Saturday, June 25, 2011

Nash Bash 2011......

I am in the Low Country of South Carolina for our family reunion, affectionately known as the Nash Bash. Nash is my mother's maiden name, and she is one of five girls and one boy (yep, he's the youngest). I wasn't supposed to be here this weekend, since I was **ahem** SUPPOSED to be on a kayaking trip, but we all know how THAT turned out.

Today has been jam-packed with activities, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. Sweet Girl and I are the only representatives from my mom's branch of the family tree, and I'm glad we came. I miss my sisters, and I wish they could have been here to share in the fun.

I started this morning with a 22-mile bike ride while it was still cool. One way to motivate myself to ride is to pack up the bike and all the accessories and haul it a couple hundred miles. Once I've gone to that trouble, I'm darned if I'm going to let the bike sit in the car all weekend. The terrain is very flat here, of course, so it was a very nice ride for me.

We had family photos (please, please. please, please let them be decent....... I don't know how I became the family photographer), then our customary huge lunch. After lunch some of us took the little kids out to an abandoned trail trestle (too much history to put here) to look for sharks' teeth while the tide was out.


I didn't find any sharks' teeth, but Brandon took pity on me and gave me one that he found. I gave it to one of the little kids.


It wasn't hard to find these guys. Fiddler crabs? Is that what they call them?

When we got back, we had the annual auction. Family members bring items to auction off to each other. Sometimes they are handmade items, sometimes they are just things we don't want anymore. The money raised goes to fund next year's Nash Bash. The first thing auctioned off today was a container of crock pot candy that I contributed (since I only decided on Wednesday to come, I didn't have time to make much of anything else). It sold for $25, and I was pleased with that.

Some of us wanted to go kayaking (you gotta love the irony of THAT), but launching from this little community (where my cousin lives) is dependent upon the tide. High tide was at 5:59 PM, and we really really meant to leave then. Getting any number of cousins together at the same time is problematic, though, and by the time we embarked upon this adventure, it was 8:15. Heck, that's my bedtime!




There's my Sweet Girl, with the tip of my kayak showing in the foreground.


Because we waited so long to leave, the tide was already two hours into its march BACK into the sea, and we had to wade through some pretty yucky mucky muck to launch the boats. I don't know when I've had a more NECESSARY shower.


I wish the picture could do justice to just how beautiful this was, with the sun setting behind my cousins.

By the time we kayaked to the abandoned trestle (the same one we had been to earlier in the day), it was going on pitch black. It took a couple of trips to get everyone and the kayaks back to our "homes," but we all had a great time.

Long drive back home tomorrow (a little over four hours). I'm so glad I came.

1 comment:

Kelly said...

I think that last photo is quite nice! It looks like a beautiful location.