Traditions

My last post was nine days ago.  Where the heck have I been?!

Well...I went to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.  It is an annual haunt of my family's.  It has been for years.  Thirty-two years, in fact, so my mother told me last week.

Really?  Thirty-two years is a long time. I certainly have not been going to HHI for 32 years.  But my parents have.  Once they got us five kids out of the home and on our own, it seems that they had plans, hopes and dreams that did not include us kids.  In fact, I wonder if they snuck off to HHI for several years without any of us kids the wiser. 

Huh.

I remember our first few trips to HHI, way back when - some 21 years ago.  Three kids, nursery school and stroller-aged.  What fun!  Since then, we have gone to South Carolina many, many times to enjoy the beach and the family ties. Even though it's been tradition for years of springtime and Easter weekends, each year holds its own facet of family life.  There were the toddler years to share with Grandma and Grandpa (who were often off on their own on the beach or the tennis court).  And there were years of us aunts and uncles and cousins meeting up.  Sailboats, geocaching, hiking wildlife refuges, and tennis.  My sister's last trip, terribly bittersweet, with a glorious full moon at high tide, four months before she passed away.  More recently, the college kids and newlyweds (formerly, the toddlers) have returned to camp out on the balcony to sleep to the rhythm of the waves. 

And so it goes.  Just as the tides.