Our Weekend Trip

For our three day weekend Jeremy and I took a weekend trip to Matthews County Virginia to visit some family. Matthews is as country as it gets. There isn't a single stop light in the whole county. There are lots of open fields, dirt roads, and there's just a peacefulness that Jeremy and I don't get in the busy Myrtle Beach area. We love our chances to get away, relax, and be refreshed with family.

We left at 7 am on Friday morning and spent our 7 hour drive talking and listening to a John Grishom book on CD (The Appeal). It was the perfect start to our weekend away. In Matthews we stayed with Jeremy's mom's parents, to us Grandad and Grandma, but to the rest of the world Edward and Louise Diggs. Jeremy's parents and our sister Lisa also met us in Matthews (they came from New Orleans, LA), and so did Jeremy's mom's brother and his wife (Uncle Richard and Aunt Lloydette, they came from Richmond, VA). So needless to say we had a houseful.

Grandad and Grandma live in a place that their family calls "the field", it's quite special really. The houses along the dirt road that they live off of are inhabited mostly by family of some sort. Grandma grew up in the lot adjacent to where she now lives, and when she got married she was given her property to build on. Grandad built them a home on their property backing up to the water. And when I say built, I mean he built it. He paid for everything cash, and labored at the work himself. So they've never had a mortgage and have lived in the same home their entire marriage. Grandma's siblings also built houses on lots adjacent to her property when they were married, and several of their children have done the same. Therefore a large portion of their street is inhabited by members of their family, and they look out for each other in a special way that only family does.

They have a simple way of life up there. They work hard and enjoy simple pleasures. During our visit we dined on Grandma's homemade pickles that I'm sure were made with cucumbers grown from some family members garden. We ate sauteed squash, carrots, and potatoes, and the squash was home grown as well. We ate fried soft shell crabs, and crab cakes made from meat of crabs caught by Grandma's brother. People spend over $20 a person at the seafood buffets here in Myrtle to enjoy the fare that we enjoyed that was home caught, and home cooked, and barely a fraction of the price of eating out. We were spoiled!

My dad and his wife Dawn live in Gloucester Virginia, which is about 20 minutes away from Grandad and Grandma's house. This enabled dad and Dawn to stop by for a visit Saturday afternoon and play several games of corn hole with us while we enjoyed the view of the water from the backyard. We also spent Saturday swimming in the pool of one of the family members, playing board games, and having a cookout with about 25 of the surrounding family members.

After a wonderful weekend we set off in the car Sunday morning finishing off our John Grishom novel. We returned home to a stifling hot condo with broken air conditioning which was a rude awakening. After not much sleep in our sauna and no snuggling due to the heat (and we are serious snugglers) it was back to work Monday morning. Fortunately our AC is now fixed and wasn't too major of a repair. Here's some pics from our trip, enjoy.

Grandad and Grandma's house
their yard
the view of the water from their yard
their dock and boats (the big one is Uncle Richard's)
Dad (Mangerchine) serving some of Grandma's famous butter beans and corn. yum yum!!!!
Aunt Lloydette, Uncle Richard and our sister Lisa at dinner on Friday
Grandma and Mom Do ya'all remember the pic of Dad sleeping from our trip to New Orleans back in March? Here's another addition of his after dinner naps. (okay, well he wasn't really sleeping this time, he posed for me, but I got such a kick out of the last one that I wanted to add to my collection)
Dad working on some poetry, well trying to work on some poetry while being distracted by the TV and silly photographers...
family game of Yahtzee
Grandad and Grandma... 58 years married and they still look like newlyweds all snuggled up with her hand on his leg. And as always the token picture that we take of ourselves by holding the camera a few feet away from us and trying to angle it, I think we've got it down.

Thank you Grandad and Grandma for your hospitality, we had a wonderful visit! Thank you to all of those who made the effort to come visit us during our stay in Virginia, we enjoyed every moment of time that we had with family and were refreshed by it! We love you all!

Shannon