Thursday, Oct 19
It has arrived. Our least favorite day of Girls Weekend. The last day. The day we go to the airport and go our separate ways and back to our regular lives. Which, mind you, aren't bad, just not the blissful hang out time we enjoy on our trips. Journaling, researching, learning about new things and places, even learning new things about subjects we thought we knew well (example: tea!)
Fortunately, Kathi had booked herself on a one way flight home, because she never heard anything back from Orbitz who had somewhat led her to believe that they would contact her within 24 hours of her call to them with some sort of resolution. Both our flights leave around 3 pm and since we did most of our packing last night, we have time to check out at 10 am and get that last cemetery in.
We took all our bags downstairs and I hung out with them while Kathi went to get the car. She pulled up in front of the hotel and we loaded everything in. We decided that I would walk on over to the coffee shop and Kathi would meet me there after she reparked the car in the parking garage so we could do our walk through the cemetery that we missed out on last night. Seemed like an easy to execute plan, right? Well, the cute little coffee shop that we liked so much doesn't open until 11 and it is only a little after 10. Just as I realize this, Kathi texts me to let me know that she is kind of stuck at the garage and tells me to go ahead and place the order for her coffee. I let her know that the place doesn't open until 11 and I start searching for another nearby coffee place that is open. After finding 2 places that serve ONLY coffee, not FANCY coffee, Kathi finally comes to find me to tell me her story of the gate to the parking garage not opening (it appears to be stuck closed), her having to ask everyone in line behind her (4 cars deep) to back up so she can get out of the entrance to the garage as well as informing them that the gate won't open and all the machinations she ultimately had to go through just to get the car reparked in the garage!! By the time we met up, I had STILL not successfully found a suitable coffee shop, but a helpful lady working in one the shops told us of a couple of choices. We chose Bitty and Beau's because, not only do they have fancy coffee, but they hire people with Down Syndrome to work in their shops to honor their 2 children who were born with Down Syndrome. Love this! We found the shop (which happened to be on our way to the cemetery), ordered our coffee and made our way to St Phillip's cemetery and graveyard. The gates to both were wide open this morning!! We wondered around in the cemetery first while hearing music from the church where they were having a baroque concert. What a wonderful experience! The young man who worked for the church who had kicked us out of the graveyard yesterday found us and told us that he was glad that we were able to come back today. He also pointed out to us the headstone of the man who wrote Porgy and Bess.
This is the cemetery where I took the photo of the lovely Spanish moss draped above the headstones. I find cemeteries like these that have trees and flowering bushes growing and providing shade much more peaceful and beautiful than ones that have been cleared of all trees and plants. We crossed the street and did a quick walk through the graveyard, which was also lovely, when the church bells chimed noon. It was time for us to leave for the airport. Kathi had rented the car we used through Turo which means we are to wash the car before returning it. Fortunately, getting out of the parking garage was nowhere near as challenging as getting into the garage had been and we were soon on our way.
Kathi had brought her handicap hang tag along for this trip because a) she has one (she uses it for when she takes her Daddy places) and b) because by using it, we didn't have to pay for parking! She was afraid of leaving it behind, so as soon as we got into the car, she tucked it between her legs to make sure it made its way home with her. Unfortunately, I think she promptly forgot about it. We made our stop at the car wash and she had to open the door afterwards to flip the side view mirror back into position that had been knocked back going through the car was. This maneuver caused the handicap tag to be swallowed into one of the crevices in the car. This only matters because upon arrival at the airport, Kathi dropped me off with the bags at the terminal where I waited while she went parked the car in the garage and at some point, while walking to the terminal to meet me, she realized that she didn't have the tag! Kathi is not having a good experience with cars and parking garages today!! So she went back to the car to look for the tag but had no luck finding it. We needed to check in and get to our gates at this point, so she texted the car owner to let him know what had happened and asked if he would please look in the car again once he retrieved it to see if he could find the tag. This man was kind enough to ask Kathi what car wash we went to and said he would drive there and look for it as well as looking in the car. What a gem of a guy!! Next thing I know, Kathi is telling me that he found the tag in one of the crevices of the car! (I don't know if he drove to the carwash or if he found it before doing so). Kathi and I have said this so many times, but I am going to say it yet again. God is always so amazingly good to us on these trips, in big and small ways. We always feel quite blessed.
We sat together for 30 minutes or so at one of the gates, then hugged our last farewells for this trip and prepared to board our separate planes.
Another amazing Girls Weekend in the books. Thank you, Charleston, South Carolina. North Dakota, here we come!!
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