August 2023- Litchfield Beach

 The house feels empty without Roscoe.  We needed to lift our spirits.  Sun, sand, surf, and salty ocean breezes might help, so on August 20, we headed south to Pawley's Island where I had booked a 4 night stay for us at The Litchfield Inn.

We stopped in Georgetown, about 45 minutes from the hotel, to have a seafood lunch on the river walk.

Our room was in the hotel tower on the 4th floor with a balcony and beautiful view of the ocean.

The only trouble was we had to wait over an hour for it to be ready, and when it was, the elevator (not plural mind you) to the upper floors wasn't working.  The hotel clerk "forgot" to mention this when we checked in.  Most of the hotel staff had already gone home, so we and several other guests had to schlep our luggage up flights of stairs.  Two good things came of it:  while waiting to see if the elevators would be fixed, I met a woman named Myra and her sister, Jane, who grew up in Seneca.  Myra now lives in Pendleton, about 20 miles from us, and we've been "cell pals" since getting home.  The other was that we were comped one night's stay.  However, it wasn't the best start to a therapeutic getaway.

But, with the sunrise came the promise of a better day with glorious views of the beach from our balcony.

The hotel had two pools on either side of the reception room:  one for kiddies and one for adults who could enjoy lunch and drinks at the poolside cafe.

And we did just that.

The next day was overcast and not the best beach weather, but we decided to sit by the shore anyway. 

Our hotel room is the second from the left on the 4th floor.

I do believe I was the first one to come up with the idea  of photographing your feet when we went on our first cruise in 1996.  Maybe it should be called the foot selfie? 

The air can our chairs were too damp for me to feel comfortable, but Bob braved checking out the water.

Now this is more to my liking....enjoying a morning cup of tea on the balcony.

The sun did finally break through.  Bob and I decided to stroll through the Hammock Shops on Hwy 17.

The village has about 25 specialty shops...

Lots of big, old trees... 

and beautiful fountains.  The original hammock store opened here in 1935 by the brother-in-law of the designer of the first rope hammock.

We had spent our days driving around Pawley's Island, stopping in shops up and down Hwy 17, eating lots of seafood.  One night we met Paul for dinner in town.  He seemed to be doing ok, but there was an in my heart seeing him without Jay.  On our last night, we had another seafood dinner at a restaurant here on Murrell's Inlet.  We headed back home the next day, but I would certainly like to vacation again at Litchfield Inn.  The day after we got back, David came to stay for two nights while Amanda was at a bachelorette gathering with her friends in Georgia.  He was going to bring our boat back up, but he noticed the trailer had a flat, and it was too late to fix it before he had to take off.