Melders Meet HHI, Part I

We are on vacation!!  Doug had the fantastic idea of getting away to the beach together this summer, just as our little family of 5.  When looking for an affordable place to rent, some dear friends of ours in Pittsburgh graciously lent us their beautiful vacation home on Hilton Head Island, so HHI became our destination.  Neither Doug nor I have ever visited this tranquil vacation spot, so it's fun to explore it all together for the first time.  If you've never been to Hilton Head, you can enjoy learning a little bit about all it has to offer with us via the blog. After going to the beach the first time though we started doubting some of other plans to see much else on the island as we are ocean lovers and that's about all we need to enjoy our time away!  

Sunday
Even though I'm always saying that I don't like to leave for vacation on Sundays, we did it yet again.  Doug preached this past weekend so that left me with a house full of energetic boys and all of the packing to wrap up (can you sense a little ode to myself here?).  Well, I pulled it off while staying mostly sane although was exhausted by the time Doug got home from preaching around 1pm on Sunday.  He then had to eat lunch and load the car and then we were on the road by 2pm!  Hilton Head Island, South Carolina here we come!!  We had an uneventful, easy ride to our halfway point in Wytheville, Virginia where we stayed a night in a hotel (at this point this was K & T's favorite part of the trip...they think hotels are awesome.  I agree, no housework, no cooking, what more could you want?).  

Monday
The boys slept great after the busy days leading up to the trip and the little bit of a late night getting settled at the hotel, so that was a relief.  They woke around 7am and we wasted no time getting them through the breakfast buffet (again, they thought that was amazing.  Tavin basically ate 4 meals in one).  We were back on the road by 8:15am.  Our last leg seemed to drag on a bit with bathroom stops, gas stops an odd lunch stop (Doug was convinced we had to find a BBQ joint instead of something easy like Chick-fil-A) and then we made a grocery stop once we got on the island, so we didn't get to the home at HHI until 3:30pm.  The boys did great again though and we were obviously all so happy to pile out of the car (into the crazy, muggy heat) and get situated.  Once we figured out the sleeping situation and put stuff in the fridge and freezer we knew we had to get these boys to the beach ASAP!  We jumped on the bikes and headed there to put our toes in the water before returning to the house to throw dinner on the grill.  It was our plan to just have them get their legs wet, but as if that was going to work.  They tried hard to keep their clothes dry and then we just let them totally give up and roll in the waves.  They LOVED it!  Koen said, "this was worth the long trip, Daddy."  Ah, I agree, Koen, I agree!  I was so upset I left my camera at the house in our rush out the door because the boys were just in a state of pure joy and Penn was being adorable trying to jump in the warm waves just like his older brothers.  But don't you worry, there are days of probably what will look like the same exact beach pictures to come!  I did get a "selfie" though later that evening when the boys were all in bed and I enjoyed a quiet walk on the beach by myself.  The ocean is food for my soul.  I get that from my mom.  Be still my beating heart, for I am in the presence of God when I hear those crashing waves!

Tuesday
Now it feels like vacation.  We are in a beach home surrounded by trees with a lagoon in the back, the birds are chirping.  Doug and I were up before the boys to have some quiet time and we finally settled in to the relaxed state of being on vacation.  The boys again slept great and we were excited to get us all to the beach right after breakfast.  They were thrilled to get right to it.  Hilton Head is a conglomeration of lovely plantations with villages and shopping centers running in and around these plantation areas.  Everything is bike-able with bike trails everywhere.  You really don't need your car much once you are here (the boys are happy about this aspect).  To get to the beach it's a 3 minute bike ride or 5 minute walk from the home we are staying in.  There are bike racks to store the bikes before climbing over the dune to the wide, sandy beach.  On Tuesday morning the tide was still coming in and the water was a tad refreshing, but completely inviting (the night before it was a tad on the bathwater warm side).  Koen and Tavin were already in the water when I got Penn over the dune walkway.  I came up to him and he said, "this is the life for me, Mommy!"  Again, I completely agree, buddy!  Here are some beach photos I got that morning.

We happily stayed on the beach until our tummies started grumbling for lunch.  Doug and I had decided that since the house was so close it made a lot more sense to save the time in packing up a picnic and just eat meals at home in between visits to the beach.  We had been at the beach for 2 and 1/2 hours and the boys were tired out and needed a break from the sun anyways, so it worked out great.  We bathed the boys so as not to get sand or salt all over the house and then all enjoyed a tasty lunch that we were really hungry for after playing in the waves all morning.  Then it was naptime.  We were all thankful for some downtime after such an active morning in the elements.  Koen and I snuck out before the little guys were up to check out the community pool and had a nice little one on one time.  When we got back to the house it was time to pack up for our next adventure.  We were planning on checking out "Harbourfest," a Hilton Head tradition and a must-attend for families vacationing here, but unfortunately there were thunderclouds quickly approaching so we had to make a new plan on the fly.  Since we had already planned to go out to dinner, we decided to go somewhere on the Island that would be a super long distance to bike that we would probably take the car anyways.  So, we loaded up and headed to "South Beach" to check out the famous, original Salty Dog Cafe.  Well, I guess we weren't the first folks to have this grand idea because it was packed and the wait for Salty Dog was 2 hours!!  They also have a few other restaurants there, but the shortest wait was 30 minutes and that option didn't really excite us.  So we decided that we would head to Harbour Town, just a few miles away where there is an iconic lighthouse to visit and more shops and restaurants.  We put our names in at the "Crazy Crab" restaurant and then headed over to the lighthouse to check it out.  Thankfully it was open until 9pm, so we were able to climb the 114 steps to the top.  Doug went back to the restaurant to wait for the table and I got the 3 boys to the top of the lighthouse.  It was actually not that big of a deal.  Even Penn did every stair himself at only 2 years old!!  At the top is a tourist trap of a gift shop, but the clerk was nice and let us hang out in there.  (Oh yeah, did I mention that a full-on thunderstorm erupted when we arrived in Harbour Town?  Yep, that's right.  I've got my 3 boys at the top of a lighthouse in the middle of a storm.  Pretty exciting vacation adventure!).  It was a little bit of a bummer that we couldn't go out on the platform to see the views, but we tried our best to spot things from behind the gift shop items and displays.  It would've been nerve-racking to have the boys out there anyways, I would've been nervous they would fall over the edge or something terrible like that.  Since we had time to kill, I took some pictures of my little troopers who at this point are somewhat wet, warm at the top of the non-air-conditioned lighthouse and definitely super, duper hungry.  

Koen found some hats that inspired he and Tavin to do some hilarious poses.  Here are my pirates saying, "Aarghhh."  

Koen's impression above was adorable, but I'm not exactly sure what Tav was thinking.

Here's Captain Koen steering his ship through a storm.

And then Captain Tavin must have hit a rock or run aground or something...look at that face!

We finally got a text from Doug that our table was ready and so we fled down those 114 steps, ran back through the rain to the restaurant a few hundred yards away and enjoyed ourselves a quintessential East Coast seafood meal.  Yum!  Afterwards we headed home for me to get Penn to bed and with the weather clearing, Doug embarked on his evening adventure he had planned with the boys.  Part of Harbourfest is fireworks every Tuesday night.  Our boys are huge fireworks fans, so Doug thought it was a good enough reason to have a special late night out with his big boys on vacation.  Unfortunately, even though the storm had cleared off, the fireworks were cancelled.  The boys were pretty flexible and agreeable about yet another change in plans (it helped that they had biked there, so it was already super fun to be biking at night with lights on their handlebars).  And Doug took them to ice cream since they were already out and about.  What else should you do on vacation after dinner anyways?  They were pleased to say the least.

Well, the day looked a little different than we thought it would, but it was still chock full of fun!  Who knows what tomorrow will bring?