Hilton Head Highlights

After our somewhat eventful arrival in Hilton Head on Saturday (getting locked out, broken a/c) things quieted down a bit. We spent a large part of our vacation relaxing either poolside or at the beach. The beach was about a 10 minute walk/5 minute bike ride away, so we rented bikes (which seems to be the thing to do in Hilton Head) and rode to the beach every day. Rebecca rode in a cart attached to the back of Joel's bike, and we piled up our beach supplies in the cart next to her so that we could travel with all our necessities.

Besides the beach and pool we did a dolphin watching cruise, visited the coastal discovery museum (though our timing was bad and there was nothing interesting going on), saw the Shannon Tanner show/fireworks display (both kids hated the fireworks and we had to make a hasty exit), spent an evening at an arcade, and visited the original Salty Dog Cafe. Joel took Ben to the golf course one afternoon, where he got to drive the golf cart much to his delight -- he'll probably say driving the golf cart was his favorite part of the vacation ;)

The wildlife in Hilton Head was really quite amazing -- the island is covered in huge trees and there are lagoons everywhere, so there are tons of birds and reptiles and yes, alligators. There was a lagoon behind our house, and it was teeming with turtles and birds. The resident alligator did make a couple of appearances, though the one time I saw him up close I didn't have a camera handy. At the beach we saw dolphins, flying fish, jellyfish, crabs, starfish, and birds-- I saw a couple of big fat brown pelicans, in addition to osprey, herons, ibis, and all kinds of other birds. It was nice to be able to show the kids all kinds of interesting wildlife, and the kids enjoyed getting to see so many different creatures.

Ben ate awesomely (no other word to describe it) and the kids both slept late almost every day, usually getting up around 8:30 or so. All in all, it was a great vacation!!!