Monday, July 26, 2010

Family Vacation 2010

We spent the last week on Daufuskie Island vacationing with my best friend from high school and her precious family.  My in-laws graciously volunteered their home while they are away cruising up the east coast.

Most people have never heard of this place, much less visited it before, but man, what an adventure!  Daufuskie is a small island just off of Hilton Head that can only be accessed by boat.  Planning for 4 adults and 4 small children was not easy, to say the least.  If you forget something, it's not as easy as hopping in a car and running to Wal-Mart.  Needless to say, we pretty much packed everything but the kitchen sink!

While there . . .

We played on the playground . . . 

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Visited the farm on the island where Bibi and Pop have a goat . . . 

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They loved the turkey, which they named Gigi

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 We visited the ice cream man daily, and he never once remembered us!  I have a hard time believing that he has so many customers that a group of 4 small children wouldn't stick out, but no . . . 

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Even Harley got a treat at the ice cream man!

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We took A LOT of golf cart rides

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We spent a lot of time at the beach . . . 

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We spent most of our time on the Melrose beach.  Peter and I had never been to the Melrose beach before.  In fact, we didn't even know it existed.  But, after getting lost searching for the Bloody Point beach, a security guard took pity on us and let us follow him to the nearest beach, which happened to be Melrose.  This particular beach is part of a now bankrupt community.  It was eerie entering the community.  A once guarded gate, now open to whomever.  The golf course is still kept up and beautiful, but you pass over ponds that are green and incredibly stinky.  The inn, the restaurant, and everything else community related is closed.  There are houses still occupied or rented out.  We would pass a golf cart or two on occasion, but it was rare.  It felt post Apocalyptic.  But the beach was incredible!  It was empty of people (for the most part), but had beach chairs for us to lounge on.  The kids could run forever, and we didn't have to worry.  We loved it.

There are deer everywhere.  We could look out the window of the house and see deer crossing the cart paths, which the kids just loved.  

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We took and afternoon and went to Harbour Town in Hilton Head.  We visited with Kristen's Aunt Gretchen, whom I grew up with too and babysat her kids when I was younger.  What a treat!  The kids LOVED looking at all of the boats.
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 Our last night we ate at Marshide Mama's.  Hank had the biggest pork chop I've ever seen in my life!  We also took the opportunity to actually get dressed for the evening!

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What a great trip!  Thanks to the McCords for sharing it with us!
To see the rest of the album:
2010-07-16

 On a side note, this is our last week of summer vacation.  Maddie starts 1st grade on Monday.  Yikes!  Time flies when you're having fun!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I grew up going to Melrose and am so sad, but not super surprised to hear of its demise. I can only imagine how eerie it was! But I remember that beach well and have many pictures and many memories on that sand. Looks like it was a wonderful trip! And holy cow...first grade for Maddie??? Thinking of you all!