The next morning, we had familial obligations to fulfill.  Mainly, we had to see Omi and Opa, John's grandparents.  After all, that was the main reason we were in South Carolina in the first place!  Everything else that we planned to do was secondary to that.

And that day was the perfect day for a family visit and nothing else.  It was cold and rainy and wet when we woke up that morning and remained like that for the rest of the day. 

John's grandparents live in Columbia, SC, near the junction of I-20 and I-26.  From the Lake House in Chapin, it was a twenty-minute drive to get there - and now that we were rested from our long day of travel, we were okay to make the commute to go see them.

We arrived just before lunchtime on that cold and wet morning.  When we walked into the house, we were greeted warmly by John's grandparents and ushered into the sitting room so that Opa could give Mary a special present that he had picked out for her.  It was an extra large Cinderella doll, with little mice figurines, toy cakes, and a little hairbrush.  She thanked Opa with a large hug and set about playing with her new toy.

Omi served us lunch, and while we ate, we discussed our plans for the rest of our visit.  Since the weather was so bad that day, Omi wanted to take Mary and me shopping at Belk's, at the Dutch Square Mall; they wanted to buy some new clothes for the three of us.  Meanwhile, John offered to stay with Opa and keep him company; that would give them the opportunity to get caught up.

During the rest of the week, though, we would pretty much be on our own - that is, until Thanksgiving, when we would all be gathering at Lotte's house for a huge Thanksgiving feast.  And on the Friday after Thanksgiving, we were invited to join Omi and Opa to treat Lotte and Richard to a nice dinner at their favorite German restaurant in honor of their wedding anniversary.  We were, of course, invited to dinner a couple of times, too, and knew better than to pass on that...

Before we left to go shopping, Omi wanted to show us something in her bedroom; she had been sorting through her jewelry and had some stuff that she wanted to give away.  While the adults were talking, Mary sat down in the blue chair in the corner of her bedroom and started spinning around in it.  Seeing that delighted Omi very much, because that was the chair - the very same chair - that John used to spin Janice around in when they were kids.  Omi insisted on taking pictures of Mary in that chair; she also had one taken with her and would later frame it  and place it next to the pictures of John and Janice.

Once Lotte and Richard showed up, Mary, Omi, Lotte and I all left to go shopping, leaving the men behind at home.  While at Belk's, Omi insisted that Mary and I pick out whatever we wanted (within a certain dollar amount) and she would buy it for us.  We picked out a number of pretty dresses for Mary - and a couple of nice blouses for me, too.  Then, Omi wanted to buy something for John as well, so she enlisted our help to choose something for him, as we knew what he liked.  We selected for him a dress shirt, a tie, and a pair of dress pants that he could wear to work.  When Omi presented it to him, he was very pleased.

With our purchases in hand, we then returned to Omi and Opa's house to show them to John and to give him his new clothes.  While we were gone, he and Richard had been drinking, while Opa was taking his afternoon nap; Opa was still asleep when we got there.  In order to maintain peace and quiet in the house, we decided that it was time for us to go. 

Besides, we still had lots to do once we returned to Chapin.  We had groceries to buy for the Lake House, so that we could make dinner there that night.

One of the nice things about being able to stay in the Lake House in Chapin - besides not having to pay for a hotel - was that we didn't have to eat out every day.  Instead of looking for places to eat each night and winding up eat greasy bar food or bad Mexican food, we could buy supplies at the Food Lion or the Bi-Lo in Chapin and cook up our own food. 

That is exactly what we did that night.  We grilled up a couple of nice steaks and served that with potatoes and veggies.  It was much better than anything we could ever get at a bar!

And with that, we settled in for the night at the Lake House - watching DVD's on John's laptop, listening to the rain fall outside, and enjoying the warmth of the fireplace.  It was a lovely night...

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