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Monday, March 29, 2010

Hilton Head Island

Well spring is here in N. Carolina. The trees are beautiful with white blossoms and allergies are in full swing. With spring comes Spring Break for Jesse. So last minute I searched online for a quick trip and Hilton Head was the place to go (because it's close and inexpensive). So thanks to Hotwire.com we got a 4 star resort for $70 a night. We left Friday morning and arrived in the afternoon to our hotel right on the beach! Yipee! So of course the first thing you do when you arrive is check out your room, the pools, the restaurants, the beach, etc. We stayed at the Hilton Hotel Oceanfront resort by the way (older, but very nice and clean). We went down the road a few miles to the Sea Pines area of Hilton Head. It's full of beautiful Spanish Moss trees that are famous in the south, and people riding their bikes along the many miles of bike trails in HH. We walked along the small shops and the pier in the harbor. We also drove through the forest preserve and saw alligators sitting on the grass by the pond. It was so cool and a little crazy seeing live gators in their natural habitat. We did not get out of our car! But took lots of pics. Then we headed back to the harbor just in time to see the sunset. Beautiful. Nothing can compare with the sunset on the ocean! I will never get over the beauty of that. Then we headed back to our hotel and relaxed in the hot tub. Awww :) On our way back to our hotel we ran into a couple we knew in the University 1st ward in Utah. How crazy is that. They live in Georgia going to grad school. The chances of meeting a couple from UT in Hilton Head on the same weekend in the same hotel is so random. Fun to chat and catch up with them. Saturday we chilled on the beach for an hour, but it was chilly. So we moved to the pool area and sunbathed. Next was lunch poolside at the buoy bar. They serve burgers, sandwiches, etc. It was nice just soaking up the sun eating good food in out bathing suits. Awww the life. Then we put some clothes on and rented bikes from the hotel. If anyone ever goes to HH this is a must. We rode bikes right on the beach and along the bike trails through the neighborhoods. So much fun. The beach there is very wide and the tide is very low in the day. So a good part of the sand is compact and easy to ride on. It was so relaxing and fun. I hadn't ridden a bike for I don't know how many years. You always remember how and it comes right back, thankfully. Then we ate leftovers and chilled in our room for the evening. We were pooped from the sun and riding bikes. Sunday came and it was cloudy. We were planning on riding our bikes and maybe chillin by the pool for a few hours after we checked out, but it started to downpour right as we were checking out. So in the rain we returned our bikes sadly and left the hotel. I wasn't ready for the vacation to end, so we decided to go to Savannah, GA and eat at Paula Deen's restaurant. It's only 30 min away from HH. So we arrived there around noon and found the restaurant called Lady and Sons. They take reservations outside, which I didn't know you had to have a reservation. So the next time they had available was 3:30. That just didn't work for us so we went into her store next to the restaurant and looked around. I was so disappointed not get a chance to eat there that I thought I would try to persuade the host and get a seat. Inside the store leads into the restaurant and I saw a host inside. So I walked up to her and told her our situation and she seated us right then, no wait. It was awesome! Charming restaurant and better yet they had a buffet that day. So we ate a lot of great southern food! It was my first time trying black-eyed peas and collard greens. I'm not over the moon about either, but not bad. Great fried chicken, pulled pork, yams, mashies /gravy, mac and cheese, peach cobbler, gooey cake, etc, Wow it was "deelish" and we left happy with very full stomachs. Then we headed home for the 4 1/2 hour drive. It was a short but wonderful and relaxing trip! I'm ready to go back!