Carolinas in the Morning

Thursday dawned bright and early as we headed off to North Carolina to visit my Uncle Paul & Aunt Jane in their "mountain hideaway."  The drive was pretty uneventful, and we made it there in time to join them for dinner.  We put the dogs in their outdoor kennel and headed into town. They treated us to a local mexican food restaurant, which wasn't Tex Mex, but it was delicious anyway!  We headed back to their place, and found that Molly and Ella had managed to slip out of the kennel and had been roaming around the mountainside on their own! Paul & Jane's dog Onyx had shown up at some point, so we're believing that Onyx showed them the ropes and kept them close to home.  A flash thunderstorm had popped up as we were driving home, so the girls were wet and a little dirty, but none the worse for wear.  We brought them inside, and they proceeded to win over everyone with their perfect manners and sweet dispositions (no, really, they were complete angels!).

We sat up entirely too late with Paul & Jane, talking about everything from dogs to kids and plenty in between. After a good night's sleep, we were ready to enjoy the beauty of the front porch on top of the mountain. The morning was foggy, but we knew it would burn off and be warm later (they were having a heat wave - highs in the 90s!), so we wanted to maximize our time.

Really, how can you pass up this view?  So, we sat, with our coffee, and enjoyed.  

Ella loved the yard - a nice long space to chase her ball.  We threw it as hard and as far as we could as many times as she could stand.  After all the travel this week, she's itching for the exercise!

 

See that tiny black speck by the grapevines in the second picture?  That's Ella!  She ran and ran and ran until we lost the ball!  The only time she took a break is when Onyx took over. Onyx is a "senior" dog, so she mostly just swiped the ball and sat with it, reminiscing about her younger days. Ella was patient with her, up to a point. Then she'd just swipe it back and want to play again.

After we had our fill of coffee and porch-sitting, Uncle Paul took us into town to show us around. He works for a local coffee roasting company, and had a few minutes of work to do, so we wandered around downtown while he finished that up.  We went to the local dog park and let the girls play, but they were actually much more interested in walking around and exploring the city than they were playing off-leash. So, we left there and Uncle Paul treated us to lunch at The Gateway Club. The delicious burgers were a great send-off, and we left feeling spoiled!

We got on the road to Greenville, SC after noon, and arrived there at 2:30 that day. It's a quick drive, and was probably the easiest of the trip so far. We were all glad to be able to get out of the car so quickly!  We went straight to 609 and were greeted warmly by Aunt Janet & Uncle Dennis.  (For those of you who don't know, "609" is our family home. The "609" is a reference to the house number - we never actually use the whole address, we all just know it by heart. My grandfather built the house when the family first moved to Greenville, SC 50 years ago, and Janet & Dennis bought it from him years ago.  It's still a gathering place for family events and memories.)

We settled in quickly, ducking over to the neighbor's house for a quick swim before the rain rolled in (have you noticed it's rained everywhere we've been so far except DC?  Apparently the request we got to "bring the rain with us" is working...).

Aunt Jan and I drove just down the road and picked up Pop and Sis (my grandfather and his wife) to bring them back to 609 for dinner. It was really special to spend time with them for so long - they had dinner, dessert, and stayed to talk for more than 2 hours.  Aunt Jan made a delicious dinner, then we got to have chocolate cake and coffee ice cream - a Brummer family tradition! Pop didn't eat much dinner, but he had a huge slice of cake and two servings of ice cream.  Now Jarrod knows where I get my obsession with ice cream!  We had a great conversation with Sis, and got to tell her all about living in Connecticut and moving to Hawaii.

Pop is in his 90s, and he and Sis have lived in assisted living for several years. Last year, he moved into the dementia unit, and he is having more and more trouble communicating.  The thing that's so hard to see is that he clearly still has the memories and has things to say to add to the conversation, but he can't locate the correct words in his mind and then speak them.  He starts and stops several times, and often doesn't ever come up with the words to say what he's thinking.  He has trouble remembering who people are, and why they are important to him.  We told him several times who I was before he really remembered.  We showed him pictures of my sister's family, and he understood that they were a family, and that they were beautiful, but he couldn't understand their relevance to him.  He wanted to tell me about his visit to Hawaii, but couldn't get his thought out. I was frustrated for him, even more so when I saw how difficult it was for him.  He kept saying how surprised he was that he couldn't get his words to cooperate - he knew there was a problem, but didn't remember that it has been ongoing. So, it made me even more glad to see him, and to have the small bits of conversation we did get to have. I really appreciate Aunt Janet for spending as much time and effort with him as she does - thank you, Aunt Jan!

After a great visit with Pop & Sis, Uncle Dennis took them home and we spent the beautiful evening chatting and watching the girls run around the yard.  The backyard at 609 is huge, and the view is gorgeous.  Check out this sunset:

Saturday morning, we got up early with the dogs and watched the sunrise over the same yard, then enjoyed coffee and breakfast with Janet & Dennis.  We made a quick stop at the Greenville Farmer's Market for some fresh SC peaches, and then headed out to Nashville to see my cousin Daniel and his family.  We're getting to the home stretch now - we're really looking forward to getting to Dallas and settling in for a little while!