Sea Island and Savannah

Before I write about our trip to Sea Island, I want to take a moment and let everyone in Denver know that we are all thinking about you. What a horrible tragedy that I wish you did not have to experience. It is so hard to understand why some things happen in this world. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Denver, especially those who were in the theatre at the time of the shooting and their friends and family.


On to a happier note...

Welcome to Sea Island! My sister lives in South Carolina, so we decided to meet her and vacation for the 4th of July in the quaint, southern beach town of Sea Island. We flew to Houston and then had a short, 2 hour flight to Savannah. We rented a car in Savannah and drove an hour and half to Sea Island. We first stopped in St. Simon's to eat dinner and meet up with my sister. People were out and about, excited to celebrate the 4th of July tomorrow! After dinner, we had a quick jaunt to Sea Island. We couldn't see much because it was dark, but our cottage was easy to find. We were welcomed with a Sea Island cooler bag, water bottles and a few treats. The cottage was spacious, cute and reminded me of grandma's house. It would have been featured in Southern Living about 30-40 years ago. The pictures that surrounded the house were cute...you could tell the grandchildren visit often and have many memories at the cottage.

Happy 4th of July! Sea Island knows how to celebrate! We woke up the morning of the 4th and headed down the beautiful main street of Sea Island where you will find beautiful cottages, huge mansions and many, many families riding their red, white and blue decorated bikes to catch the fun 4th of July parade! Before the parade began, we visited the beach club and grabbed a delicious latte in the diner. Everyone was there to watch the parade. Decorated cars, golf carts, people in costume paraded down main street throwing candy to the kids with American music playing in the background. Once the parade was finished...a group of Sea Island moms flooded the streets and did a choreographed dance to "Dixie." It was amazing!

Most of the action on the 4th of July took place at the Beach Club in Sea Island. There were tons of activities for kids, music, food, snow cones, etc! The beach chairs were filled and the pools were packed! We hung out and relaxed at the beach for most of the day and made our way over to The Cloister (the main hotel on the island) to get some pictures.

The hotel was gorgeous! It was fun to walk around and read about the history of the place. Politicians, celebrities and socialites from all over the world have stayed at the Cloister. Winston Churchill's daughter was married on the grounds and it was the host of the G8 Summt in 2004. After touring the hotel, we headed back to the cottage to freshen up for the 4th of July BBQ. The BBQ took place at the Beach Club. We had a table overlooking the water and this BBQ was like nothing I had ever seen. They had beef, shrimp and grits, a salad table, a hotdog and burger table, a seafood table...anything and everything you could imagine. The dessert table had ice cream sundae's with toppings galore, cobblers, chocolate chip cookies, etc. It was quite a treat. We enjoyed a great band during our dinner and watched kids run around and play in the sand with huge smiles on their faces. After stuffing ourselves, we headed down to the sand to grab a front row seat for the firework show. It was a beautiful evening!

Welcome to The Lodge on Sea Island. We ventured a few miles to head to the Lodge for dinner one night. I'm so glad we did. The Lodge has 3 golf courses, a pro shop and a few restaurants. It was a beautiful building, surrounded by gorgeous golf courses overlooking the ocean. We had some snacks and drinks on the porch and took in the beautiful view and setting of the Lodge. Then, we headed into dinner at the Oak Room and had a delicious meal. Once we finished with dinner we walked the grounds once more and took some pictures.

Our sweet little girl enjoyed the trip as well! :)

After our pleasant, relaxing stay in Sea Island we headed back to Savannah to spend one day. We stayed at the Olde Harbour Inn, walked along River Street and took a trolley tour around the city. It's a very historic city. During the Civil War, General Sherman burned the city of Atlanta and everything else in his path on his "March to the Sea." When General Sherman entered Savannah, it is said that he was so blown away by it's beauty that he could not burn it. Therefore, some of the old mansions and buildings in Savannah are the oldest in the South. They are beautiful and the trees that surround the paths and squares of Savannah are breathtaking. Many movies have been filmed in Savannah, including Forest Gump. Below, you can see the bench where Forest Gump sat at the bus stop in the movie. The trolley ride was informative and we were able to see a lot, but it's not recommended to women that are pregnant. It was HOT!

Forest Gump's bus stop

My dad got a recommendation for dinner in Savannah from a bartender at the Beach Club in Sea Island. Let me tell you, she knows what she is talking about! Our last night of the trip, we went to 700 Drayton for dinner. It is the restaurant inside the Mansion on Forsyth Park. The decor was so incredibly unique and there were chandeliers in every room. Our waitress was from Russia and was very interesting to talk to and extremely attentive. Most of all, the food was delicious!

Overall, it was a lovely trip. I definitely recommend Sea Island, especially if you have a family. Kids can rome the streets freely by foot or on bikes, the activities are endless and the hospitality is southern hospitality at it's best. As much as I enjoyed this vacation, I can't say I had the same love affair with Sea Island as I did with Kiawah. Kiawah still holds a very special place in my heart and maybe...just maybe...I'm getting one step closer to finding my perfect little beach town.

Happy weekend!!

Best Little Beach Towns...

Have you checked out Southern Living's best beach towns? If not, click here.

I'm all about finding my perfect little beach town and once I do, I just might move there. I have been wanting to go to Tybee Island ever since watched a House Hunters show in Tybee on HGTV. They looked at some of the cutest houses! If you have been, I'd love to hear about your trip. We were only about 30 minutes from there when we flew into Savannah to head to Sea Island, but there was just no time for Tybee this trip.

 

We have been to Folly Beach, SC and it most definitely is the surfer hangout. B loved it...of course. It's amazing how you can go from Charleston...a food and wine city...preppy and southern...yet also artsy and cultured, to a surfer town like Folly and then on to the quaint, family-friendly, golf/beach town of Kiawah. Maybe that's why I love this area so much...you can get a little taste of everything!

 

As for the other Southern Living perfect little beach towns, I look forward to researching them more and visiting them one day. I will find my perfect little beach town one day... :)

Friday I hope to post about our 4th of July trip to Sea Island/Savannah!

Slow movin'...

I was talking to my mom this morning (our daily morning chats about nothing) and I told her my morning walk with Penny Lane took much longer than normal. The fact is I'm slow moving these days...I'm not sure if it is the hot and muggy weather or the fact that I'm 32 weeks pregnant...or both...but I'm slow doing everything. Even my blogging ability has slowed to a stop. I can't believe June has come and gone and July is about to do the same. Just plain craziness...

We have been on a couple fantastic trips since I last chatted with you. Today I will blog about our trip to Turks & Caicos. My sweet in-laws invited us on this trip and we were thrilled! A week on the ocean...yes please! We had heard many great things about Turks & Caicos from friends that had been, so we were excited to experience the island ourselves.

We arrived on a Saturday and the trip was painless. We flew from Austin to Atlanta and from Atlanta to Providenciales (aka "Provo"). We left Austin early in the morning and arrived in Turks & Caicos by 1 pm. For those of you on the East Coast...this would be such an easy trip for you! Once we landed, we headed straight to Villa Mirabelle, the house my in-laws had rented for the week. There are a few different areas of Providenciales and we stayed on Sapodilla Bay. On the way to Villa Mirabelle, things were quiet. It's the off season for the island and it was peaceful. Once we entered the Sapodilla Bay area, was saw beautiful homes everywhere with quick peeks of the magnificent turquoise water between each home. 

Villa Mirabelle was beautiful! When you entered the front door, there was a perfect view of the pool, loungers and a walkway that headed straight to the Caribbean blue water of Sapodilla Bay. We never needed to leave the house. We had a gourmet kitchen, pool, cabana, chairs, umbrellas, gazebo and the ocean right at our fingertips. It was quite a treat!

Sapodilla Bay

Aren't the flowers gorgeous??!

We cooked dinner one night and tried places around the island on other nights. My favorite restaurant was right down the street from Villa Mirabelle...Las Brisas. The food was delicious and our table was in a gazebo on a hill that overlooked the Chalk Sound. We enjoyed a lovely dinner, sipped cocktails (virgin for me!) and peered out over the beautiful, quiet sound.

One morning, the boys went bone fishing, while the girls got pampered. This was B's first time to go bone fishing and he had his new saltwater fly rod in tow. It exceeded his expectations. They had a great guide and caught many beautiful bone fish! While they were gone, my father-in-law had a couple people from a local spa come to the house and pamper the ladies. It was amazing! The ladies were so kind and it was fun talking to them about why they came to Turks & Caicos, how they like it, etc. My nieces and I got manicures and pedicures and my mother-in-law and soon-to-be sister-in-law got massages. All were lovely!!

 

I tried to walk every morning. I enjoyed this time and it was fun to look at all the beautiful, unique housing in the area, walk on the the many gorgeous stretches of beaches and see the beautiful cliffside views overlooking the Chalk Sound. 

My favorite house in the neighborhood!

My favorite part of the trip was sailing with Sail Provo. The captains were great, the views were spectacular, the snorkeling was good and the food and drinks were delicious! We stopped at Little Water Cay (aka "Iguana Island") and saw many iguanas. It's the only place in the world where you can see the endangered rock iguana in its natural habitat.Then, we sailed some more and stopped in the middle of the ocean to snorkel. The water felt great! I mostly floated around on a noodle, but did snorkel some and saw some beautiful coral and bright colored fish. Once we were all aboard, we headed to a beautiful beach where families were playing in the sand, fishing in the waves and enjoying the beginning of a beautiful sunset. As we headed back we sailed directly into the sunset for what had to be the most peaceful and serene moment of the vacation.

It was an incredibly relaxing trip with constant views of iridescent blue water like you have never seen before. The locals are kind and the beaches are beautiful. Renting a house was a great way to really enjoy the scenery and relax. To my in-laws...thank you for a great trip! We appreciate you including us on such a fun adventure and an amazing beach vacation!

Sorry for my sluggishness with blogging. I hope to bring you more posts in July. The next one will be about our 4th of July trip to Sea Island!

xoxo,
your slow-moving friend :)