Nothing could be finer than Lucy in the Carolinas...

We took Lucy on her second plane trip this past week (unless you count the trips when I was pregnant -- in which case, she has already been to South Carolina, as well as Chicago and Orlando). We left last Wednesday and flew in the early early morning from Boston direct to Raleigh Durham, NC. Lucy slept almost the entire way and woke up as we were descending -- just in time to look out the window and see what was going on.

After picking up our rental car, we headed to the Duke campus to see whre Jeff had gone to college. It was so pretty to walk around there -- especially the chapel. Lucy loved it in there but started to get a bit "chatty" so we had to leave before we disturbed people taking a tour!

From Durham we drove to Fayetteville, NC to spend the night on our way to Myrtle Beach, SC. It was a great stopping-off point and we had a very pleasant stay. The hotel staff was wild about Lucy and of course she made tons of friends with her smiles. On Saturday after breakfast we hit the road to Myrtle Beach. We arrived at our hotel, the Sea Island on the Beach, in the early afternoon. We changed into our bathing suits and hit the pool. Lucy loved it -- she seems to really enjoy swimming! We also went down to the beach for a bit and sat under an umbrella. I started to feel sick later in the afternoon (no, I am NOT pregnant!) so we headed back up to the room. Our room was really nice with a great view of the ocean and I wish I felt better so that I could have enjoyed it more. Oh, well. We were supposed to meet up for dinner with my friends Dana and Lou but I cancelled because Dana is expecting twins and I did not want to make her sick. We stayed in and ordered a pizza and I went to bed early.

The next day I felt MUCH better! We hit the beach and Lucy got her first feel of sand in her little fists. She really seemed to like playing with the sand and the shells but was rather terrified of the waves. She did very well at first but started to cry a lot when a big wave came along and spooked her. Poor baby! She seems so wise and alert and grown up that I have to remind myseld that she is only 6 months old!


After our time at the beach we packed up (yet again) and hit the road to Charleston. We surprised Jeff's family by showing up at his Aunt Rita's house a day ahead of schedule. It was so great for Lucy to meet her Great Aunt and they got along so well. Lucy quickly discovered how fun it was to crawl around on Rita's plush carpet -- much better than the hardwood at home. We spent the next two days exploring around Charleston. On Monday we went downtown and walked around the Market and the Battery. On Tuesday we took a walk at the beach on Isle of Palms and took a drive around Sullivan's Island to look at the pretty beachfront houses (maybe SOME day...). We flew home today (Wednesday) and again Lucy slept most of the way and woke up just at the end of the flight to look out the window. We only have a few more weeks until our Scotland trip and we hope that this positive travel experience is a preview of what is to come on our much bigger excursion!