Harbor Island - Day Four

On Tuesday everyone but Aunt Sandy headed down to Savannah for the day, which was only about an hour and twenty minutes away. We went to Paula Dean's restaurant, Lady and Sons, first to see if we could get a reservation. We had 3:15 and 8:00 to choose from, so we went for the earlier and then headed to river street. We enjoyed all of the shops, but it was incredibly hot with a heat index of 108. We decided to hop on a trolley tour which was also HOT but fun and informative. We learned a lot about Savannah and got to see some neat things like Forrest Gump's bench and several buildings from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. After the tour, we headed back to Paula's and were seated right away. I think it's impossible to say how good it was because we were all so hot that we weren't very hungry and didn't fully enjoy the meal. I will say that the Bleu Cheese dressing, croutons, fried chicken and gooey cake were all highlights. After the meal the kids all got to pick a prize from Aunt Sandy at a little shop across the way and Seth chose a giant whoopee cushion that he thought was hilarious.We had planned on staying in Savannah longer, but by then we were done and ready to cool off so we headed back to the beach for more swimming, fishing, games and fun.

Harbor Island - Day Three

We mostly hung out at the beach and took it easy this day. The guys went fishing on the Hunting Island pier twice and caught lots of smallish sharks. Mingo even caught a Hammerhead! Mark had the camera most of the day, so I really didn't get tons of pictures. Mom and Aunt Sandy made great tacos and we just had a nice relaxing day. That night we hung out and played spades. We went to bed pretty early, because we knew we were about to have a long day.

Harbor Island - Day Two

When we got up and rolling, I took Seth and Molly down to the beach. It was low tide and the sand was very soft right in front of us - almost like quick sand in parts - so I decided to walk down a ways to where the ground looked more solid. In retrospect, maybe not such a great idea. It was farther than it looked. Seth carried his chair, Molly carried a bucket and a shovel and I carried two beach chairs, a beach bag, a cooler, an umbrella and various sand toys. A bit later, Mark joined us. I was surprised that Seth hopped right in, because he is usually afraid of the ocean. He and Molly also had fun totally covering my legs in sand. We went in for lunch and came back out as the tide was rolling in. We saw more dolphins and some actually breached the water which was one of the most amazing thing I have ever seen. We also saw a few suspicious fins and stayed in the shallow water. Seth was loving fishing - he caught lots of fish, sharks and stingrays on the trip and loves saltwater fishing just as much as lake fishing. It was Dana and Domingo's night to cook and they made lasagna, salad and banana pudding which was delicious. After dinner, Seth, Mark, Molly, Dan and I hit the pool. The water was pretty warm, but it was nice to see our toes. When we got back, Seth crashed on the couch. We played Trivial Pursuit and a SNL game and then turned in.

Harbor Island - Day One

Saturday morning, Mom and Aunt Sandy dropped Leon off with Pup-Pup and followed us to Harbor Island. We checked in around 3 o'clock and settled in. Dana, Domingo and Sophia arrived shortly there after and Dan, Erika, Molly and Chase came a few hours later. We were all amazed at how close the ocean was. In fact, if it were any closer, we'd have been on a boat. It was high tide when we got there and the tide came very close to the bottom deck. When you looked out the window all you could see was water. The house was just at the point where the ocean began to curve around to form the sound, which was great because the water was amazingly calm and the kids didn't get thrashed about by the waves. While we were admiring the view, we noticed dolphins swimming just off the shore. We saw dolphins swimming everyday and it was amazing how close they came in. We actually saw tons of wildlife on the trip including dolphins, fish, turtles, sharks, stingrays, crabs, pelicans, seagulls, osprey, hawks and many other birds, ghost crabs, hermit crabs, deer, foxes, alligators and more. The island was a wildlife haven! Once we were settled in, we headed to dinner. The island is fairly isolated and we drove about 10 miles to where the nearest restaurants were. We ate at a place called the Steamer where I bit into an oyster with a pearl inside! Once we got back, we put the kids to bed and played Pass the Pigs and Encore. Our vacation was off to a great start!

Happy 7th Anniversary Marky Mark!