A Roman Holiday

Last weekend I went on a ladies retreat. We had a 'Roman Holiday'. We went down to St. John's Island near Charleston for the weekend. We stayed at St. Christopher's which was beautiful with nice 'hotel-like accomodations' and great food. Brandy, Lydia and I drove down together and Brandy and I shared a room. After arriving and settling in, we went to dinner. Following dinner we had a little 'social' to get to know each other.

Brandy and I

There were 50 ladies there! Later we went out to the beach and had a bonfire, sang songs, ate smores, etc.

The beach was really beautiful at night. There was a half moon with a huge halo, the biggest I've ever seen! It was breezy but not too cold. After leaving the beach we went back to the rooms and hung out with some other ladies for a while introducing ourselves, then we went to bed.

The next morning after breakfast we went to our first 'session'. We studied Romans (obviously!) with the emphasis of how dearly God loves us. Deborah was the speaker. I always love her classes/bible studies. She's definately gifted in this area. We took a break for lunch followed by some free time. During this time I and some other ladies went for a walk on the beach. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect! We saw dolphins, pelicans, sandollars, and a LOT of jellyfish!

Suzie, Brandy, Michelle, Paula, and Me

We came back for Session 2. More free time after where we did some crafts and hung out some more. We had a few minutes to spare before dinner so we went back to the beach for a few more pics.

Right before dinner we went back to the room to dress for the 'Murder Mystery' that would follow dinner. It takes place at a spa so we were all dressed in bath robes unless you had a character requiring a specific costume. Some of these were hilarious!

I think this one was my favorite, LOL, love that chest hair!!!

The unscheduled event of the evening was right after the mystery was solved (good timing, huh?) when we were evacuated to a gymnasium because tornadoes had been seen 3 miles away at a neighboring island! Before the party the weather was fine, by the time we were being evacuated it was pouring rain and REALLY windy. I wasn't too worried because they said the building was built to withstand 200 mile winds. I did a little check, realizing I had my camera and my phone with me which was good, but knowing we'd be stuck for a while in the gym, I regretted that my really good book and my palm with games was back in the room, LOL! We passed the time though:

The funny thing was that we were not the only group at St. Christophers. There was a group of teenagers there, too. So in we walk all dressed in bathrobes and jammies or dressed like men with hairy chests! Hahahaha! You should have seen their faces, it was hilarious! We were in the gym for little over an hour (not too bad) while 3 cells passed overhead. Finally, the storm was over and we went back to our rooms to bed.

The next morning was Sunday. We went to breakfast, then met in the chapel for our last meeting. This was a beautiful little chapel with wall-to-wall windows on three of the walls with a view of the ocean!

We had a time where we could publically offer thanks to God and pour water into a bowl sybolizing the 'pouring out' of our love for Him.

After that we had a nice time of praise and worship followed by communion. We served each other.
It was a really nice service and a fitting end to the weekend. After the service we packed up then had lunch. At this point we were free to go, but Brandy, Lydia, and I went on one more walk on the beach. We saw dolphins again. This time it was a mom and baby. Cool.

When we finally left, Brandy and Lydia humored me and allowed a little detour to Folly Beach where we ate an early dinner at Taco Boy's. They have the best guacomole and awesome taquitas! Thanks, ladies!

Our drive home was delayed by over an hour due to traffic. I don't think it was an accident though. It seemed to be road crew cleaning up felled trees from the storm. We had great fun though, singing old tv tunes and stuff.

I always love these retreats. Some people don't go because they're not 'retreat people'. I'll say that sometimes not everything we do is 'my thing' but I always enjoy getting into the word and closer to God as well as getting to know other ladies. We had a great time!