"Knee deep in the water..."

If you have heard the song "Knee Deep in the Water" by the Zac Brown Band and Jimmy Buffet...then you have heard the words, "the ocean is my only medication..." I get this and the medication definitely works on me. We got back from Kiawah Island, South Carolina, last Saturday and it was one of the most amazing and relaxing trips I have ever taken. I left feeling relaxed and rested...the medication worked, but maybe too well because I wanted more. The island is covered in beautiful marshes, the beach is clean and never crowded, we watched amazing fireworks on the beach on the 4th and beautiful coastal homes hide in the trees throughout the island. It was an ideal vacation in so many ways and here is a walk through my typical day in Kiawah...

Welcome to the island...

Grab a bike because you see more of these than you see cars. Everyone travels on bikes!

Enter into our beautiful home for the week...it was spacious, comfortable and relaxing. We cooked almost every night, walked to the beach, enjoyed the pool everyday and watched for Ali the alligator in the beautiful marsh right behind the house. You would think this was a haven for mosquitoes...right? Think again...think cool breezes and not one single mosquito in site!

Spacious kitchen where lots of cooking happened!

Reading room off the side of the house

Every morning, we woke up and walked on the beach to the Sanctuary Hotel where we got delicious hot and iced coffees from Beaches & Cream. This shop was so cute. Bright colors and gourmet treats everywhere and very friendly staff.

After a relaxing, cool walk on the beach, we set up shop to spend the day on the beach. You can rent umbrellas and chairs, but we just brought our own and there was always plenty of space and beautiful white sand. Oh...and did I mention the BEAUTIFUL coastal homes on the beach??!!

One family was VERY excited about the 4th!

One of my favorite homes on the beach

Beach outside the Sanctuary Hotel

Some days, we went to Fresh Fields market to pick up groceries, to browse or to shop. The market is quaint and has everything you need and everything you want :). There was an Seacoast Outfitter store stocked with coastal clothing, a HOME store filled with coastal decor and furniture (I truly wanted one of everything!), coffee shops galore, and a precious pharmacy and soda shop, Vincent's, that even played music to make you feel like you were living in the 1950's. It was wonderful!

You can't visit Kiawah without noticing the many pristine golf courses. We did not play golf, but visited the clubhouses and they were breathtaking! We had happy hour on the Ocean Course. This course is where the 2012 PGA Championships will be played. It is right on the ocean and from what we have heard...extremely difficult. We spoke to one man about it and in a southern draw said, "if I hadn't had a forecaddy, I'd still be playing that course." This helped make our decision to just take in the view of the course at happy hour on the porch, eating oysters, rather than play the course.

We ate lunch at the clubhouse on the Osprey Course and saw an alligator with it's baby! These are everywhere on island and fun to look at, but I stayed far away:)!

One day, we traveled 45 minutes to Folly Beach to surf. Surfers were thrilled because a tropical wave came, so the wait for the waves was longer, but my husband (surfing below) said the locals were very nice and fun to talk to while waiting for the perfect wave.

We sailed with Captain Jack out of Seabrook Island and this was the most peaceful sail I've ever done. So much of the land around these islands is undeveloped, which makes the nature and scenery breathtaking. We saw dolphins, all kinds of birds, beaches that are untouched and undeveloped and marshes full of wildlife.

Before we cooked dinner on our last evening on the island, we went to the Sanctuary Hotel for a drink. This hotel is beautiful, welcoming, and southern in so many wonderful ways. The staff is very kind and the setting is amazing. My mom and I drank mint julep's with champagne and they were delicious!

Me and the fam on the lawn of the Sanctuary

As we were sadly leaving the island, we had some time to kill and decided to head to Wadmalaw Island and go to the original Firefly Distillery. In Texas, we have graciously been introduced to Firefly's Sweet Tea Vodka. It has become a tailgate staple in our hot Texas football weather. When we entered the distillery, we were shocked to see they have many other products...lemonade vodka, sweet tea bourbon, rum, etc. All of them were pretty delicious and it was fun to see another, much more rural, island.

I left out our day in Charleston and will write about that tomorrow. It's a great city and there's too much to write for this post.

I want to move to Kiawah...it's truly a hidden treasure! I hope you enjoyed the journey through the wonderful island and be sure to visit one day!

Have a great week!