The Carey Adventures: August 2023 The "Drop Off" and The Lake House

Thursday, August 31, 2023

August 2023 The "Drop Off" and The Lake House

When we made our summer home visits from China we always landed in Charleston, South Carolina where my sister lived. We had he best summers of our lives and made so many memories in our favorite town. We find it not all that coincidental that two of our three children have found their college of choice in Charleston. We love having every excuse to visit there often.

When booking the family reunion trip, we did it so far in advance that we did not have the dates narrowed down for Garrett’s school drop off. So Garrett unfortunately did not make the Lake House trip and Jordan was able to make it for one night. Also missing in the family crew mix was Alex and Stefanie.

Alex (Greg and Cindy’s oldest son) married Stefanie in April of 2023 and they were on a trip of a life time, Alaskan cruise with Stefanie’s family.

We were able to spend a couple of days in Charleston before the big “drop off” for Garrett at The Citadel. The is not your typical drop off by any means and Garrett’s stress level was palpable. His family rallied around him however and we knew he was ready to start his next chapter. It was very helpful to have Jordan at the same school for support and relieving to pull out of Charleston and head to the Lake house a couple of hours away on Lake Murray.

Arriving early which is not surprising with Chris leading the pack… Garrett was able to secure the bottom bunk, but there was a short term panic when we couldn’t locate his uniform white socks. Lesson number one already learned … Garrett packed his bag and he figured it out. A very VERY quick good bye with a lot of upper class man yelling. We were certain he was going to learn the ropes early on and grow exponentially.