Feels just like home...

Perhaps there is nothing better than a vacation spot that feels just like home.  Indeed, we can navigate the Sea Pines Plantation on Hilton Head Island with out eyes shut- or as the case was this year, by bicycles in the pitch black darkness. 

Along with my parents and my brother and sister-in-law, we headed to our favorite home away from home for a week, two weeks ago.  We rented a house with a pool on a lagoon (with an alligator!).  And although it was nothing different to live with my parents for a week- there is something to be said about all of us living under one crazy roof. 

We swam and rode bikes and hit the beach every day, with the exception of Thursday, when it poured all afternoon long, forcing us into a relaxing, lazy cocoon where we snuggled up and read books.  We had night games in the pool one night- all props to Jason and Katy for their creativity in making up ridiculous games that had us doubled over in laughter.  We played a lot of card games late into the evening, until we couldn't hold our eye lids open anymore from the full days that preceded.

We hit the playground, listened to Gregg Russel sing our favorite songs under our favorite live oak tree, and even took the girls on the Bubble Gum Cruise one morning, where we saw the most dolphin we have ever seen on a trip.  We ate lots of ice cream, hit a few shops, and of course, our favorite bakery, the Harbour Town Bakery.  We even hiked all the way to the top of the lighthouse this year- Marin walked all 114 steps herself, and in fact, beat us to the top.

In Hilton Head, the days are luxuriously long and packed to the brim with family love and togetherness.  Our girls are gaga about Aunt Katy and Uncle Jake and Grandma and Grandpa, and together we packed in another vacation full of memories and laughter, and okay, adult beverages, too.

One evening an older couple looked on as Jason and I watched our girls jumping in the waves and literally rolling in the sand, sufficiently covering themselves head to toe in sand.   They caught our eye and commented that like them, those would be the days that we would miss when our children were grown.  I really took that to heart and enjoyed every last second of that moment where my girls were happily and very carelessly playing together and loving life.  In this very crazy world, and in our very chaotic summer, nothing was better than that moment. 

There's no place like home.  And there's definitely no place like our home away from home.  Goin' to Carolina in my mind...

Inland Harbour on Dwellable