Taylor and I just got back for our week stay in Clemson, South Carolina. We had a great time, and it was just beautiful. We arrived about 11 pm the first night and stayed in Greenville, which is the small town the airport is in. My mom had flown in to Charlotte and was going to pick us up en route to Clemson the next day. Her flight ended up getting re-routed through Atlanta, so she actually drove to us in Greenville that night. Tay was the best little boy ever on the plane and once we landed, I called the hotel to have the shuttle pick us up from the airport. Unfortunately it had stopped running for the evening, so we decided to take a cab. I figured if I could fly into O'Hare, take a cab to Union Station, then the local train to my cousin's suburb all by myself, I could certainly handle a cab three miles to the hotel with Tay and just one piece of luggage. I asked at the airport information desk for the number to a cab company and she said she could arrange it for me. That's fine, I said, then I joked, it's not like it's a $40 cab ride. The nice lady looked at me sheepishly, then said, "We'll actually, it's $20". Wow! $20 bucks for three miles, looks like I am in the wrong business :)Tay and I were starvin' Marvins when we arrived at the hotel and decided to walk across the street to Logan's Roadhouse. It was a little after 11pm in Greenville, which is really 8 pm for us and the restaurant was ready to turn into a bar for the evening. I got a small steak, which was delicious and Tay had the mac n cheese while some one Kareoke'd to Lynard Skynard and the server swept up chewed peanut shells off the floor. I am sure we looked totally out of place, but Tay had a great time. He fell asleep shortly after we arrived at the hotel and I stayed up waiting for my mom and the kids. They were very excited to tell me about their new airplane, which was on Frontier Airlines and the minivan rental car we had. The next day we awoke, stuffed ourselves with breakfast and went to the zoo in Greenville. We got lost along the way, but managed to make it there. It happened to be "hot dog" day and there must have been the whole town of Greenville there. The kids ate hot dogs and Tay and I had ice cream and chips for 25 cents. It was a small zoo, and Tay picked out a stuffed penguin from the gift shop, then they played outside the zoo at this large playground. It was a nice morning, then we headed to Clemson, which is about an hour away. We called my Grandma when we arrived and she wanted to go to dinner with us, so we picked her up and went to the Keith Street Grill, which is by the University. There is a walkway with fishponds and a small waterfall just behind the open outside patio. Katie and Tay played most of the time, which was nice because I was actually able to eat at the same time as everyone else for once :) The next day, and for three more days that week, we ate at the Rivera, a yummy Turkish restaurant right by my Grandma's. It was one of my grandpa's favorite restaurants. A family owns it and they are very nice and the food is just fabulous. I ate the hummus and pita bread each time I went and took some back to the hotel so I could snack on it later. I took Katie to the store and bought her a kid's digital camera that looks like a pink cell phone complete with rhinestones as a thank-you for being so great with Taylor. Really, he wanted only to play with her and had no use for me most of the week. My Grandma also took us to this other restaurant, which is right on Lake Keowee (I think). We sat outside on the patio. There was a small playset for the kids and the view was just beautiful. You can see the University football stadium just on the other side of the lake. It sounds like we did a lot of eating out- and we did! We also went to the Chinese buffet that we went to last time we all got together, and this sandwhich shop in Pendelton, the Western Sizzlin' across from the hotel ( I don't think the walk burned off the calories from dinner) and ended the week at the Pizza Hut buffet. My aunt Karen came down from North Carolina with her new husband and kids who are from Brisbane, Australia. They were a lot of fun, and her new husband is super sweet. I guess I never figured Karen would ever get married or have kids and now she has two kids and a mushy husband who even paints her toenails! My uncle Jay came down just for a day, and so did a whole bunch of other family members. Even though we were there for my Grandpa's memorial, my Grandma wanted it to be a fun, and happy time and it was. She looks tired and weak, and has lost some hair and weight from her own cancer treatments. It was good to see her, but sad to see her at the same time. I don't know why it is decided that some people should die one way and others another way, but in this case it hardly seems fair. My Grandpa's memorial was beautiful and quite a few family members came in from all over the south to be there. My Grandpa had two eulogies read. One from another member of their church, and another from one of his co-workers who he had known for forty years. Him and his wife flew in from California just for two days to be there, and seemed like a fun couple. I met my mom's cousins who I had only seen in pictures, and saw my great aunts Norma and Barbara again. That morning, Taylor decided to practice his screaming banshee routine, so I left him in the church nursery with some volunteers so I could enjoy the memorial service. My grandma had asked me to do a reading, and I was very happy to. I started crying early on during the first hymnal, it just really touched me. As bad as it sounds, I haven't really ever paid much attention to the words of any hymnal, but for this one I did and they were just beautiful. I tried to stay smiling for Maggie and had some laughs while the rememberances were read by my Grandpa's friends. One told about how he fell asleep on a plane smoking a pipe and his tie caught on fire, or another time he tried to make creme brulee and the same thing happened, only this time his dinner guest's hair caught on fire. There was a reception afterwards and we talked and Taylor ran around and everyone thought he was "big for a two year old", but still very cute. It was a very nice service and a wonderful trip.
