First Full Day of Our Carolina Vacay

Shane started the morning with TV in Nana and Pop's room. That's a no-go at home, but it's vacation!

Shane went with Nana and Pop to meet Kathleen, Cole, Evelyn, and Tenley at the zoo. That left Carrie and I time to ourselves! Babysitters we can trust is high on the list of reasons to visit SC!

Our first stop: Great Clips.

We put my name on the list and then walked to a coffee shop. It was Christian owned.

I don't know if it's a business model for when you cross into SC or if it was heartfelt, but I hope it was the latter. I appreciated the verse on the cup.

There were a few Bible studies going on, as well, from what I could tell.

We met a female Hercules beetle on the the way back. It was nearly the size of my palm.

There were some kids at Great Clips who were creeped out by it. Carrie enlightened them. I got a haircut.

The AC in the upstairs room was out. Pop had tried calling a guy who kept no-showing and it wasn't fixed by the time we arrived. Carrie and I set up shop downstairs. We turned one bedroom into an impromptu office and gaming room. Can you guess what Carrie wanted to play with our off time?

It rhymes with Whirled of SworeDraft.

They were gone a long while. Shane came back saying, "Cole got in trouble!" and "Can we go fishing!"

I figured I had to do some parenting, so I took him fishing.

Gotta hit the daily parental quota.

I made sure to give him a wide berth. I didn't want to get hooked.

We didn't catch any fish, but the ducks all flocked to where we were.

Geese, too. I tried to scare them away, but they hung around until they realized there were no free handouts.

A stick was the big catch of the day we reeled in.

A tree as the big catch of the day that got away. Not that it moved. I guess we caught it, but I can't say we threw it back.

Meanwhile, Carrie enjoyed the air conditioning and a break from her work.

Shane was determined to catch a fish, so we stayed outside.

It's hard to catch anything when you put down the rod and climb instead.

Or maybe it counts as assessing his catch from earlier?

We stayed at it for a while, but no luck.

We went in after over an hour of trying.

That night, we showed Nana and Pop Dixit after dinner. It mostly went well. Nana wasn't a huge fan and Shane got upset when Mommy kept reminding him not to show everyone his cards.

After dinner, it was fishing round 2.

This time we befriend a cat. Kitty was following a pair of ladies walking, but switched to us.

The more I ignore them, the more they come to me. I must smell like catnip.

Shane put down the rod to say, "Hello." No collar, so I assume it was a stray. I sent Carrie a text, but the kitty trotted off.

We shifted positions to try our luck elsewhere. Shane caught another tree.

We shifted positions again.

We never caught a fish, but Shane got a lot of casting practice in. He does a side cast and he's not bad at it.

Shane challenged me with a, "I bet you can't get that far!"

No, I got a lot further. Daddy hasn't lost the touch. I almost declined, but then figured it'd be more fun for Shane if I took the challenge.

Nana was out walking with Indy about this time. We walked back with the ladies. Nana and Shane stopped to eat some wild blackberries on the way in.

The night ended with electronics after the sun went down. The son was fascinated with Mommy's World of Warcraft character. We've been meeting up with Chris and Genevieve online every night since Carrie decided to go all in.