Halloween on Hilton Head

[DizptchrAJ]

October Trip to Hilton Head

Who -- me the mommy, T the daddy and L the 2 yo boy unit.
What/Where -- 3 night trip to HHIR
When -- Oct 29th-Nov 1
Why -- T wanted to take L to the beach and well why not
How -- Driving down from upstate NY

This is the trip that almost didnt happen.. We planned it when i was part time at work, then i got promoted to full time and have no vacation. So we shortened the orig trip and planned on a long weekend bc i did have a floating holiday i could use and someone was willing to swap shifts. Then i was scheduled to be on call for the Friday we wanted to leave. Found someone willing to swap. Then the mandatory inservice training got scheduled for Nov 1 and 2nd - time allowed off. Can we drive back to NY in one day Ok Lets drive back the 1st so i can work my shift at 6pm on the 1st and do the Nov 2 training. Last minute they let me use another floating holiday for the 1st. Ok lets do this trip.

We left on Friday after i got out of work at 6am. This was L's first really long road trip so we had a dvd player set up with Mickey Mouse clubhouse, Beauty and the Beast and Shaun the Sheep. (he was amazing the whol trip) We took 81 to Rock Hill, Spent the night and took 77 to 95 over to whatever rd took us to Hlton Head.

Cheese stick story -- We stopped at a Sheetz in Virginia. I got some food for us and while waiting in line saw cheese sticks in the cooler. L likes cheese sticks so i grabbed one that sad chedder cheese. Back on the road i handed L the cheese stick. He Took a bite and next think i know hes trying to hand it back with a disgusted face. I took it back. It didnt look moldy,, the package wasnt bloated,, it should have been fine. But L is a toddler so they can be quirky. So i take a bite. OMG i wanted to die. It was so bad. T asked me what was wrong and i said this cheese tastes like [our local pumpkin farm] smells. It took me a bit to get teh courage to look at the package thinking i ate old expired cheese. In small print above Cheddar Cheese were the words "goat cheese". So ... I do NOT like goat cheese. And now am also a little biased against VA for disguising their goat cheese.

We stayed over night at Rock Hill SC, grabbed dinner at 5 guys.. and had a great hotel room right on the first floor, first one off the lobby

 

[DizptchrAJ]

Saturday

We woke up and since we were so close to the lobby we could grab our free continental breakfast and take it right into the room. We got on the road, saw a really bad accident in the oppisite lane somewhere near Columbia. Like really bad.. at least one fatality bc we saw that. Tried to read about it on the news and it wasnt even covered. Probably bc there are a lot of fatalities on the stretch.
We got onto the island and stopped at Wal Mart first. I was hoping to find a swimming shirt for L bc he outgrew his, and they werent carrying any in NY. Thought maybe we could find one in SC but no luck. So i just got him a regular t shirt.
We did get some beach towels though. Then we made our way to the resort. L was excited to get out of the car and we let him climb the stairs to the lobby. First thing he did was see the mickey at the desk. "Mickey". While T checked in i walked him over to see B'lou and Shadow. He was interested in Shadow for about 2 seconds. Then he saw the checker board. He tried to give shadow a checker, and Shadow was quite disappointed when she realized it wasnt a treat. So B'lou gave him a dog treat to give to Shadow. L ate the dog treat. This disappointed Shadow even more. So B'lou gave me a treat so i could give Shadow a treat. L happy, Shadow happy. All is good.
Our room wasnt quite ready yet so we took a walk through the resort. We got to Broad creek Mercantile. L saw the Shadow stuffies and goes "puppy" and take stwo of them. So of course he walked out of there with a puppy. Then we walked out the pier. it was low tide and we got to see Sting Rays. Then T went to see if our room was ready and i hung out with L at the playground.
We were assigned a room in the main lodge - a studio with a partial marsh view. After getting settled we got our bathing suits and went to the Big Dipper Pool. We stopped first at the QS by the mercantile and got a meal.
after a quick swim we went back to the room and changed. Then went to the community hall to meet Pluto/ L loves PLuto. He even took his very worn Pluto to meet him.
Before calling it a night T and I played a little cornhole, while L watched.

 

[DizptchrAJ]

I forgot to mention that on Saturday night we went to guiseppes for dinner. I was pleased with the meal. My rule is if you claim to be a pizza restaurant, your pizza better by better than typical delivery, ie dominos, pizza hut. Guiseppes passed. Then we walked around Shelter Cove shops and i found a shop that carried Candy Apples. I got 3 apple pie apples which i had one each night of the trip.
Sunday
Today Pluto was doing another meet and greet in the morning. So we had breakfast in the room and took L down to see Pluto. When we got off the elevator Pluto was making his way into the bldg. L ran over and saw him real quick. Then we went inside to get in line. We only had to wait for one family and L was up. He visited quickly and then went and sat at the checkers table. Then Pluto went over and tried to play Checkers with him. We got some great photos of that. We said out goodbyes then decided that we would get our picture taken at the photo kiosk. And Pluto photobombed us.
Our next stop was to go over to the beach house. But i needed to run upstairs to get another gopro battery. When i got in the room on the bed was L's Pluto stuffy his new shadow stuffy, and a brand new mickey vampire stuffy. Along with a card from the resort CMs and a autographed pluto post card of Pluto in front of Shadows dog house. So cool.
We got to the beach house and went to the qs first. I skipped breakfst and i was hoping to get a kids meal in the sand bucket for L. (they were out). Then we swam for a bit in the beach house pool. After hanging out for a little bit I took L right out and waded in the surf. Everytime a wave would come id say "Here's another one" Pretty soon L was saying "nother one nother one" and pointing atthe waves. He loved it. Then he started collecting shells as we walked. Each one he had to pick up and run over to T. Another family let him play with some of their kids sand toys in tidal pool. We went back to the beach house and T and i got Dole whips.
Afterwords we went back and changed and left to go find some dinner. We ended up at the Smoke House. My pulled pork was good, T said his ribs were really dry.
We came back to the resort and played Goofy Bingo. We also played wit the new putting green a little as well before calling it a night.

 

[DizptchrAJ]

Monday
Halloween. we started the day off by going to the beach. I took L back out in the surf but he was less interested today. So we walked along the beach and let him play in the sand and dig holes. Then we decided to go to the light house. This was our least favorite part of the trip. They were doing a trick or treat around the town there and it was crowded.
One shop owner stopped and asked L if he wanted a treat. L wasnt dressed up bc we didnt know this was going on. He reached in and took a little tootsie roll and a milk dud box. The shop owner scoffed and said hi teeth were going to rot out of his head. I was just like "What just happened, did she just offer him candy and then chastise him."
So after that, and the fact that there wasnt much to see, (they were still recovering after Matthew) we decided to just head back and swim at the resort.
Which we did and did the Disney Trivia (we tied for first). Then we decided to just grab dinner at Tide me Over. While we were eating a CM walked by and asked if L got a vampire mickey. I explained that we did and he came back with another one and gave it to T. He said everyone should get a vampire mickey.
We went back out on the pier and saw the sting rays again.
Then it was getting to be almost Trick Or Treat time. So we went and got L into his costume-- he was Pluto. And his stroller was decked out with pumpkin and ghost led lights.

Trick or Treating.
The CMs did a zootopia trck or treat trail. there were 5 stations. One was Central City. you played a match game and won a toy silver police badge. And got a handful of candy
Another was BunnyTown, you had to pick carrots until you found a special one. You wond a animal rubber band and a handful of candy
Then there was sierra town or savvanah town. You made a sand filled animal necklace with colored sand, and got a handful of candy.
On our way to the next station we ran into PLUTO!. So out little pluto got to meet the real Pluto.
Then there was Tundra Town - pin the nose on the snowman. you won snowmen finger puppets, and a handful of candy
Last stop was Rainforest district. You were supposed to play barrel of monkeys game, but L just got a kick out of putting all the monkeys back in the barrel. You won a toy frog and --- you guessed it a handful of candy.

At this point L was a little warm in his pluto costume so we took that off of him and let him play on the playground which is right next to the last trick or treat station. I went back to the room for something and when i came back down a CM stopped me and said they had something for me. They had printed a picture out of L meeting pluto as pluto that they had taken on their phone, and also had a little pluto toy for him.

I met L and T back at the playground. Then we made our way over to the Spooky campfire. While we waited for it to begin we got some ice cream at the mercantile. Then let L play cornhole-- well his version of cornhole. The campfire began but L had reached his limit and it was just to loud for him. So we went back to our room and packed up

we left the next morning and decided to just drive straight throuh to get home late at night.

This has been my favorite Disney trip so far. It was so much fun. The CM's at the resort are the best. They remember your name and really seem like they want you to have the best trip. cant wait to go back but we want to try Vero beach next