The next morning, we were up early.  Not by our choice, of course; after sleeping in for several days straight, we were caught up on our sleep and back on a normal schedule.  Since we were up at the crack of dawn, we decided to go out to the boat and watch the sunrise out over the lake.  While we were out there, I picked up my fishing pole to see if anything was biting; but there were obviously no fish in that lake...

Much like the day before, our plan for the day was to spend the day out on Lake Murray, boating and swimming - but today, Omi and Opa would be joining us for lunch at the Lake House.  Omi insisted on bringing over some leftover bratwursts and chicken salad for us all to enjoy; Omi also hoped to be able to get out on the boat so that she could go swimming, though she wasn't sure if she would be able to walk across the boat dock to get there.

Omi and Opa arrived around 10:00 a.m., just after John and I finished cleaning up the Lake House for them.  (It looked like we had been living there for a while.)  We helped Omi bring in the food, which she immediately began to cook up for us; meanwhile, Opa went out to sit on the dock and waited for us there. 

We ate our lunch out on the dock with Opa.  Then, John suggested that we take the boat out to go swimming in the bay.  When Omi looked at the dock and saw how high it was, she said that she would have to pass on it, but John had a better idea.  Instead of making Omi walk the dock to the boat, John brought the boat to her.  He was able to beach it between Lotte's dock and the one next door, and that allowed Omi to step onto the boat without difficulty.

John took the boat out onto the bay - far enough from shore to swim safely in deep water but close enough that we could still keep an eye on Opa, who watching us from the dock.  Opa didn't want to come out on the boat with us; he was perfectly happy just watching us from the shore.  It pleased him to see Omi having fun, swimming with Mary and sunning herself on the boat.  It was the best afternoon she had had in a long time, and John was happy to give it to her.

When Omi had had enough sun, John brought her back to shore and helped her off the boat; he then docked the boat.  After that, we all sat in the shade with Opa and snacked on bratwurst and veggies while we enjoyed the peaceful day out by the lake.

Omi and Opa left us in the middle of the afternoon, when it was time for Opa's nap.  By that time, it was just hot and sticky enough outside that we decided to retreat inside, to sit in the air-conditioning for a while.

It was still very hot that evening - so hot that we decided that we didn't want to cook.  The barbeque grill didn't have any propane in it, and there was no way we were going to heat up the lake house with the oven.  That said, we opted to eat out...but where to go? 

We discovered that there was a new bar and grille in the town of Chapin, called the Bomb Island Grille.  It turned out to be a great choice and we recommended it to Lotte the next time we spoke to her.  The food was delicious, and they had a wide variety of beers and microbrews on tap.  We enjoyed it so much that we promised to stop there again, the next time we were in South Carolina.

After dinner, we returned to the Lake House, where we did as little as possible until bedtime; it was just too hot to do anything, even though there was so much to do to prepare for our trip home.  We only had about thirty-six hours left in South Carolina... 

Return to South Carolina or Bust.

Return to Naked in the Woods.