Our 14th weekend in Beaufort was a(nother) good one. Our first was in 2007 (we missed a few years along the way), and while much has changed … about me/us, the place, and the itinerary … it’s still a family-who-are-friends tradition I’m most grateful to have. For this year’s report, I have five things that seem to be core to the tradition … plus one bonus:

Our morning walks. Lydia and I love our morning walks! There is just something about walking early, seeing the sun peeking over the horizon, over water … and it was fun to include Karen (a little bit later) on Sunday.

Wrens. the back corner table. lunch on Friday. love the wait staff that takes SO MANY photos (y’all – we had to have her come back again!). and that we had the table for the whole lunch “hour” … we lingered.

Cooking. ok, I honestly have mixed emotions about this one because it seemed like we spent a LOT of time in the kitchen and we had some delicious/healthy(ish) meals.

We made three meals using recipes from Deb’s Smitten Kitchen Keepers and Ina’s Go-to Dinners (same two cookbooks as last year – Smitten Kitchen Keepers is this year’s Cookbook Club book). Then we had leftovers for two more meals. Deb’s sweet potatoes and Ina’s shrimp panzanella were the two new-to-us recipes and we’ll be making both again for sure! Deb makes sweet potato fries with a dip; I cubed the potatoes and served without dip. Y’all – two of our crew said they didn’t like sweet potatoes but they loved this dish. We had the shrimp panzanella for lunch on Saturday and Sunday (the recipe that served 6 served 5 of us for lunch twice). I baked Sourdough Challah for the trip and we used a full loaf plus a few slices for the croutons. yum. You can see from the photo that we deconstructed the salad for serving – arugula, cheese, and everything else – and that worked great for making leftovers.

Shopping. We have two must-visit shops … one for yarn, one for books. We all bought yarn … and I bought a book (Fiction Matters’ Buzzy Book for June). The bookshop owner was delighted to introduce me to Leigh Bardugo … and told me I must read The Ninth House … it’s long! what do y’all think?

I’m adding in grocery shopping here, too. Three of us visited a new-to-us Publix on Friday morning and visited the Spanish Moss Trail that abuts the parking lot. Our friend Charlie is on their board and we’ve all wanted to visit the trail. Lydia actually got to bike 18 miles on it Saturday afternoon (I’m still jealous).

Distractions. porch knitting & games. I had a lot more fun with the former than the latter. Porch knitting is always good, games … can be hard. I played. I can’t say I always had fun.

and here’s the bonus – Tiny Tassels! When we were in Thomasville last April, Karen, Lydia, and I bought yarn to knit Tiny Tassels … I last wrote about my project in July 2023 and that was pretty much the last time I thought about it … until a few weeks ago when we realized we’d be back in Thomasville and really wanted to have our Tassels done. Karen finished hers last August; Lydia & I finished ours on Sunday.

and we got to take a group photo of the finished shawls Monday morning!

I hope we can get a modeled three-of-us shot NEXT weekend … back in Thomasville!

And that’s a wrap on another memorable weekend … traditions with family-who-are-friends is a blessing.