I Love This Harbor!

For over twenty years now, my family has made Hilton Head Island its home away from home for a week every summer. It's a beautiful little island is South Carolina's low country, nestled quaintly under a bed or live oak trees dripping with spanish moss, and huge sea pines lining the white sandy beaches. We stay in the Sea Pines Plantation, just a stones throw from the Island's iconic Harbour Town. This year we returned to a condo that overlooks the 18th fairway on the famous Harbour Links Golf Course, and the Calibogue Sound. To my family and I, Hilton Head is a place of many memories and of much love and laughter as our family has grown and changed. As soon as I set foot on the island, I am completely enveloped in all of those memories and milestones. This year was no exception!

We swam, biked, played, ate, drank, splashed and golfed our way through eight delicious days with all seven of us together. My parents treated us, and it was a luxurious departure from our every day normal lives at home, and we soaked up and enjoyed every. stinking. second. Thank you, Mom and Dad!

The temperatures were in the high 90's everyday, with an average of about 98 percent humidity. The weather channel told us everyday that it really felt more like an average of 118 outside. But this did not slow us down. Marin bopped curly haired and sweaty from place to place with a smile on her face. (well, most of the time)

We spent a day in Savannah, Georgia, which is just about an hour from the island, and we loved taking in this beautiful city's historic charm and character. A trolley tour re-familiarized us with the stunning city and introduced us to the Pirates' House, a restaurant housed in the oldest building in all of Georgia, where we had lunch. We also enjoyed the many picturesque squares, shops, and a candy store with free samples!

The rest of our trip was spent playing in the sand, drinking at the beach bar (Marin liked eating the limes and putting them in her water glass), taking bike rides almost everywhere (where we stay, you almost don't need a car, but for a few outings), splashing at the pool, eating out at delicious sea food restaurants, visiting our favorite bakery, shopping and playing at the Harbour Town playground, completing puzzles on our downtime, spotting alligators, dolphins, manatee, horses and exotic birds, visiting the ice cream shops, and playing boys vs. girls games every night until our eyes would no longer cooperate and stay open. (For the official record, the girls DESTROYED the boys.)

The men golfed a few days- always a favorite part of the trip for Jason, and my dad and I began almost every day with our sacred traditional morning walks- quite possibly my favorite time spent with my dad all year. We went on a sunset dolphin cruise where we spotted a lot of dolphin jumping high out of the water, and were able to tour the swamp land. We had a delicious dinner at sunset overlooking the ocean, and I was able to catch up with my friend Linda who lives a few hours away and made the trip to visit. I got up extra early one morning and watched the sunrise from the beach, and rode my bike through the waves. Marin loved the beach this year- making puddles on the shore to fill with salt water and then jump and splash in, and spent a lot of time digging up sand and then dumping it in her bucket. She loved riding the ocean waves in her raft. We never left her side of course, but when a wave came up over her head, I thought for sure that would be the end of her wave riding adventure. But she just batted her eyes, licked the salt off her lips, and smiled a giant smile while she waited for the next wave to come. We think she might be half mermaid. :) Jason got stung by a jellyfish, but Jake (although he wasn't sure how he inherited the task) was a good caretaker, packing wet sand to make a paste over the sting.

Marin's love of the water did not stop at the beach. She also loved playing at the pool. She loved jumping in off the side, walking up and down the pool steps, and much to our pleads against it, running around the perimeter of the pool. She loves to put her face in and blow bubbles, be tossed high up in the air, and ride on daddy's shoulders while he makes his way to the deep end. Marin was a great traveler on almost all legs of the plane rides- gaining compliments along the way from passengers around us. The last leg, however, she cried for about 45 minutes straight, and made no friends what so ever. She was spent (and her two bottom molars popping through didn't help anything).

We headed back under our favorite nearly 200 year old live oak tree on Harbour Town, to see Gregg Russel perform his show, as he has for children on vacation for the past 34 years. I remember sitting on that stage under that tree as a child myself, and I love watching Marin bop along to the music as well. Although, she wasn't much for sitting in one place, she preferred to walk among the crowd of hundreds of children and adults alike, making friends and dancing along the way. This became a little nerve wracking for Jason and I, but we kept a close eye on her as we followed her whereever she went and were glad that she was having such a great time. Gregg Russel opens ever show with a song called, "I Love This Harbor", which is a great song that no fail, always makes me cry at the very first note. The chorus always seems to strike a particular cord with me when it says, "I love this harbor, and it means to much to me; I've been most every where, but there's no place I'd rather be; than here with you, beneath the stars, and this old tree."

I treasure my family and the time we spend together more than anything in the world. And there's something almost magical about this island- the smell and the sound and the heat- that make me feel incredibly happy and lucky to have this life that I do. Thank you mom and dad- for treating us so grandly to this wonderful vacation spot for so many years. I love this harbor, and we love you!

Harbour Town on Dwellable