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And we’re back to the window nightmare.

31 Comments

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Work moved on to the three remaining windows that needed replacing in our bedroom and as with every single other project we attempt in this house, it was a monumental f*ck up.

These are the old windows, stripped of trim and ready to be removed.

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Yes, that’s snow you see outside.

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Ideal conditions for exterior work.

Not.

The trouble began when the first small window was removed and its replacement was fitted.

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The problem? It didn’t fit.

Because it was too big.

Incorrect measurements by our contractor? He says no and has the paperwork to prove it.

Incorrect measurements by the retailer? They say no and have the paperwork to prove it.

Incorrect measurements by the manufacturer? They say they built what they were told and refuse to refund and replace.

Solution… (other than pulling my hair out, stripping naked, dousing myself in tequila and running down the road cursing the home renovation Gods?) … cut bigger holes in the wall.

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It wasn’t that much bigger. Maybe and inch and a quarter on each side but it meant (what has now become my mantra) more time, more work, more money. Not to mention a tighter fit when it comes to trim.

And after that first window rough opening was enlarged and the slightly larger window fitted and secured?

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An ice storm.

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Which coated everything that stood still.

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Good times.

😩

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Hushpuppie-ing my way through the south.

21 Comments

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After our trip to Parris Island we were hungry and headed for a delightful little town called Port Royal.

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It’s quintessentially southern with brightly colored cottages…

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And marvelous moss draped live oaks.

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It also has a seriously good waterfront restaurant called Fishshack on 11th Street.

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The views were lovely…

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And though we had planned to eat inside,

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When we saw there was an outdoor bar we changed our minds.

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A freshly muddled pineapple mojito served in a pineapple shaped glass?

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Don’t mind if I do.

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Jalapeño hushpuppies? Yes please.

Husband opted for tomato basil bisque. At this point the live music started and damn it, they were playing my song.

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Since we were in the south…

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Chicken and waffles for the husband,

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And an absolutely scrumptious shrimp burger for moi.

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In Maine a shrimp burger is just fried shrimp on a roll, this was more like a crab cake and I swear I could eat one every day.

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Any place that allows cuties like this to join you for lunch is alright with me.

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After our meal we took a walk on the pier.

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Hoping our travels would bring us back this way for another nice meal.

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😊

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A whole lotta nothing in particular.

31 Comments

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Let’s take a look at what’s been clogging up my photo files.

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My pickle algorithm has been on vacation lately, but this showed up the other day. I was hoping it was a joke… but sadly it does exist.

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I totally need this. And actually already have a little makeup case like the one in her left hand. Unfortunately mine is a lovely shade of mustard instead of green.

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This poem always gets me.

😰

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From my local FB page.

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Never a dull moment here.

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One thousand and two uses.

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These aren’t my pictures but they were taken in Maine and are too fabulous not to share.

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I’ve never seen a sunrise or sunset like this.

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There’s probably a meteorological term for it, but all I can say is… wow.

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Back to boot camp… part two.

18 Comments

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The only place on Parris Island that really sparked my husband’s memory was the parade deck.

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It was a cold and windy day but he wanted to walk the entire thing.

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The fancy grandstand wasn’t there in his day.

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But he remembers being drilled and marched until he couldn’t see straight. D.I.’s screaming, recruits passing out from the heat, being overwhelmed and overtired, getting slapped when he said yes sir.

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He swore he’d forget his mother’s name before his drill instructor’s.

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The required selfie, wind blowing so hard I had hair in my mouth.

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I walked around the Iwo Jima Statue and left the husband alone with his memories.

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Those bricks he’s looking at are memorials. Engraved with the names of fallen Marines. A lot of the boys he went through boot camp with never came back from Vietnam. I think my husband sometimes wonders why he was the lucky one…

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A while later we finished our tour of the base.

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And decided to stop at the PX for a bite to eat.

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Naturally, the food court was closed. But I was cold and wanted to buy a sweatshirt so we shopped.

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The husband really wanted this funky bottle of vodka for the man cave bar.

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We even tried to find a small box and some bubble wrap to smuggle it in his suitcase on the flight home… but no luck. The saleswoman said we could order it online but in Maine it’s illegal to mail liquor.

Boo to that.

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Moving on, the husband checked out the price of Dress Blues.

And when we passed the challenge coins? I had to laugh.

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Two full rows of Trump still for sale, while Obama and Biden were almost sold out.

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It was a good morning.

My husband always wanted to go back and I’ve always wanted to see the place he talks about with such reverence.

❤️

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Giving him a little taste of the frustration.

22 Comments

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My husband rolled his eyes and scoffed at the idea of me not being able to choose a fabric for the sofa he liked among a hundred and fifty choices so I decided to let him experience the joy of fabric selection first hand.

Since we needed to find a different brand of furniture, shopping began anew.

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Can you tell how thrilled he was?

He didn’t mind that couch, but vetoed the square arms.

The salesperson said it could be ordered in a rolled arm style….

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And we were off.

Standing in front of that brand’s wall of fabric, I started pulling patterns.

The following comments are his.

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Too swirly.

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Too wavy.

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Too blotchy.

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Too hippie dippie.

45 minutes later, he started wandering around and picked these.

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Too bad they belonged to a brand that didn’t sell a couch he liked.

The designer in residence took up our cause at that point and pulled this.

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The husband?

He said it looked like television static.

Almost an hour and a half in, he was done…. and pointed at this.

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“That one.

Get that one.”

I thought it an odd choice, but the salesman plugged it into the creation app and the husband was so sick of the process he approved.

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I argued that it would be too light a pattern for an ottoman not to mention our white walls and opted to take the swatch home.

The husband? He opted for a bar because the whole thing had driven him to drink.

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Cranberry gin fizz for me.

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Two beers and a disappointing French onion soup for him.

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My crab cakes with spicy remoulade were wonderful.

Fortified with lunch and alcohol… we kept shopping.

😉

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Uncategorized

News you can’t use.

26 Comments

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Because the world is full of useless news.

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Thinking about this, I’m not sure I can get past the short term injuries.

🤢

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Post Traumatic Sh*t Disorder, no doubt.

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This handsome fellow ate $4,000 off the kitchen counter.

Bad dog. Bad.

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That’s a little extreme. Even for the journal…

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I’m sure they meant to say incorrectly, but never mind.

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Risk management aside, who in their right mind belongs to a Bladder and Bowel Community… and what would you bring to that potluck supper?

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In which I take an old Marine back to boot camp…. part one.

35 Comments

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Day two of our anniversary trip started with a glorious sunrise.

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And the required selfie with palm tree background.

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We headed out early and pointed the beast south.

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Through low country marsh…

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And those wonderful live oaks. (You’re going to see a lot of them in the days to come because they were everywhere and I love them.)

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More marsh.

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More moss draped trees. (I did warn you)

An hour and a half later, we reached our destination.

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Parris Island, South Carolina. The base that serves as east coast boot camp for the Marine Corps. The last time my Marine had been here was in 1966.

Almost 58 years had passed and he was interested to see how much he remembered.

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Those palm trees lining the entrance road?

Nope.

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The rifle range?

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Yes. Though the brick jersey barriers were new.

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I could tell this was an emotional trip down memory lane for him. The last time he walked these grounds he was fresh out of high school and training to go to war.

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We drove slowly, touring and taking in the sights. Base housing has definitely improved over the years.

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And as we rounded a large bend?

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A beautiful golf course…

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Complete with live oaks…

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Ponds…

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And shore birds.

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Egrets and herons were everywhere.

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As were the moss covered trees.

I asked if the golf course had been there in his day and he honestly didn’t know. During the Vietnam era, boot camp was condensed from 3 months into 2 and every single minute was spent training, drilling or sleeping. No days off. One hour a week to write a letter home and mandatory church service Sunday morning. There was no time for golf.

My husband really wanted to see his old barracks, but they were made of wood and torn down long ago. Modern brick was in their place.

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Just when the husband was feeling disheartened that everything had changed… we saw this.

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New recruits.

Looking lost and scared to death.

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Scurrying to and fro beneath the famous sign.

Turn up your volume for the full effect.

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Now that was familiar.

To be continued…

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I really missed hushpuppies.

39 Comments

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(Don’t worry, I won’t post every meal we had on vacation… just the highlights.)

After settling in to the condo and unpacking we realized we’d skipped lunch and were hungry, so we jumped in the beast and headed out in search of food.

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Okay, with electronic running boards that magically appear every time you open the doors we didn’t really jump into our giant luxury rental so much as glide … but you get the idea.

It was 3:00pm and two starving northerners were searching in vain for an open restaurant on the beach during the off season. Round and round we went, at 15 miles per gallon, but nothing opened until 5:00. Yes, I love tourist free times of year… but this is the price I pay.

At 4:30 we found a waterfront spot with an open bar and a kitchen that opened in half an hour. Score!

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It was empty so we got great service.

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The cocktail list was uninspiring but the panty buster was tasty.

We drank and enjoyed the view until the bartender took pity on us and put in an appetizer order.

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When you’re in the South Carolina low country? It’s all about the shrimp… and they were fabulous.

When you’re a Yankee girl who used to live in the south and then moved back up north where no one even knows what a hush puppies is? You order every one you see… and these did not disappoint. Served with warm honey butter it was all I could do to let my husband have one.

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Shrimp and hush puppies by the water.

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It made me miss the south.

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I followed my appetizer with a large plate of fried shrimp… because when in Rome.

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After our meal we walked the pier.

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That’s the restaurant on the right.

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The sun was setting on our first day of vacation.

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The water was calm.

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The sky was beautiful.

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I was with the man I’d married 40 years ago.

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And our beast sent out lighted signals on the pavement to guide us to its doors.

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Life was good.

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A finished renovation project! Well, almost…

16 Comments

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Both of our new doors have been installed. Rotted wood and sub floor sections have been replaced and our contractor made double and triple sure they’re sealed up tight against the weather and rain proof.

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Hallelujah.

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Bedroom and living room door, respectively.

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It took an awfully long time, but I’m pleased.

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But as the title says, while it’s done…

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It’s not exactly finished.

Since the new flooring is next on the renovation list, there didn’t seem to be any reason to put the interior trim back on only to take it off again…. so for now I get to live with a rough insulation filled border.

There are worse things.

I can deal.

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And I’m loving the built in blind.

Progress is a beautiful thing.

👍

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Location is everything. The resort…

31 Comments

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Our home base for the anniversary trip was a two bedroom condo at Wyndham Ocean Ridge on Edisto ( Ed-iss-toe) Beach. Mid way between Charleston and Hilton Head…

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It’s a quiet, laid back mostly residential beach community without all the tacky water parks and touristy crap cluttering most southern coasts. It’s the undiscovered country and that’s just how we like it.

When we arrived at the resort and checked in, we were given a unit on the golf course. We travel through our timeshare so sometimes it’s a crap shoot where we’re placed. But seeing that my husband has the gift of gab and makes friends easily, we were quickly reassigned to one of the deluxe units in the best area. (Me dropping the 40th wedding anniversary bomb may have had something to do with it as well. 😉 )

If it hadn’t been January, in the height of the off season this wouldn’t have happened. The Bay Point association is the primo spot of the entire resort and people book them two years in advance.

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The peninsula itself is Edisto Beach with private homes all around. The areas in green are the resort and it was a crazy set up. One second you’re on the resort, the next you’re on a private road. As you can see by my arrow we were right at the tip on the water.

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Our condo was in the middle on the top floor, which in reality is only the second but you have to climb 4 flights of stairs to get there.

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It was clean and spacious.

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With a decided seaside decor.

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It was newly remodeled with carpet that looked like waves.

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And had a pretty sweet view from the bed.

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And speaking of views…

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One look out the balcony and I was a happy camper.

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Off season with an entire beach to ourselves. It doesn’t get much better than that.

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Second bedroom. No, we don’t use it… but if you book a two bedroom unit you get two baths and that my friends is the key to a long and happy marriage.

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Master bath. This was mine in case you were wondering.

😉

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We settled in and unpacked.

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Very pleased with our South Carolina home for the week.

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❤️

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