WDW in October vs. Hilton Head in March: a tale of two trips NEW! 10/6 p20

[Mndisneygirl]

cont...

Back at the Beach House


Plenty to do!
Most importantly,


the restaurant (Signals I think it's called?) wasn't open yet. They had been closed for an extended time and would reopen this week!


The menu looks good!




Inside this room there are lots of cool displays, tables for games, activities, a t.v. etc.








I spy a Disney Cruise ship!




And that's the Beach House

We had some lunch in the room – frozen stuff we’d bought and leftovers. We spend a few hours at the pool and Sarah participated in one of the kids’ activities – making a Tie-Dye t-shirt. I enjoyed the hot tub! We did get a little sunshine too!




The view from my chair!


Sarah really liked the slide - I think she went on it about 100 times during our stay!


swimming underwater! (that's Sarah)


Paige enjoyed back floating


and together...


We met our favorite CM today – Gaby – and guess where she’s from??? St. Paul MN!! When we read her name tag, I had to ask more specifics. Turns out she is from MY HOMETOWN!!! She actually went to the high school our kids will go to! Her sister also works at HHI –at the registration desk. Pretty cool. She was super nice and we spent a lot of time enjoying activities that she was leading during our stay.

That's it for now!

 

[MEK]

Too funny you met a CM from your home town.

I'm so glad the girls were able to enjoy the pool because it really doesn't look like much of a beach day - at all.

Can you believe I never saw Shadow? (this trip) I wonder if they switch him/her out every 5 years or so? I remember she looked was too young to be 15.

Sounds like a great day!

 

[KatMark]

Shadow is beautiful (and does look young). Despite the not so great looking day weather wise, it looks like you had a good morning/afternoon.

The pool and slide look fun.

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[Poolrat]

The 2 bedroom looks huge.

Sorry it was not a great beach day but you got some sunshine and the girls went swimming so not too bad.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Too funny you met a CM from your home town.

I'm so glad the girls were able to enjoy the pool because it really doesn't look like much of a beach day - at all.

Can you believe I never saw Shadow? (this trip) I wonder if they switch him/her out every 5 years or so? I remember she looked was too young to be 15.

Sounds like a great day!

It was so cool to meet her! She was so friendly (perfect CM) and the kids loved her. They would enjoy the pool no matter what! I guess Shadow decides when and where she wants to appear other than the meet and greet with B'Lou.

Shadow is beautiful (and does look young). Despite the not so great looking day weather wise, it looks like you had a good morning/afternoon.

The pool and slide look fun.

She was a pretty girl! We enjoyed the weather despite it not being super warm - of course we knew that going in since it was only March.

Great pics!

Thanks! Lots more to come!

The 2 bedroom looks huge.

Sorry it was not a great beach day but you got some sunshine and the girls went swimming so not too bad.

It felt huge! I loved it and it's going to be tough to go back to a studio. We didn't expect to get any great beach days given the time of year but we did enjoy some nice weather.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

After our time at the pool, we ventured out and went to play mini golf at Pirates place (the name of which I can't remember - maybe it's in a picture - ah it was - Pirate's Island)






ALMOST a Mickey!

Pirates were hanging about...




Then we went and got some pizza to go from Giuseppe’s. While we waited for the pizza, we walked down the strip mall and into a Life is Good store. Where we met yet ANOTHER Minnesotan!! I overheard these two men talking about hockey, high school hockey in particular and figured out they were talking Minnesota. HS hockey is big here. So of course I jumped into that conversation!! It was so funny!

We went back to the villa and enjoyed our pizza.
We must have walked around a bit out by the marina. Found these pictures:





This one's not too shabby, eh?




Dave took the girls back to the pool for a bit – they couldn’t get enough – and I hung out at the room with a glass of wine, a book and The Big Bang Theory – very relaxing!!

Tomorrow: We're going to Savannah! Green water, anyone?

 

[jenseib]

Fun updates. I think Claire would be looking for Shadow too. I am not an animal fan, so I would be avoiding him.
Kids do love swimming, no matter what the weather, don't they.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

We interrupt your regularly scheduled HHI report for BREAKING NEWS!!!

This morning, we booked a room for spring break at the
GRAND CALIFORNIAN!!!!!

WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!!

We are at the 7 month mark for booking non-home resorts, and DH got up and was online at 7 a.m. We might bump it forward by a day, and we will add more days as our new points show up (plus we need to bank some of those) from our Beach Club contract. But I'm so glad we got it!! Now to stalk airfares and listen to the Disneyland podcast more!

We now return to your regularly scheduled TR programming...

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Oh.my.goodness!!!! NO WAY!!!! How exciting!!!!! I can't wait to hear all the details !!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Fun updates. I think Claire would be looking for Shadow too. I am not an animal fan, so I would be avoiding him.
Kids do love swimming, no matter what the weather, don't they.

Kids and animals, kids and swimming...mine are very typical that way! The pool never seems too cold for them. Although in their defense, the pools were heated to 80 degrees. It's getting out of them that's hard for me!

 

[jenseib]

wooohooooo!!!!!

 

[KatMark]

Fun update, and glad I wasn't too far behind (leaving for Disney next week and have had some issues with my mom and now behind on my own two TR's and everyone else's).

LOVE playing mini-golf...always so much fun.

Congrats on staying at the Grand Californian at Disneyland!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

wooohooooo!!!!!

Thanks Jen!

Fun update, and glad I wasn't too far behind (leaving for Disney next week and have had some issues with my mom and now behind on my own two TR's and everyone else's).

LOVE playing mini-golf...always so much fun.

Congrats on staying at the Grand Californian at Disneyland!

Thanks! I'm going to TRY to get this done before we leave (NEXT FRIDAY!) so I may be doing some crazy fast mega updates this weekend. I hope your mom's doing okay. All these TRs take a lot of time don't they?
Mini-golf is fun. We don't have as many places around here as we used to so we try to find them on vacation. We have one inside the Mall of America that we went to about a week ago.

I'm really glad we got a ressie at GC! Have to add a couple more nights yet, but we haven't got all our new points in place.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Wednesday 3/13

With the shades drawn, our BR was so nice and dark, we were able to sleep in again!
We enjoyed breakfast in the room and coffee with our “fake” filter. Sarah wanted something special, so we sent her ALONE! To the QS place – Tide Me Over. For $5, she got a breakfast plate – with a 10% DVC discount!! That's my girl - get the deals!

We headed off to Savannah and had to go across a BIG bridge. Freaked the girls out a bit (but there were worse ones we didn't go on).


See that tall thing up ahead?


Getting closer - here's where Sarah would start to panic. (not like a real panic attack, don't worry)





We went to the Visitor Center where we got some maps and tips from a sweet southern lady. She had a great accent and when she was struggling to find something she said “Oh fiddle faddle”! It was so cute! We drove downtown and parked in an expensive ramp ($11). I had some ideas of where I wanted to go (thanks Mary Ellen) so we set off walking and hoped my sense of direction was working that day!

Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace – founder of Girl Scouts We went into the gift shop, but didn’t do the tour – we were too cheap! Covered in scaffolding – but it was still neat to see it. Sarah got a patch that said she’d been there (never did get that sewn on her vest!).



Do you just love the makeshift signage on the scaffolding? Blech.


So pretty, eh?

Not the most scenic backdrop, but a rare picture of me and my girls!


Palm tree? Palmetto? Who cares? It made me feel warm!


Pretty flowering tree! It really was spring here!



Sarah was excited to see a horse, but we did not take a ride.




(you were wondering who that was, weren't you? I knew you would be!)

We saw the River Walk area
Shopped at City Market


Savannah Candy Kitchen


That's a big blob of taffy!


Of course, we know that real women do too!


Savannah Bee Co. – Honey!

Nourish - bath products









Having fun, Paige? Oh yeah!


cont. in next post

 

[Mndisneygirl]

cont...

We headed down to the river next

Look, more gas lamps!



I think that one was a new-fangled electric light.



Cripes! Is that the bridge we drove across?



Looks like St. Patrick's day is approaching!!



World War II memorial









You can probably guess that I was really impressed by this memorial. It was very cool!

Check out the name of the tugboat!





Looking down the river walk






More green water!


Dave was impressed with this big sailboat!


The mast is too tall for the picture!


Spanish moss!
Then we made our way up to the main road again.


cont. in next post

 

[Mndisneygirl]

cont...

We thought about eating at Paula Deen’s, and put our name on the list, for about a 45 minute wait, and decided we wanted something quicker. So we went to BD Burgers – which was quite good!


And then went to Sweet Carolina Cupcakes! More treats!






A few more shots on the way back to the car




We managed to find our parking ramp again and drove over to Forsyth Park and took some pictures. On the way, we saw the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist that Mary Ellen had mentioned in her past TR, but it was covered in scaffolding too.

Beautiful homes – the fountain that was in the movie and on the cover of the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.





A nice couple offered to take our family picture




All the waters in the fountains all around the city were tinted green since St. Patrick’s Day was coming up!


Lots of pretty flowers








They take St. Patrick's Day very seriously down here! It's a BIG deal!





And with that, we headed back to HHI - want to see some more bridges? Okay, one more "cont."

 

[Mndisneygirl]

cont...
the view as we left Savannah




We drove back to Hilton Head and the kids NEEDED to go in the pool! We enjoyed swimming for about an hour and then it was time for the family campfire sing along! Our friend Gaby and her friend Matt were running the fun – they were SO much fun!! Gaby did some Minnesota sayings in some of the songs, so we gave her a big cheer for that! Turns out she knew our next door neighbor from high school! It really is a small world (go ahead sing the song!) We made sure to take a picture with her! Got some s’mores too!



Gaby and Matt - the most fun CMs!!



Got some sunset pictures from the pier too.





Made our way back to the room for some leftovers and just spent the evening hanging out! It was nice to have early nights and just be low-key about this trip. It really felt like a “get-away-from-it-all” vacation. The slow pace was a nice change for us compared to the go-go-go at WDW.

What's that song from Les Miz? One day more, one more day...

 

[KatMark]

You and I have both been busy updating this afternoon.

Love the picture of you and your girls, and the one of the whole family.

Between you and MEK, Mark and I are going to have to get to Savannah one of these days.

There you go with those cupcakes again!

Great pictures of Savannah.

Looks like a fun sing-along.

Can't beat a day that ends with swimming and some relaxation time.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

You and I have both been busy updating this afternoon.

Love the picture of you and your girls, and the one of the whole family.

Between you and MEK, Mark and I are going to have to get to Savannah one of these days.

There you go with those cupcakes again!

Great pictures of Savannah.

Looks like a fun sing-along.

Can't beat a day that ends with swimming and some relaxation time.

I've got to get over and see your TR. I've been very lax on keeping up with others!
It was nice to have a family picture - I try to remember to do that at WDW (PP always helps) but forget other places.
Savannah is beautiful.
My DD is obsessed with cupcakes lately. Watching the shows, eating them, baking them...