...sun, sandollars, starfish, dolphins & 'gators

After much deliberation on a long-weekend trip for our anniversary, DH & I had decided that we would have to forgo one of our requisites - WARM (the other requisite was SEA). Due to the cost of airfares and our limited time frame (4 days) - 'WARM' seemed out of the realm of reality. ~UNTIL~

Thursday (10-23) night at 9pm we found an amazing 'last minute deal' - including airfare, rental car and 3 nights on the beach in Hilton Head, SC!! Sign us up! Plane to depart Sat. at 6am (10-25). I'm sure a lot of you Southerners are saying 'Warm??'. Well, to us Upstate New Yorkers - YES! - 60-70degrees the end of October is warm !! Just check out Barbaras post at OODLES & OODLES for a glimpse of Central NY right now!

Friday was FULL of last minute things - work, laundry, packing and OF COURSE a stop by a couple of Thrifts. You do realize 'That' IS a necessity of any crazy schedule don't you?!! THANK GOODNESS I DID! I had an ULTIMATE score of VERA - a set of SIX Dinner plates (NO Chips!!) - .59¢ each (and a Russel Wright platter!). Previously my collection only had two other pieces of VERA china (which I paid dearly for!) and one plastic VERA dish! How did I verify this blatant VERA design?

I also grabbed this great vinyl tablecloth for my 'Hawaiian' themed porch next summer, and these three awesome brooches ($1 ea). The pins I had originally intended to keep and wear, but I discovered a marking on the large rectangle one 'F.N.Co' which I have researched and found to be (Ready for your useless info tidbit for the day???)...

"F.N. Co." from the Fishel Nessler company. Operating from 1885 through 1936, Carl Fishel was one of the founding fathers of the TKF trio of Trifari, Fishel & Krussman. The F.N. Co. mark is rarely found ..."

So... I may only be keeping two of them!

ALSO in the mix of packing and readying for our journey was the finishing/mailing out of Halloween goody packages to 'the girls' (nieces) in college. One of which received an 'as requested' green plarn bag (Darn, but those green bags are hard to find in this area!!) filled with treats! That completes Bag#5!

The weekend in SC was WONDERFUL! Up every morning on the beach to watch the sunrise and pick up sandollars and seashells! LOTS of Great seafood 'eats'! Spotting starfish at low tide! Riding bikes on the beach while watching the dolphins play! (Look close! They REALLY are in the photo!!)Going for a walk and getting a glimpse at an alligator lazing around a pond (from a safe distance)!

Bare toes, warm sand and sunshine - a SPECTACULAR 7th Anniversary! Just doesn't get much better in my book!