Down By The River

Upon our arrival in South Carolina, we were greeting with fine greetings from our host and hostess. It was just after 11pm on Saturday night, so after the greetings were over, Josh, Adam, and myself collapsed into bed. Sunday we were treated to some fine Southern preaching, which brought back childhood memories of our Southern Pastor, who could shout with the best of them. (He had gradually adapted the more Northern way of preaching and was quite tame by the time I graduated High School...)

After church, Carissa and Adam H. (our fine hosts) took us to the river for a picnic. When they said picnic, my mind conjured up images of a gentle, grassy slope, where we could lay out our blanket and enjoy our packed lunches in the warm sunshine. Maybe after our lunch, we could, if we so desired, dip our feet into the cool edge of the river and watch Josh do some splashing... Well, it was awful silly of me to imagine any such thing, because there was no gentle, grassy slope to lay out our blanket on, and the warm sunshine was blocked by a cool canopy of limbs and leaves.

We picked our way carefully down the rocks and stepped into the cool stream. You could see looks of displeasure coming from my husband's face. This was not what he had expected either. He was hungry and had been hoping for a gentle, grassy slope on which to eat his lunch. Carrying the cooler in one hand and holding Josh's hand in the other, he picked his way over the slippery river rocks with a warning to me, not to drop the camera.

We walked for a ways, with Mr. Hall and Carissa in the lead, and Adam scowling more and more, as his stomach began to growl painfully. The river curved round a bend, and there along the shore line, was a rocky beach of sorts. It was here, on the rocky beach, that Mr. Hall unfurled the blanket and Carissa got out the picnic lunch. The river babbled it's watery song while we munched happily on our ham sandwiches, chips and cookies. Our hunger was finally satiated and the scowl lines in Adam's brow had softened.

By this time, the water was calling to us and we left the dry picnic blanket and dipped our toes into the water. We ventured further until the water lapped at our calves. Before we knew it, we were all kids again, our hands in the water, pulling rocks out and moving them to where they would better suit our purpose. Soon, the water was rising and Mr. Hall and Adam joyfully made a game out of seeing how fast they could get the current moving.

There was a lot of laughter and smiles as the boys got in touch with their "inner child". The current was so strong that even as grown men, they struggled to walk through the knee-deep water. One could tell that they were mightily pleased with the results of their hard work, making memories all the way.