The Gentry World: Summer Vacation 2011

We FINALLY headed to the beach on August 24th, and to say that we were a little hesitant, might be the understatement of the year! Why you ask??? A little thing like a hurricane might cause one to get a tad weary! Good ol' Hurricane Irene was up and at 'em and poised to hit EXACTLY where we were going the day after our arrival........awesome! We were following ALL of the forecasts/radars/weather-related apps, etc. and NONE of them looked good. We actually called the morning we were scheduled to leave and tried to cancel but we were slapped with a big, fat DENIAL!! Since there was no hurricane watch (which would've enabled us to reschedule) or warnings (which would've granted us a full refund) we were out of luck. All I could think about was us being stuck in our rental, everything closed, and NOTHING to do!! Sounds like fun to me!! But, oh well, our entire house was already packed up at that point. Why not drive straight into a hurricane?!?!?!?

Let me back up a bit. ALL spring/summer, we talked about going on a family vacation and were discussing several options. We settled on Charleston, SC after hearing so many great things about the area. I found a rental house in Wild Dunes (which is actually on the Isle of Palms) and was excited about all the amenities it had to offer: neighborhood pool, private beach access, restaurants galore, family activities, boardwalk, live music......need I go on!! So, YES, we were excited to go!!

I am SO glad we made the decision to go ahead and take the plunge because it turned out to be FANTASTIC!! Sure we had a day and a half of overcast/windy weather, but it was NOTHING like you saw on TV. Irene went just north of us and made landfall in North Carolina.......SHEW!!

Our first day on the beach was beautiful!! Grace loved rolling around in the water, building sand castles, and searching for "she-shelfs!" Anna loved sitting on the water's edge and maybe eating a handful (or two) of sand! As we were packing up our stuff to head back to the house, I noticed something (which looked BIG, black, and somewhat shark-like) jump RIGHT ON SHORE where we were playing in the water!!! I stared for another second and saw it roll itself backwards almost as if it got in water that was too shallow and couldn't get itself back! Those of you who know my love for the ocean (ONLY at a distance) know that I had to immediately run back to the house and change my pants!!! OMG!!! WHAT was that thing?!?!?!? You see, I LOVE the ocean. LOVE the smell. LOVE hearing the waves crash on shore. BUT I DO NOT like to get in it!! It takes everything I have to get as far as I do with the girls! HELLO, JAWS!! I'd like to keep BOTH of my arms, BOTH of my legs, AND BOTH of my kids!!! BLEH!!!!

Anywho later that afternoon, Grace and I checked out the pool while Anna napped. It was just down the street from our house and we were able to walk to it. There Grace made a hand full of new friends (no surprises there!) and I apparently made REALLY good friends with the rays and came back with a TAD of a sunburn (again, no surprises there)!
Matt and I decided to go out for dinner that night and unknowingly picked a restaurant that was a bit fancier that what we would normally go to let alone a place where we would take kids. Something about the word "Grill" on a restaurant sign makes me think laid back, child friendly, food options for kids. WRONG! Oh well! It turned out ok......or at least that glass of wine I had at dinner made me think it was ok! WAHAHA!
Friday was the day we saw the effects from Irene. It was overcast, windy, and raining off and on but we decided to make the best of it anyway. We drove around during the morning to check out some of the island we hadn't yet seen. Grace and I scoped out more of the resort while Anna slept. Then we did a little site seeing in the afternoon. We checked out the USS Yorktown and got in FREE.......SCORE!! Something about that made me like it that much more! It was pretty darn amazing to see that ship!! The pictures don't do it justice. We also toured a submarine which was a bit tricky as we were passing Anna back and forth as we climbed through each "hole" to get to the next area of the vessel.
Saturday morning was still windy but SUNNY!!! We took a carriage ride through downtown Charleston and it was awesome looking at the historical part of the city. I really have no idea what the tour guide was saying since I was wrangling a monkey and trying to catch everything she threw out of my purse so we wouldn't have to stop AGAIN because we dropped something! HAHA! But it was still fun nonetheless. Grace and I went to the beach again while Anna napped but this time it didn't turn out so great. The wind was whipping the sand up against our legs and felt like bugs constantly biting so you can only imagine how long that lasted. We did get to see more "dolphins" flipping around and acting crazy before we left and I managed to get some video of it. Back to the pool we went until we started getting attacked by swarms of biting flies (had something to do with the hurricane)........WEIRD!!
We found a great, kid-friendly restaurant for dinner that night, took a walk down the boardwalk, and said our goodbyes to the beach.
We started out having SERIOUS reservations about going to the beach. But it turned out to be a GREAT vacation!! We didn't have near enough time to do all the exploring we wanted to do and see all that we wanted to see. I guess that just means that we'll have to stay for two weeks next time!!!