South Carolina

There comes a point during vacation that you start dreading the drive back home. I am at that point now, and don’t want to spend 8 plus hours in the car to travel back to KY, I would be fine leaving all my belongings there and just staying put. I’m sitting in the hotel room right now while Abbyroo takes her nap thinking about maybe starting to pack up some of my stuff… I told Jason that I would love to live about 3-4 hours from the coast, far enough to stay out of the bad weather if it were to come, however close enough to make a day trip

and get my ocean fix. I would love to live in Ashville NC; I worked near there the summer after high school and feel in love with that area.

We set off for our first beach trip with Abby this past week for Isle of Palms, SC. I actually googled “closest beach to Lexington, KY” and Charleston SC area came up. Jason and I had been here before, and loved it, so what better place to go…

We had an absolutely wonderful time traveling down here. I had prepared myself for the “worst” car ride ever however Abby was a wonderful traveler, she took two naps in the car on the way down and stopping for meals allowed us to get out and stretch our legs. We watched so many episodes of Mickey Mouse Club House, I kept telling Abby, in 4 more episodes we will be there, 3 more episodes, etc etc…

I absolutely love being at the beach, Abby woke up on schedule at 6:30, so with the sun rising every morning between 6:50 – 7:05 we got to watch the sun rise every morning. It is so beautiful – I took some pictures of this, however my camera can’t capture the beauty of this. The pictures I took, doesn’t do it justice – sooooo beautiful!

We are so thankful we brought her jogging stroller with us. 1st off it folds up a lot smaller than her travel system stroller, and it goes so well on the sand. We were able to take a lot of walks while we were here. It went everywhere with us, and I would say we walked several miles a day and used it. There were times though that Abby wanted to walk so we would push an empty stroller while she walked along side.

Jason and I aren’t ones to get in the ocean, both of us love the beach, but we are beach walkers and poolside people. We will walk where the water goes up to our ankles, but we don’t get wet. Abbyroo is the same way, she is a beach walker! We put her down on the beach and she just walked with such “persistence” towards the pier, like she was on a mission to accomplish something. I am not sure why she felt the need just to walk while we were there. The problem we faced was that she only wanted to walk one direction. She wouldn’t walk back the other direction, which who could blame her I didn’t like walking towards the sun either.

It amazes me how much sand gets on babies, and how it sticks! It is like mission impossible trying to keep it off their little hands and face. Trying to get them not to rub their eyes! The sand was very challenging; because of course we had to build our sand castles while we were there, Abbyroo loved the sand, and was a natural at building her castles, or should I say knocking them over. A friend told me to bring baby powder with us, because it helps with getting the sand off – and it was a life saver!!! Not sure what we would have done without the baby powder, I guess we would have taken 3-5 baths a day.

We spent a lot of time in Charleston, we were able to go on 2 carriage rides, a boat ride, to the aquarium, shopping at the open market, and do some sightseeing. Jason got to get his taste for sea food while we were here and of course I always stayed away from the fish. While we were at the aquarium Abby got to pet a penguin! They were cleaning the tank when we got there, so they brought the penguin out in the pedestrian area and she got to pet it! They said this was very rare that they would do this, but we picked the right time to go! We were able to see the penguins swimming around later in the day. I’m sure Abbyroo thought they were just funny looking dogs. She calls everything Dogs and pups.

Going to the beach with a one year old is hard work! I loved spending every moment of this week with her, feeding her 3 meals a day, being the first thing she sees when she wakes up and when she goes to sleep. We spent 2-3 hours in the hotel every afternoon for Abby to get her nap, and rest. We dirtied a lot clothes, lost a shoe, and decided that ketchup packets were the best new toy ever. She made this trip so special and rememberable, and I’m thankful I get to take the best parts of South Carolina home with me, Jason and Abby. I look forward to our next beach trip in September 2011, unless we decide on another cruise in February or March, and then we could see this big ole ocean much sooner!

I’m off work next week too, I figured I would need some time to rest from this vacation, and I was right, so next week will be a peaceful week at home, with no plans at all, but resting.