

Now all I have to do is to figure out how to get through another sunshine-filled day. Damn, vacation doesn’t suck.

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