We are at our annual vacation here at Surfside Beach, SC, where Penny’s folks graciously give us a week every year. It’s only two hours away, but we are transported body, mind and spirit, every year we come here. I think it’s the… intentionality of it all. We drove up yesterday morning with our Odyssey van (a white one and, yes, we DO always have fun trying to find it in the Walmart parking lot). The van was packed flush with the windows, as was the borrowed cartop carrier, but we were determined to drive only one car this year — especially with gas prices at $4 a gallon.
We arrived, unpacked and went down to the beach immediately — the weather was perfect. The salt air, the smell of the 1950′s vintage beach house, the sound of the surf and the feel of sand between our toes — all are stimulants to our senses and to our memories of the past 11 years that we have spent here as a family and even longer for Penny, who has been coming here since her childhood.
Every year, on the last day of the trip, we go to the Arcade at nearby Garden City and after a few hours of pinball, skeeball and rides, we have our photos taken in an old Fotomat booth at the Arcade. After 3 minutes, it magically spits out a strip of 4 black and white memories of another year on vacation. Last year, for our ten year anniversary, I scanned and created a collage of our 10 years worth of Fotomat pictures.
(http://www
