Run in with the Gulls

I cannot believe that August is already here! This month has completely flown by! We have had a pretty exciting week with a few firsts. Last weekend we decided to treat ourselves by going to a restaurant called Long point grill that we had heard a lot about and it was fantastic! Jon got some mac n cheese which had to have been 10,000 calories but it was DELICIOUS. I'll most likely get that if we go in the future. Afterwards we went to the USS Yorktown site. It has a lot of restored airplanes and ships and unfortunately we got there right as they were closing. Bummer. Luckily they had a few outdoor exhibits that we got to enjoy. Plus we did get to see the tiniest little helicopter carrying three or four people go up right by us. Apparently they give helicopter tours of Charleston and the surrounding areas and we would love to do one someday before we leave. Here are some photos of our little date night excursion:

So on Saturday we decided to go to the beach again. I have a feeling this will become a weekly occurrence for us. So I have suddenly developed an attitude that I am now a South Carolina Resident. I have the drivers license to prove it, and although I've only lived here for a total of four weeks I've convinced myself that I am now suddenly bugged by tourists. I recognize this unfair approach I have seeing as I'm very new myself and I'm working on my attitude. Keep this in mind however with the story I'm about to tell. SO background... There is a widely held belief in SC that too many people come here to live, to visit and vacation from Ohio. This is something I have heard in my ward, at work, people in the store, and the MULTIPLE bumper stickers I have seen which read GO BACK TO OHIO! Apparently there is also a website entitled Go back to Ohio where South Carolinians can find support. So I thought that this was humorous and couldn't understand where this apparent disdain was coming from which leads me into my Ohio beach story....

So Jon and I decided to invest in a couple of walmart low to the ground beach chairs since we were going to be frequenting the beach so I was feeling pretty good about our situation. The beach was particularly crowded Saturday because high tide was in so there wasn't nearly enough room to spread out as their has been in the past when we've gone. To alleviate this problem we walked about a quarter mile down from where the bulk of people were sitting so we could have a little space.  We ended up about six feet away from another party of people which gave us plenty of room so as to not crowd our neighbors. After setting up our camp and reading for awhile we decided to go in the ocean. Keep in mind however that there was an older lady hovering over our chairs. I wasn't bothered she  seemed harmless and was just standing there so I decided to just keep an eye on our things while we were in the water. 

We hadn't gotten in past our knees before I turned around and spotted this lady with a now group of 15 entourage completely encircling our chairs. I turned around and headed back to make sure that they weren't stealing my spanking brand new $10.00 beach chairs ready for a fight. We got back to our place and to my amazement they had managed to completely set up their spot in an astonishing short period of time. To my amazement they had set their towel up against the edge of our chairs. No joke if I were to sit down, my feet would be on their two larger than life, fit ten people sitting on them, and I did count towels. I was incredulous it was crowded but not that crowded. But being the stubborn person that I am I sat down anyway, I was not going to let these people bully us out of our spots against my husbands pleadings. So I sat there and continued to read. Although you know the feeling when you are just too close to someone you have never met and it just consumes you with uncomfortableness that you can't get over? Well that happened. So I stood up in a huff and moved our chairs back a couple of feet so I wasn't totally sitting on top of them and continued to read. This was not before that we learned that these people were in fact visiting from, you guessed it OHIO. After I calmed myself down and quit muttering under my breath a flock of seagulls raining down around us I looked up from my book to see not the children but the adults in the group FEEDING THE BIRDS. Soon the surrounding camps started protesting because clearly the Ohioans didn't realize that not everyone on the beach loves the potential of being pooped on or lunches being snatched by squawking fowls. They finally ceased and we were able to go back to enjoying our day at the beach. 

Looking back now I am able to laugh. But I do wonder, could there be truth to South Carolina's disdain for these newcomers from Ohio? Probably not, I still think it is ridiculous but for an hour or so last Saturday I was about ready to go buy myself a bumper sticker.