Following along. We've gone to HHI the last 4 summers and couldn't go this summer because I had a work conference for two weeks in June. We are going in October though and your report is making me want the days to go a little faster!!
I love bike riding at hilton head. We rent the bikes for the week and bike to the beach. We biked to stacks for breakfast one morning.
We biked over to San Miguels, only issue became when there was a big storm. We had to wait for the rain to stop before we could bike back on our wet bikes.
Sorry if I missed it, how many nights did you stay, 7?
I'm trying to decide if we should do 5 or 7 nights for April vacation.
You convinced me, booked 7 nights for April vacation! Super excited!
Great trip report, loved all the pics! Thanks for sharing your adventures with us!AUGUST 13&14, 2016: MERMAID MONEY & THE WRAP-UP
…And it wasn't t Dole Whip, though I found one of those later, too! Yum!!
View attachment 195895
While DH and I were eating our breakfast, I started thinking about where to find sand dollars. In other trip reports I had about people finding them and I kind of forgot about them until this morning. I vaguely remembered something about standing in the water and digging in with your toes…hmmmm…It got us thinking about the beach and we decided to ride down there after. So we got there and parked our bikes and walked to the water to kind of look and see if we saw anything. I didn't hold out much hope but this was our last day and our last chance to even try.
Nothing obvious was on the shore line and we were like, "oh, too bad we didn't wear our bathing suits…" But then we kind of looked at each other and said, "what the heck!" So DH and I headed right into the water fully dressed…I actually had on shorts and a tank top which was probably about as skimpy as my bathing suit usually is anyway, and DH just took his shirt off and went in in his shorts. We probably looked pretty tacky but we didn't really care, and the beach wasn't that crowded at this point anyway since it was pretty early.
So in we went into the ocean and it felt WONDERFUL! Especially after being all gross and sweaty from our bike ride. We were standing about waist to chest deep in the water just relaxing and loving the gentle waves. While we were standing there, I started trying to feel around the sand with my toes, and wouldn't you now, after just a couple minutes I felt something. I kept my toes on it and told DH to go down and see what it was!
Jackpot!
View attachment 195893
View attachment 195894
We were so excited!! But I had also read about sand dollars and that they were actually alive and killing them is illegal (and something I would never want to do anyway!). So we just picked it up quickly and took a couple of quick pictures then put it right back. It was so cool! It really just made my day! We stayed in the water for a long time after that but I stopped digging for sand dollars since I had already found one. We stayed in so long that we started to feel guilty about leaving the kids back in the room for so long. We finally dragged ourselves out and biked back to the resort, though I guess we shouldn't have felt too badly because they were all very content, still in their PJs and watching tv
We got everybody moving and ready and spent a relaxing last day at the pool.
The next day was our check-out day. We packed up and I took some last pictures that I had forgotten to take earlier…These are from the benches right near the front door. Adorable!
View attachment 195896
View attachment 195897
By 8:30am we were packed up and ready to go. We had been debating about what our driving home plan should be. We had talked about maybe stopping at Hershey Park or Six Flags, NJ just to break up the trip home, but then we found out that DD started dance camp the next day and she needed to be there by 3pm. We decided that we just didn't have the time to stop for fun and that since we would have to get up at the crack of dawn the next morning if we did decide to stop, the it would just be a waste of money. Ugh…so we thought well, we will just leave early and drive straight on through
We warned everyone that we would be severely limiting our breaks on the way back and that they should plan accordingly. They were all for it since they didn't want the trip back to take as long as the trip down either. Here's the odometer and time when we got in the car in South Carolina...
View attachment 195898
View attachment 195899
A couple of things held us up on our drive home…these clouds seem ominous, don't they?! Right after we took this the skies opened up and there was literally a deluge of rain! I was actually pretty nervous driving in it but went VERY slowly. This was in PA and there was also a LOT of traffic. Our navigation told us there was an alternate route to take that would skip the traffic and we listened, but honestly, the alternate route was through a town or city that had multiple stop lights and packed with traffic anyway. It was pretty awful driving that whole stretch.
View attachment 195901
The other awful part of driving straight through was reaching New York in the darkest dark We ended up on the Saw Mill Parkway at around 1-1:30am and it was the absolute WORST way to go! If you've never been on the Saw Mill, it's like one continuous curve. I don't even understand it. Plus there was construction and barely any street lights. it was just TERRIBLE! Thank God DH was driving at this point. I had actually taken a little nap in the car from about 11-12 and I kept asking him if he wanted me to drive but he said he was ok. I stayed awake with him after that though because I felt bad that he was driving…plus I thought I'd better keep talking to him to make sure he was awake.
We pulled into our driveway at 3:05 am
View attachment 195902
View attachment 195903
So the drive back took about 18 hours total, which was about 2 hours less than the drive down. Still…kind of a sucky way to do it. DH and I said that next time (and yes, there WILL be a next time!) we will definitely stop and have something fun to do, at least on the way back, to break up the drive. Some of our choices are Hershey Park, Washington, DC, Six Flags NJ…not really sure what else, but SOMETHING! We would also definitely stay at DHHIR for more than five nights…most likely seven would be a good number for us. There were things we wanted to do that we just didn't get around to doing, like paddle boarding, dolphin watches and eating at Skull Creek Boathouse. Those things are all on out must-do list for next time.
Despite the long drives on the way down and back we had a great time and would highly recommend DHHIR for a very relaxing family vacation
Thanks for reading along with me! I'm sad to be finished writing this because I love thinking about my vacations I am considering the idea of starting a pre-trip report (which I have never done) for our trip that I am currently planning. In June 2017, we will be going to Universal for 4 nights and then back on the Dream for 5 nights If I do start a PTR, I will post the link here!
Thanks again, and Happy Disney Planning!
Great trip report, loved all the pics! Thanks for sharing your adventures with us!
Loved the trip report, thanks for sharing! Would love to read a PTR if you decide to do it!
I love HHI. We've never been to the Disney resort there, but spent a week there last summer and did a short weekend there at the end of September this year. I live 5 hours from HHI and 6 hours from WDW, so I'm contemplating buying DVC. We are renting points for BLT but not for a year. I haven't been to WDW since 1995, so I'm not committing to buying anything until our trip.
I recommend Skull Creek Boathouse and Low Country Backyard as two local restaurants which are excellent.