The weather for most of the trip was amazing. Sunshine, cool breeze – perfect for being on the beach.
I took to the water as soon as possible and put some distance between myself and the shore to avoid running into anyone as I did “laps” up and down the coast. It was really just one lap – swim in one direction for a while and then turn around and swim back.
I was out away from everyone and could still touch the bottom – so, I took off my suit and wrapped it around my wrist and swam off.
If you’ve never done that in the ocean, I highly recommend it. I was fast and strong and water slid past me like I was some kind of ocean deity.
When I got tired, I put my suit back on and swam back to the shore.
I did that a few more times while we were at the beach – might have been one of my favorite parts of the trip. I felt… free. Just me and the saltwater.
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I did a lot of reading in the week we were there – 7 novels in all. I’ve always been fast, but the peaceful surroundings and big chunks of quiet time really encouraged me to absorb the stories at a blazing speed. The trilogy that the cool clerk at the bookstore liked was excellent (The Southern Reach), one of the ones I brought with me was amazing (The Long Earth), and I read the first two in Octavia Butler’s series (Lilith’s Brood)which I’d read before and enjoyed – but The Returned was a massive disappointment. Was it a zombie novel? Were some of the returned actually “good”? Was it connected to the submerged village? Why were there power outages? Did the returned have mental powers? What’s up with sewage? If the recently dead animals came back, did that mean that anyone who died would now come back? Why this one town?
All of that – and so much more – was left totally unresolved by the ending. The book just… stopped.
And I was pissed. It was a big book and I could have been reading something else. Huge waste of time. I was cranky about that for hours.
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On the rare overcast day, we took a trip to nearby Beaufort. Lunch was good, the gelato was better, and the buildings were… old. I didn’t get much out of that other than some exercise, but Jim did his best to fill the memory on his camera phone with photos. I checked out the flowers and the Spanish moss – and the cemetery was pretty cool. It was a quiet day and I enjoyed the peace.