On to Hilton Head
We’d reached our day to check out of the Boardwalk, and travel to Hilton Head. Monday, June 29, 2015. (Yes, I know that that was over 3 years ago; quit reminding me! I will get this trip report done!) We were up, packed, mugs refilled and headed out a little after 9:30. As I walked through the lobby I said goodbye to Andy at the front desk. He said, “It seems like only yesterday that you were checking in -- see you next time! You know where to find me!” We got on the road and hit a Starbucks after we got onto I-95. There was a diner in Bluffton, SC that I wanted to try just based on the name alone: the “Squat n Gobble”, but it would have been 3 o'clock by the time we got there, which was way too late for lunch. I was so tempted by that name but instead we stopped for lunch at a Chick Fil-A on the same exit as the hotel we stayed at on the way down, a week prior. It was crazy-busy. Eventually we neared Hilton Head Island and the highway became very congested with beach traffic, which was not a welcomed sight after the long drive. “So close, but yet so far”, ya know? Pressing on, we got to the resort a little after 3:30. So now we know that it’s a 6 hour drive from DisneyWorld to Hilton Head, with a couple of stops and traffic.
We checked-in and unpacked the van. Our suite was on the 2nd floor in building 12, room 1226.
The building was to the left of Live Oak Lodge (the building where you check-in), just before the boardwalk that leads to the rest of the resort.
Stairway where our room was located
Looking toward Live Oak Lodge
This 1-bedroom suite seemed a little bigger than the one that Judy and I stayed in the year before, which was on the 3rd floor of the Live Oak Lodge. Our view of the marsh was blocked by trees but we were a little closer to the pool and Mercantile than the suite we stayed in before.
View of the boardwalk
The Marsh
One good thing was that we had a sleeper chair for James, so we didn’t need a cot or air mattress. I couldn't remember if our last suite had the sleeper chair, but looking back at pictures it looks like it did, we just didn’t need it since it was only Judy and I on that trip.
Sleeper chair
Judy and I wanted to show the kids the beach before it got too late, so we drove to the Beach House. We must have arrived right at 5 because they closed the bar just as we walked in. It probably looked like one of those scenes out of a Western, where the bad guys ride into town and all of the shopowners quickly close up their stores and mothers scoop up their children from the street and run inside. Anyway, with no place to refill our mugs, I took them back down to the car. We went into the ocean for a little while and the surf seemed choppier than last year when it was so calm. James wouldn't go in past his ankles. I think he was worried about sharks with the several attacks that had occurred along the Atlantic coast that year.
The girls ventured out a little further.
Beach hair -- don’t care.
I went with James up to the Beach House pool and we swam for a while and then played ping pong. The girls came up a little while later and reported that their towels got completely covered by blowing sand, so yeah, the weather was a little rough. We drove back to the suite and had frozen pizza and the last couple of leftover Via Napoli slices.
After eating, Judy and I went to Publix and got a few groceries, including some fried chicken to eat on the beach for tomorrow’s lunch. (If you remember my last Hilton Head report, I’d learned from our kayak-tour guide that the Publix fried chicken was particularly good.) I also went to a Walgreens to get an SD card for my camera. I found a 32mb card on sale for $18, normally $42, but needed a Walgreens card. I got in line intending to ask the cashier if she could help me card-wise but the couple ahead of me had one and when I asked them if I could use it to get the discount for my purchase, they happily let me. Thank you, random Walgreens shoppers!
When we got back, the kids weren’t in the suite, which was good because I was afraid they'd be watching tv rather than enjoying the resort. We grabbed our mugs and found them at the pool. Judy sat with Lauren in the chairs, I swam with James and went down the slide a couple of times, and Marlene texted with her friends. James and I walked out onto the pier for a while, then came back and played cornhole until the shuffleboard court freed-up. The pool closed while we were playing, at 10 o'clock. We played shuffleboard until we lost one of the discs. We don't know if it ricocheted off into the pine straw or what. We searched for it for probably 10 to 15 minutes using my cell phone flashlight but never found it. That’s the way a lot of summertime games end, isn’t it? You play until the darkness claims a ball, frisbee, or shuffleboard disc...or, more likely, until someone clonks their head on an unseen tree limb. Anyway, the lost disc told us that the game was over, so we walked back to the suite and went to bed.
Up next:
Our first full day on Hilton Head
<doppler-effect car sound> Jordan, great to see you my friend! Sounds like you're alive and well. We're good! I'll bet your cousin's kids are getting big...are you folks still vacationing together?
if this is your first post, or even if it isn't!
