Smelling Some Roses: Vacations are Awesome but There is No Place Like Home!

School ended on June 1st and bright and early June 2nd - and when I say bright and early we were at the airport before the sun was rising - we hopped on a plane to Newark, NJ and then another to Savannah, GA and made the short little car ride to Hilton Head Island to spend a week in South Carolina's little paradise!

We had anticipated a week of 90+ degrees and lots of sunshine per Accu-weather and various other weather reporting sites only to have the weather reporters be way off base! We had mostly low 80s with two days of 70s and lots and lots of unsettled weather because of the tropical storms that had just passed the area the week earlier. It may actually have been warmer and sunnier at home in Ohio than it was in South Carolina when we were gone!

Despite the weather, we did have a fun-tastic time. The first two days were laced with sunshine and beach and pool time.

Norah and Donovan with Uncle Jerry!
Uncle Jerry is like a "rock star" because he makes
a lot of cameo appearances throughout the year and
he makes a point to spend time playing with the kids!

Norah and Donovan sizing up the sand.
The sand on Hilton Head Island is fabulous clean
white beach sand!

Not sure what Norah is making but it looks
like a sand pie to me!

With only one bucket at the time,
Norah insisted on carrying water from the
ocean in this little "spoon".

Donovan asked me to help him out, so this was my
lame attempt at building a castle. I love sand, but
hate it when it gets under my nails or between my skin and
my bathing suit.

Donovan and my brother "Uncle" Jerry have a special bond.
They're like kindred spirits!

I cannot take credit for these "castles"
I believe the civil engineer, Uncle Jerry
was instrumental in erecting these castles!

I must say though, my favorite beach day was on Friday afternoon - the day before we left for home. We were at the tail end of "high tide". The tide was coming in at a fast pace and the waves were rough but so much fun to jump in. I felt like a kid again jumping waves. Norah, Jon and I went to the beach leaving Donovan behind with Grandma and Poppa because he didn't really like the sand and whined that he didn't want to go to the beach - his loss, as I'm sure our fun jumping waves beat watching Pocoyo! I hate to admit this though, I was glad to have the time to play in the "surf" with Norah and Jon without having to worry about him or listen to him whine about not wanting to walk on the sand. We ended up spending 2 hours on the beach. The first 1 1/2 hours it was just Jon, Norah and I. Then Uncle Jerry joined in after his round of golf. I really didn't want to leave the beach because I knew it was going to be at least another year before we'd see the ocean again.

Fortunately, we rented bikes so the days when the weather wasn't ideal for the beach we road through the Sea Pines Plantation bike trails looking for gators!

One day we saw three gators, two sitting side by side on the side of the lagoon and one about two houses down chillin' out on his/her own. They were large gators. Apparently the week before we arrived on HHI, a woman was assaulted by a gator. Several weeks earlier they did an autopsy on a gator and found golf balls, dog collars and many other miscellaneous contents in the belly of the gator. So they are "critters" to take seriously!

One day we miss calculated the weather (it happened to pour down rain half way through our excursion) and road our bikes to the "stables" so Norah could get her "horse fix". We came across this horse and he was absolutely the most friendliest horse I have ever encountered. Norah is a "horse whisperer" this horse saw Norah and started walking up to her. I attempted to pet the horse first and he snubbed me. He finally let me pet him after Norah got the first pet! I wish I could give Norah a horse of her own. Or a horse we could share - but given the cost of maintaining a horse alone, it's not in the budget!

My kids love to dance. So any place that had a "live person performing" the kids would go out and "boogie".

Norah and Donovan dancing and making friends at
the Salty Dog Cafe!

Donovan and Mommy dancing!
Hopefully he'll still think I'm cool to dance with when he's a teenager!

Harbor Town is this quaint little "yacht" club with little shops and restaurants.

The Harbor Town Light House

The yachts!

Uncle Jerry and Donovan hanging out at Harbor Town

Norah and Donovan swinging on the swing under the old tree.

Donovan, Norah and Mommy at Harbor Town

Norah and Donovan reading a book with the statue!
Notice, he let Donovan sit on his lap while he ate and read!

Being Goofy!
Uncle Jerry, Norah, Mommy and Donovan

Norah having a Marilyn Moment
On top of the lighthouse.
Jon and Norah trekked up 114 stairs to get to the top!

Super cool branches on an old tree in Harbor Town

Donovan told Uncle Jerry that if he won $100 million in the lottery that he'd buy this boat.
The next day we went out on a boat excursion to see dolphins, shark fishing and crabbing, needless to say Donovan now prefers land over being on a boat!

Harbor Town during sunset

It is also home to the infamous Harbor Town Golf Course. A course I have yet to play and probably will never play as its insanely expensive and I suck at golf! Although, I'd probably get my money's worth just in the shear number of strokes I'd have to take to complete 18 holes. I should have played this course when I was younger, single and had disposable money and my game was somewhat decent!

18th Green at Harbor Town Golf Course

It is also home to the infamous Greg Russell kids show. A show he performs every night but Saturdays. Kids love him. I've seen him enough times that if I missed him one year it wouldn't necessarily ruin my vacation. But the kids love him so that's really all that matters - right?!

Greg Russell entertaining the kids at Harbor Town

We decided to take a fishing excursion through the Calibogue Sound - the excursion was for us to get to see dolphins, go shark fishing and crabbing. We were all excited to do this but Donovan. Donovan woke up on the wrong side of the bed Friday morning and just was not liking the idea of being on a boat. I actually think he may have had a little sea-sickness feeling going on. He did mention his belly felt weird. I completely understand because when I was his age, I went on a "speed" boat to watch my brother Jerry and sister Kathleen waterski and my stomach didn't like the speed - I had that feeling like you were going down a roller coaster hill. We did see a few dolphin (maybe just one come to think of it), one person on the boat (the boy next to Norah) caught the only fish which so happened to be a baby shark. The crabbing "cage" caught a hermit crab and a very tiny has no reasonable value (the guides words not mine) "spider" crab. Lets just say, I probably should have stayed home with Donovan and just sent Norah and Daddy on the boat. Next boat excursion will be just Jon and I on a catamaran drinking red wine and listening to Jack Johnson.

Me and the kid waiting for the boat to take off!

Donovan getting ready to cast off and attempt to catch a crab or shrimp or some other crustacean living in the Sound!

Norah showing off her casting skills. She might have a career in "shrimping, crabbing, etc."
Ok, lets not get too carried away, she didn't catch squat so maybe she'll just have to stick to acting!

Donovan not enjoying the boat ride, Norah took over for me in trying to comfort him.
She really is an awesome big sister and he is so lucky to have her as his sister!

A random bird/wildlife among the marsh

The dolphin

The kids pulling in the crab cage.

All we caught was a hermit crab and ...

this itty bitty spider crab.

Grandma K would be so proud! Norah fishing for a shark!

All in all we had a wonderful vacation. I can complain about the weather not being perfect, but why bother as we made the most of our time. Jon and I got to play quite a few hands of "cards". We ate junk food like it was going out of style, Donovan was happy that he could actually watch "Pocoyo", Norah had a pool at her disposal! The kids got to snuggle together at night (sometimes they actually snuggled with ants in their bed to my disgust and dismay). My parents were able to be with us on vacation as was my brother Jerry!

I got a chance to jump some fabulous waves on Friday with Jon, Norah, and Jerry. And we all landed home safely on Saturday evening with a bit of sunburn! Now that just screams successful vacation!