I love...vacation.

I spent last week on vacation, hence my lack of new posts.

I was in Hilton Head, SC with my family and some family friends for most of the week, then we drove to my parent's house in Hickory, NC and then drove to Nashville, TN for my cousin's wedding. It was a great vacation!

Since I didn't post anything new throughout the week, please accept these vacay tidbits to make up for it:

Airplanes
On an airplane I prefer the window seat. You can watch as the ground beneath you gets smaller and smaller and then finally you're up in the clouds. For that time on the plane you're in limbo from where you just left and where you're about to go - and you can look out to the clouds and dream of what's to come. On my flight out to Hilton Head we happened to be up in the clouds as the sun was setting. The sky was pink and it looked like we were flying through clouds of cotton candy. After we landed I got my bags and walked out of the airport with a stomach full of airplane peanuts and a head full of cotton candy dreams.

Beach
My Beach List:
Beach chair - check
Beach towel - check
Beach book - check
Beach beers - checkity-check-check 

A Good Book
I like to have a good book to read on vacation. This particular vacation I headed to the airport with some old books to read, but wanted to find a new one at the last minute. I stopped in the airport bookstore and went in search of one particular book. Unfortunately they didn't have it in the store, but the person helping me suggested another book I might like - "God Never Blinks" by Regina Brett. I skimmed it, bought it and I didn't like it...I loved it. It's a book about 50 life lessons that Regina Brett has learned so far and had posted in her column in The Plain Dealer. The first lesson had me tearing up by the pool and a later lesson had me laughing on the beach. If you haven't already read it - I highly recommend it. It was just what I needed on this vacay.

Mean Girls in White Dresses
One afternoon I was heading up from the pool to get ready for dinner. As I approached the elevators in the parking garage of our building I noticed two little blond girls in white sundresses standing outside the elevator doors. They were holding one of the elevators open and smiled at me as they said, "You can get on this one!" I smiled back as I stepped on the elevator, "Well, thank you!" - what sweet little girls. I went to press the button for my floor and that's when I saw it, someone had pressed all of the floor buttons. Those little girls in white! I quickly stuck my arm out to stop the doors from closing and jumped out just in time to see the girls turn the corner with their arms around each other - giggling. I waited a moment and then pushed the button for a new elevator. While I waited, the two little girls came back around the corner (ready for their next victim, I'm sure) and they looked stunned when they saw me standing there. "Hello, girls," I said with a smile.

Nice Girls in White Dresses
On Saturday my cousin Stephanie married her husband Allen in Nashville. It was a lovely ceremony, my cousin looked beautiful (I could go on and on about her dress) and they threw an amazing reception with lots of personal touches, delicious food, dancing and sparklers. It was a great day - congratulations, Stephanie & Allen!

New Friends
My family arrived in Nashville on Friday evening. We ate a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant and then my sister Lisa and I decided to grab a drink at the hotel bar. That's where we met Gary Plummer, a former pro basketball player. He bought us a drink, we chatted (he, of course, brought up LeBron), then he convinced us to go out in downtown Nashville with him. We cabbed it to the bars together, waited in line together, got a drink together and then...Lisa and I lost track of our new BFF. However, we woke up with some lil' headaches to remember him by the next morning. 

Coming Home
I do enjoy a vacation. It's nice to take a break, go somewhere else and spend time with family and friends. But there's something about driving down the highway, seeing the Cleveland skyline and knowing I'm almost home. On Sunday, I went from the airport to my friend's house in Parma to pick up my car. She caught me up on what I missed while I was gone. Then I headed home. As I got closer I saw the Cleveland skyline and decided to take a detour to drive through downtown and get reacquainted with my city. Then I headed back to Tremont to see if my apartment had melted in the Cleveland heat while I was gone. It hadn't. It was there waiting for me to come home.

That night I fell asleep with memories of a great vacation and some cotton candy dreams still lingering in my head.