Vacation Post #4: Harbour Town, South Beach and Savannah

Okay, we are finally at the end of our vacation pictures. I promise this is the last post! First off, we were staying about a 5 minute walk from a really neat part of Sea Pines called Harbour Town. Harbour Town has the iconic lighthouse that you see on a lot of the Hilton Head merchandise. It is red and white striped and really neat. The area is full of restaurants and shops, a huge playground, nightly concerts and a beautiful harbor (imagine that?!) with huge boats.

A free trolley ran from the place we were staying, to the beach and then to Harbour Town. We decided to take Boone for a ride one evening after dinner and he loved it. It looks like the trolley was going 80 mph from this picture! :)

Riding by one of the golf courses we biked by each day on our way to the beach!

Beautiful lagoons and palmetto trees were all over!

A South Carolina State flag outside a shop in Harbour Town.

The lighthouse.

The pier.

Boone with Nana and Papa.

Hanging out in a few of the hundreds of red rocking chairs that were all over 

Harbour Town after an ice cream break.

There was also an AWESOME playground built around a huge tree. Boone had a blast!

Such a neat play area.

Checking out the boats with Dad.

One of our last afternoons in Hilton Head we decided to check out South Beach Marina. It is home to one of the two Salty Dog Cafes on the island. Since we had heard the food was nothing to write home about, we didn't eat lunch there, but we walked around the docks, checked out the stores and grabbed some refreshment before biking back to our condo.

Boats at the dock.

Parrots in the greenery area between the shops. Apparently, they aren't very nice because there was a big sign warning people not to touch them.

Chalkboards in the area near the shops for doodling.

On Friday, we decided to take a quick trip over to see Savannah. We figured since it was only 45 minutes away, we needed to check it out for a bit. We thought the best way to see as much of the city as we could in a short period of time (we had a toddler with us, remember?) was to do the touristy thing and take a trolley ride. It was great because it was nice and cool in the open air trolley and of course it was steamy and humid in Savannah, so walking around all day would have been pretty miserable. Here's some shots from the trolley ride.

The Boone Man.

Reaching the end of our rope. Love Boone's expression!

But we had a fun time in Savannah!

What a blessing this vacation was! We had so much fun, saw such a beautiful part of the country and had lots of time to relax and enjoy the ocean!

Thanks for bearing with me through all the pictures!

Vacation Part 3: Sand Castles, Petting Zoo, Coligny Beach and Stoney-Baynard Ruins!

Have I mentioned how much I loved Hilton Head? It is a wonderful place! The beach time never got old any of the days we were there! Every morning when we got to the beach, my dad and Jeff would start to dig a big sand castle pit for Boone to play in.

The white balance is a little off on this one, but here they are working 

away on Boone's fortress.

We spent most of our beach time at Sea Pines Beach Club, but one evening after dinner, we decided to ride drown to Coligny Beach. It had an awesome deck with swings and a little splash park. 

Dad and Mom at Coligny Beach

The neat boardwalk area. It seemed like a nice place to sit in the evenings. Lots of 

couples and families hanging out.

There was a stables area inside of Sea Pines where you could go and ride horses, but there was also a free petting zoo. We decided to go check it out one afternoon and it was so great!

Boone found this rooster early on and followed him around a lot.

Buddies.

Checking out the goats.

Cute signs warned the kiddos not to jump inside the animal areas.

These beautiful hydrangeas were right at the entrance of the stables. I wish I could have cut some off for a bouquet, but I didn't! Those things would cost a fortune at the store and they were beautiful!

After busy days at the beach and running around the island, Boone loved book time with Nana and Papa. It was so nice to be with them for a whole week.

As we would ride around Sea Pines, we kept seeing a sign for a ruins area in Sea Pines. My interest got the best of me and my parents and I decided to bike over there and check it out one afternoon. The ruins were the remaining pieces of the plantation from the island. 

This is what is remaining of the plantation house after a fire.

If you look closely, you can see the oyster shells they used to create the walls of the plantation house. How neat is that? So interesting to see that they used the resources around them, no matter how different, to build the home. It is so neat that you can still see the oyster shells in the walls that remain.

It was sort of an eerie feeling to be back in the ruins. It was such a contrast to the other areas of the island with beautiful homes and pristine golf courses, but I think that it is neat that they have this area to see some of the history of the island. The plantation was on somewhat of a hill in what is a very flat island, so during the Civil War, it was taken over by the Union and they set up camp there for a time. 

One last picture... My parents watched Boone one night and let Jeff and I get away for a dinner out. We went to a restaurant on the island called A Lowcountry Backyard Restaurant. It was a really cute place! It did look like house and we sat in a backyard. We ate fried green tomatoes, pimento cheese and I ordered shrimp and grits! It was delicious and so fun to have a date night. Thanks Dad and Mom for watching Boone!

One more post still to come full of pictures!

Thanks for reading!

Vacation Part 2: Beach Time and Seafood

Monday morning we were up early (we always are... we have a toddler!), so we headed towards the beach on our bikes. One of the amazing things about Hilton Head is that you can bike ANYWHERE on the island because there are bike paths that connects all the locations on the island.

The first day we were on beach was Memorial Day, so it was a bit busy, but we didn't care! We were on the beach for the first time in 3 years for Jeff and I, and the first time ever for Boone. It was wonderful!

Sea Pines Beach Club, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

Boone went right for the sand! He loved playing and building (and throwing it!)

Running to the water for the first time!

Amazed by the waves.

About halfway through the morning, a lagoon would form where there would be a pool of shallow water, then a sand bar and then the waves. The lagoon was a fun place for Boone to play because it was shallow and there were lots of other little ones playing there too.

Monday evening, we decided to go to the beach and get some pictures of the whole family. My brother only stayed for part of the week, so it was a good chance to get some pictures before he headed out.

Checking out the beach with Nana.

Boone with Crazy Uncle John

We had to pull Boone back so that he didn't run into the water with his clothes on. Plus, we were going to dinner after we took pictures, so we needed to keep him dry.

Robertson, Part of 3! Love these boys and getting to spend a whole week of vacation with them!

Jeff thought this was the best picture of the whole time we were taking pictures! Haha!

After we got done with pictures, we biked out of Sea Pines and went to a seafood restaurant that Jeff had found on UrbanSpoon called The Sea Shack. It was highly recommended and many people said it was in the top 3 best seafood restaurants on the island.

When we pulled up on our bikes we saw this long line out front. I guess that is how you know it's a good restaurant! The actual restaurant was pretty small, so they only let in parties according to how much space there was for seating. 

When we got inside, we ordered food and drinks at the counter and then sat down to wait for the food to be brought to us. I ordered a half pound of shrimp, potatoes, grits and sweet tea! Now that's what I call southern food! It was all so good! And I had a slice of key lime/blueberry pie for dinner! The best key lime pie I have ever had! So delicious! We loved this restaurant so much, we went back (for takeout) later in the week! 

I thought I'd be able to do 3 vacation posts, but I have way too many pictures! So there are still two more posts coming! Sorry for the vacation picture overload, but I want to make sure that we get all these memories documented!