Beach or Pool?

The first day of any week we’ve ever spent at a resort, especially one at the beach, always begins with the question, “Beach or Pool?”  Are we going to spend the morning on the ocean or by the chlorinated clear.

The weather is getting cooler at Hilton Head in Southern South Carolina now so we opted for no swimming suits but a walk on the beach first.

We have owned a week at the Marriott Barony Beach Resort since 2002 when we discovered that time shares would be the best way for us to experience travel and vacations with the least hassle and most comfort. The Barony, because of its location directly on the beach, its smaller size and quiet, hidden, location, has been our favorite no matter where we’ve stayed.

The pool did attract us as the day warmed up so we took our books down there after lunch, but we had an appointment to get to at 3:00pm. Our dear friends, Jim and Jeanie Nearhoof, were staying with a mutual friend, Leslie Lemonick and her mother at her vacation home on the golf course at the Palmetto Dunes community.

  

We had lots of catching up to do with the Nearhoofs since last seeing then in Pennsylvania in May, and much more catching up with Leslie who many years ago attended our home church, Lititz UMC, in Lititz PA, and was a long time next door neighbor to the Nearhoofs.

Jim and Jeanie are leaders of one of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania’s megachurches, Calvary Bible, which is located on route 222 beside Lancaster Bible University just north of the city of Lancaster.  We have learned much from them about churches of that size in comparison with churches like our Hope in Douglassville.  And now, with our on the road life, we can compare dozens of other types of church structures and dynamics as well.

 The main thing we’ve learned…? Church is CHURCH no matter what size you are.  Good, bad, or ugly, always depending for its spiritual success upon how much of it you leave in God’s hands versus your own.

We took Leslie and the Nearhoofs dogs for a walk on the Palmetto Beach. Beaches in South Carolina are all public, but on islands like Hilton Head public access is not as easily available and parking even less so due to the almost 100% private ownership of the land behind the dunes.

Palmetto Dunes is one such community.  A wonderful golf course centers most of Hilton Heads gated communities and from the air its hard to tell where the buildings are anywhere on the island except along the beaches for palmetto palms, loblolly pines and live oaks grow in abundance everywhere.  In fact, when the sun goes down in these resorts and communities there is an almost mystical quality as you walk in the dark, artificially lit forests and mostly wooden or stucco buildings.

We spent a marvelous evening reminiscing and catching up over a great meal and M&M’s for desert! 

Travel is a first love of Mona and I, and making new friends a real joy as we travel.  But getting to see old friends, and family, we have not seen for a long time, is the best. Its like the song, the gold & silver standard among friends and family is the basic ingredient of a happy life.

-Ken