Blueberries!

I greatly enjoyed my time in South Carolina. It was wonderful to spend some quality time with great people. We spent the majority of the time with Sean's family, hanging out, playing games, and eating great food! 

More importantly we got to play a bunch with Mr. Mason =] Mason had quite the surprise for his Uncle Sean this trip. Within the first hour he had walked up and said "Uhn Kell"! Sean was ecstatic as his nephew made his day.

We had a chance to briefly cross paths with his grandparents as they made their way down south. They had their dog Oakley with them who is a Jack Russell. I missed my puppy dogs so so so much. One of the mornings we were there we got to take Mason to the pool! For fear of getting my camera wet there are no shots of this. It was a lot of fun, and it was fun to see how comfortable he has become being in the water and splashing around.

Tuesday was a beautiful day. The weather got hot but kept a good breeze. Sean's mom had the day off so we had planned something fun to do for everyone. We went blueberry picking! Everyone had a great time as we ransacked the bushes for the most tasty berry. Mason, with Nana's help, quickly picked up on what we were doing out in this field. Once he knew he could eat the little berries, he was all about blueberry picking.

We ended up collecting almost nine pounds of blueberries! Sean's daddy did the best picking as he could reach the berries at the top of the bush, where few before had been able to harvest. At less than two dollars a pound, it was quite the deal!

Probably the best part about blueberry picking is the blueberry eating. One of the strategies recommended to us as we walked out to the blueberry patch was to "taste as we go". Apparently the idea was that each bush had a unique flavor. I definitely felt that for the first half of our excursion, half of the berries collected were tasted for good flavor while the other half went in the bucket! I also would like to point out that I did not find two berries on the same bush that shared much of a flavor. But I did keep taste checking each bush just in case =]

That night we were lucky enough to have Sean's mom bake a fresh blueberry pie! Yum!

Our last day in South Carolina, when everyone went to work, Sean and I drove out to Greenville to visit with our friend Andrew and, my cousin, Chris. We met up with Andrew at the Cracker Barrel and enjoyed a delicious meal with him and his fiancé. He recently got himself engaged! I could not be more happy for him! Breakfast was delicious but all too short. It was sad to say good-bye.

After a late breakfast we were on our way to see my cousin Chris.


We also had the pleasure of playing one of the greatest games of all time, Carcassonne. If you have never heard of this game before I highly encourage you to check it out. This is a phenomenal strategy game that is addicting as well as stimulating. It is a bit difficult to learn, especially when playing with some of the extension packs, but is definitely worth it.

We met up with my other cousin Kathleen for a group delicious dinner in downtown Greenville. We got to eat at a sushi and hibachi restaurant. It was again wonderful see everyone but sad saying bye for a year.

As we drove back to his family's house for the night, it was really starting to sink in that we were leaving to Korea in almost a week's time. It really sank in Thursday morning as we left their house. We were on our way to Tally for a night to visit with my second family the Beatty's.

Leaving that morning it was hard to hang on to the idea that "it was just one year" vs. "it is a whole year". Little Mason will be really moving and grooving with an entire set of vocabulary by the time we get back. His family will have relocated within the Columbia area to a more permanent place. But, as we have found out throughout this trip, we will all pick up right where we left off. We will have Skype, email, and blogs to fill in the differences as we go along. I know this same mentality will hold true for all the people I will miss in my life. If I can just hang on to that it will see me through my Korea Adventure with as little homesicknesses as possible.