Hilton Head Island with Marianne

 Marianne's husband, Patrick is so kind. He spent two months this spring working out of town and Marianne was home with their three-year-old that whole time. Toward the end of his stint, he texted me and asked if I could arrange a getaway for Marianne and me. Uh.... Yes, please! Andrew was totally on board, because he's awesome and spoils me. :) We decided on a beach trip. I looked for vacation rentals from Savannnah up to the Outer Banks. The one we liked the best was in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Neither of us had been there. It was a fantastic little long weekend getaway.

Road trip!

We went to Burke's Beach (a public beach) our first day there 

because we couldn't check in to our condo until later that afternoon.

The weather was perfect!

We had a great time talking, soaking up the sun,

and boogie boarding.

The waves were pretty small, but still fun.

After we'd had our fill of sun and surf,

we checked into our condo at Fiddler's Cove.

It was perfect for us.

Two bedrooms and two baths.

Cute beachy decor.

My room.

We ate dinner at the yummiest place called

Java Burrito. It was a lot like Chipotle and

their flavors were DELICIOUS.

On Sunday, we visited the Hilton Head ward.

It was my first time going to church without a mask

since March 2020. So liberating!

And it was so fun to see everyone's faces!

This cute little sister missionary spoke in sacrament meeting.

She just returned from the Laie, HI visitors center,

the same place where Katelyn Leinbach is serving right now.

She knows Katelyn and I thought that was a fun connection.

We also got to stay for Relief Society, which I also 

haven't done since the pandemic started.

So great to have a gospel discussion with other women!

Loved it!

We cooked lunch at home after church and 

played some board games.

Then in the early evening we went to Historic Mitchelville,

a really interesting settlement started by freed blacks

after the Civil War.

It is right next to the beach, so we walked on some

trails out to the beach, too.

The trees there were awesome.

Loved all the Spanish moss.

Marianne and I got stuck in the wedding oak in 

San Saba, TX one time. We thought about climbing

this tree again, but figured it might not be a great idea

in our dresses. Ha!

We saw LOTS of horseshoe crabs while we were in Hilton Head.

And also lots of jellyfish.

Several different kinds.

Weird.

We saw some women crabbing in a pond near the beach.

They showed us their catch and let Marianne hold one.

It was a nice and relaxing Sabbath.

When we got home, we decided to walk

out to our private beach so we could scope 

it out for the next day.

It was about a ten minute walk.

And it was carpeted...

Interesting...

Took some beach pics as the sun was setting.

Another beautiful day.

More games.

I've never seen such low scores in Five Crowns.

I scored SEVEN total points... in ELEVEN ROUNDS.

And Marianne lost with a total of 24. Crazy!

On Monday, we woke up and went to Pinckney Island

National Wildlife Refuge.

I had read that it was a 7 mile round trip walk out to

the end of the island. I wasn't sure if we were up for going 

that far. So we just kinda walked around.

The first mile or so is FULL of birds.

All kinds.

So pretty!

And lots of them!

These birds were BIG and just took over the trees.

Also saw several turtles.

Pretty!

There was a small butterfly garden.

It had these amazing flowers.

Aren't they gorgeous?

Marianne said they are passionfruit flowers.

She fell in love with them and planted a vine

at her house. But it totally took over a section of

her backyard. And so have all the caterpillars

and cocoons that come BEFORE the butterflies.

The next five miles are pretty boring.

Luckily I had fun company.

Marianne and I never run out of things to talk about.

We did see a cute little green snake along the way.

After 3-4 miles of walking, you get to the beach!

A very shelly beach.

But they're mostly broken shells.

And there are LOTS of crabs.

Mostly fiddlers.

This was one of the bigger ones we saw.

He was a little smaller than my foot.

So many crabs!

So even though the map said it was 7 miles round trip,

we took a couple detours and it ended up taking us

a little over NINE MILES!

Wowza.

That's a walk!

We saw one really cool bird of prey on our walk back.

We spent that afternoon at the private beach that our condo has access to.

It was another fantastic beach day.

Perfect weather.

Not great waves.

We spent time just floating out on our boogie boards.

But then there was supposedly a shark in the area.

So we came out for a bit.

But once other people were back in the water,

we decided we were ok to go back, too.

We never saw the shark.

But I did kick a horseshoe crab that was 

under the water and hurt my leg.

Not bad, though.

Time kinda got away from us and by the

time we made it back to our condo we had to 

shower SUPER quick to make it to a restaurant on time.

We tried A Lowcountry Backyard Restaurant.

It was so good!

And they had live music when we first got there.

We were the last ones to leave.

I'm so happy they seated us.

On Tuesday morning, we checked out.

We decided to head to Savannah 

(about an hour away)

to check it out before we headed home.

We loved it!

I'd love to spend more time there!

The centerpiece of the city is Forsyth Park.

And this gorgeous fountain is the center of the park.

There are more beautiful trees.

This was a beautiful synagogue,

but it was not doing tours because of COVID.

The architecture there is spectacular.

We toured a couple of churches.

This Anglican Episcopalian one was gorgeous.

Check out that organ!

Oh, how I wish we had more stained glass in our churches.

One of our favorite unexpected stops was a free half hour presentation

called SCADstory. It was a Disney-esque presentation about the

history of the Savannah College of Art and Design.

When it was done, I wanted to go back to school to study art!

So inspiring!

There are random beautiful courtyards

like this throughout the historic district.

We also stopped at the Catholic Basilica.

Also GORGEOUS.

More beautiful stained glass.

And artwork.

There was a high school chorus there rehearsing

for a performance. The acoustics were amazing.

Whitney would've loved to hear that.

Or join in the singing. :)

Even just the view down the streets was picturesque.

And I always love the doors of historic homes.

I would love to spend more time in Savannah!

So grateful for Marianne's lifelong friendship. And happy that she lives nearby. And grateful for our husbands who let us go on adventures together! We told our husbands we should make this a yearly tradition, maybe as our Mother's Day gifts. Andrew was totally on board. Patrick said, "That's a terrible idea." Ha! Hopefully he'll change his mind by next May. :)