seafood, thrift store shopping and family time

This past weekend in Bluffton visiting my sister was amazingly short. Time flew by, but not so fast that I didn’t get to detach from the bustle of Atlanta and briefly settle in to a slower pace of life, if only for 48 hours.

There’s just something about being near water that does wonders for the soul. And, of course, an amazing sunshine doesn’t hurt.

We passed so many amazing houses by the sea. I wondered just what it would be like to walk out the front door and be greeted by the ocean each day.

Despite the strong sun, the couple hours we spent at the beach on Saturday were a bit chilly.

Though you couldn’t tell that from some crazy people who were out there in bathing suits! Snow birds?

We went for a long walk to stay warm.

And also threw the football and kicked the soccer ball.

I spotted this house which faintly reminded me of touring Gaudi’s Casa Batllo in Barcelona a few years ago. I guess it was the curves.

Mom asked me to take a close up of the birds. We all know her fondness of them. But unfortunately, I could only get so close before scaring off this bird.

We also came upon several huge stumps along the beach. We weren’t sure exactly how or why they were dotting the shoreline.

Ellen bought a kite, but, of course, we forgot it. So we had to settle for watching someone else, with a way fancier kite than ours. The wind was perfect for kite flying.

My sister has these awesome beach chairs that you can carry on your back. I implied these would be nice for my birthday. We’ll see if they get the hint 🙂

We probably spent 4 hours thrift store shopping. Finally, at our fifth store, we really lucked out. My mom, who is redecorating her basement, found pictures, lamps, decorative plates, a mirror and some sort of bamboo tree.

I was super happy to find these glass containers–all for $4.50.

I love these prints my mom bought.

Ellen loved the bamboo tree, as evidenced here.

Friday night, we ate at Steamer Seafood, and I indulged in some corn fritters, she crab soup, then split the crab stuffed flounder with my mom.

Saturday night, we ventured out to Bluffton Seafood House, which seems to be an upscale hole-in-the-wall kind of place, if that even makes sense. You could tell all the locals knew about it. We were the youngest group by far. Or maybe that’s because we went at 6 p.m.

See that guy singing behind us. I recognized him right off the bat as the same guy who we heard in October when I visited during the Bluffton Seafood Festival, minus the bright purple jacket.

Once again, I got she crab soup, which was delicious.

For my main meal, I ordered flounder, and I almost ate it all before I remembered to take a photo.

Ellen, my dad and my brother’s girlfriend Megan ordered half buckets of oysters for $10 each. It was a steal, if you like oysters, of course, which I don’t.

Ellen broke down her oysters and slurped them down in record time.

Taking the time to show me what she called a ‘big one.’ I couldn’t muster up the courage to try one. I was afraid I might make a scene. Just the thought of eating something that texture makes me gag 🙂

When I got back to Atlanta Sunday, I promptly cleaned my new containers and filled them with coconut flour, dark chocolate chips, palm sugar, turbinado sugar and coffee.

This jar was my favorite.

Besides thrift store shopping, we made a quick trip to World Market. There’s one 10 minutes from me in Atlanta, but I never shop there…and good thing. I saw lots of stuff I wanted, but managed to walk out with only three items: a popsicle mold, a dish drying pad and coffee.

In Atlanta, I decided to go ahead and make a batch of popsicles.