Hilton Head 2024

Our happy place -- Hilton Head! We arrived on Sweet Pea and Little Man's birthday (what a great way to celebrate!) and spent a wonderful week there. We ate at all our favorite restaurants, spent lazy mornings on the sand, took Amber for countless walks, rode our bikes all over the place, went mini-golfing (twice!), and had a blast.

The only downside was that Amber got sick. We don't know what caused it, but she had some serious gastro-intestinal issues going on, to the point that MJ took her to a vet on the island. Poor baby. She never lost her appetite or stopped wanting to go for walks, but we could tell she wasn't feeling great. After an injection and a few days of twice-daily "oral paste," she was back to her old self, thank goodness! 

Little Man never went in the water (he reminded us of his numerous jellyfish stings in the past), but he enjoyed all our other beach activities: sand castles, flying a kite, Tidal Ball, and playing catch with velcro paddles. MJ was happy to join him. 

The girls mostly focused on boogie boarding and sand creations. CC was determined to build a "real" sand castle like the pros do, and watched a lot of YouTube videos before we left. She decided it was way harder than advertised! Still, drippy castles are always fun. 

Little Man, Sweet Pea and I made a cool starfish that might be my favorite of our sand creatures. Sweet Pea also made a sand dolphin that turned out really nicely!

One day it was extremely windy, and the sand was whipping all over. It was surreal watching the sand shift so quickly right as we watched -- like a time-lapse video of a major storm. CC laughed when she didn't even have to hold her boogie board up; it stayed plastered to her body from the wind!

Our critter count was impressive for the week: a huge pod of dolphins, a hammerhead shark, countless hermit crabs, five alligators, a stingray, and zero jellyfish (hallelujah!).

Towards the end of the week, MJ and I took the kids to Savannah, where he and I first met. It was just a quick day trip, but it was fun, and we visited our old haunts: River Street, Wet Willie's, and -- the place where it all started -- Pinkie Masters. 

The kids were less than impressed with Pinkie's, but they loved the slushies from Wet Willie's, and River Street Sweets was definitely their favorite. We ended the day by picking out some cool shells from a new shell store, and headed back to Hilton Head. We absolutely need to plan an entire weekend in Savannah sometime soon!

Our last few days at the beach were equally wonderful. The heat and intense sun eased a bit with some storm systems, but fortunately it never rained on us. We ended our trip with dinner at my favorite restaurant, right on the beach, and it was the perfect wrap-up to our week.