As usual, Judy was the first one awake on our first full day at Hilton Head. She just can't shake that body alarm clock, and I don't think she really wants to anyway. While I snoozed some more, she read some of the materials we got at check-in which covered the resort's activities, and also some booklets on the island's restaurants. Given that, it seems like a perfect time to post pictures of our check-in materials, although I have no idea what happened to the restaurant booklets, so this'll have to do.
Resort map
Island map
Activities
Resort map with directions to the Beach House (which I should have read – cue foreboding music)
Preferred Dining List
Tide Me Over and Signals' menus
I eventually got up and got showered. I finished putting my clothes into the drawers. I don't like to live out of the suitcase (or in my case, a big LL Bean duffel bag) if I'm there for a week. But I made a note that it didn't seem like there was a lot of drawer space. We'd have to use our luggage to store clothes if there were more than just the two of us there.
Then Judy sent me on an errand to get breakfast from Tide Me Over, which is right beside the Mercantile (near the pool). She looked at the menu while we were there the night before and thought that we could split the Bounty Platter. I was like, "uh, okay". I doubted that it would be as much food as she seemed to think it would be, but I didn't really want to pay for two of them either. I figured it would be enough to at least get us to the grocery store.
I put my order in and posted this picture of the pier on Instagram while I waited.
Judy laughed when she saw the "Bounty" Platter, since it wasn't going to go all that far between the two of us. But kind of like Jack Sprat and his wife, we split this up, but along gluten/gluten-free lines.
Breakfast done, it was time to move on to the morning's chores, which was basically getting groceries. But first, on our way out we stopped at the Concierge Desk to ask for help printing out a W-4 form that Judy had forgotten to update at work before leaving. We learned from the concierge that Disney has completely clamped down the internet to their cast members. She told us that the only external websites they can go to are to print boarding passes. Her only advice to us was to go to the public library, which would be open the next day. Okay, so now we have chores for tomorrow too.
We went to the Fresh Market for groceries. It's always a challenge to figure out what to cook in a suite for a week, so I'll try and give you a run-down of what we bought at the grocery store. We got: milk, eggs, bacon, sourdough bread, cereal, cheese, pineapple spears, grapes, baby carrots, tomatoes, asparagus, broccoli, cashews, meatballs, oreos, chicken, a jerk-chicken spice blend, and some bleach (to run through the whirlpool tub to give a little sanitizing). We got a few other things that I'm having trouble deciphering from the receipt, so maybe one of these mystery items will turn up in a picture later in the report.
While we were in the Produce section I saw some Naked brand juice, and that's kind of a running joke in our family. Not one to miss an opportunity I said, "Should we get Naked?".
I got a chuckle from Judy but some wide eyes from an older lady who I now learned was
also within earshot.
Dang, she had good hearing for an older lady.
We drove back, unloaded the groceries, and got ready for the beach; swimsuited and sunscreened-up. Judy bought some nice beach chairs for us at Costco before the trip, which were pretty slick in that they had insulated pockets for drinks and such, and they had straps so that you could wear them as a backpack and have your hands free for other gear. So we strapped them on and walked over to Broad Creek Rentals (also at the pool area, like almost everything else except the Front Desk and Concierge) to rent bikes for the week. The cast member tried to describe to us how to get to the Beach House and after a minute of trying to remember the turns and landmarks he was describing, I realized that he was just to the point of the bridge leaving the resort. Yeah, he probably could've started there. After that, I remember him mentioning that there was a place where we had to walk the bikes down a steep path, and there was some spot that looked like we shouldn't be permitted, but we should just go right on through. Hmm, that didn't sound good.
We started off and Judy asked, "Did you follow that? Do you know how to get there?"
I said, "Well, kinda."
We were still within the resort when my bicycle seat sank all the way down to the frame and started turning side to side as I pedaled. I tried to adjust it, but couldn't get it tightened enough with just my fingers. The lowered height wasn't too bad though, and I wasn't planning on going back now so it'd have to do for this trip at least. We found the path where the cast member described that we'd have to walk the bikes and were soon pedaling down Queens Folly Road. I had difficulty looking back to see if Judy was keeping up because I had that beach chair on my back like a backpack. She'd say, "I'm here!" to let me know that I hadn't lost her.
We kept looking for the Beach House along the left side of the road, but couldn't find it. Where I thought that it should be, the Palmetto Dunes Tennis Center was in its place. Hmmm. We went back and forth a couple of times and ventured down some of the roads there. After a while of this fruitless searching I had Judy stay-put while I backtracked a little more. Then I saw the Disney shuttle bus drive by and I raced to follow it. I saw it go halfway around a traffic circle and then past a guard shack. So
that must be the place where it'll look like we shouldn't be permitted but we should just go right on through! I went back and got Judy and we rode up to the guard shack. I asked the guard if this was the way to the Disney Beach House and she said sternly, "Yes, but you've got to get on the bike path over there!", pointing to the path that was offset from the road a few feet. Okay ma'am, but it's kind of hard to ask you a question from way over there. Anyway, further down the road we finally found the Beach House. We pulled in, sweaty from our efforts, and with my fingers covered in bicycle grease, which I'd also managed to get on my swim-shirt.
Later, in my trip notes I wrote: "Had trouble finding Beach House, didn't go far enough. Should've gone past guard shack. Bikes suck. Need better brakes, handlebars are terrible ergonomically. My seat kept slipping all the way down, couldn't tighten it. Got grease all over my hands and some on my shirt."
Not a good start so far. But it'll be okay, take a deep breath.
We went up to the Beach House before heading out to the beach so that I could wash up in the bathroom and also to fill our mugs at Signals. Then we walked out to the beach. We planned on renting an umbrella, but really hoped for a cabana like they had at Vero Beach. But Hilton Head is different than Vero. At Vero, the rentals are run by Disney, but here it's more of a public beach and the lifeguards handle the rental services. Basically, the only option available to rent is an umbrella with two chairs. Well, we had to have shade, so we took it. I briefly thought about making a trip to Wal-Mart and buying an umbrella, maybe not for today but for the rest of the week, but I let that idea go as convenience won out. It cost $32 for the first day plus $20 for each consecutive day, and you pay up-front. We paid through Friday, so it came to $132 plus tip. Yeah, that'd buy a pretty nice umbrella, but it'd be one more thing to lug to the beach. On a bike. Oh, and it never occurred to me to bring my credit card to the beach. All I had was my Key-to-the-World room key and my
DVC membership card so that I could get a discount on the bike rental. Fortunately for us though, Judy had the forethought to bring her credit card along with her or else we would've been out of luck.
I finally settled into my rented beach chair, with my feet up on the pull-out ottoman, the umbrella shading me, and my Costco beach chair (which I'd carted a mile+), like me,
also resting against my now-rented beach chair. I took a moment to relax. The beach was gorgeous. It was low tide, and warm pools of water formed in the shallow areas for kids to play in. The sand was packed down, at least as far as the tide came in; farther inland, up near the grass, it was loose. But because of the hard-packed sand, we saw several people riding bikes on the beach. Okay, yeah, I didn't feel like doing
that right now! But back to the beach description. There were really no seashells to speak of, just mostly sand. The waves were gentle and calm. And when we went into the water, it was nice and warm and oh so relaxing. The memory of the difficulty we had in finding the Beach House melted away. We spent the afternoon transitioning between cooling off in the water, reading, and...dozing in our chairs.
Up next: When the bubbles stop
Link to next chapter
Glad you're enjoying it.
Okay, I can go ahead now and get everybody linked...got it.
Just like the overall resort, it is so relaxing! 
TMI!!! 
