Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Getting Caught Up–A Trip Report

 

 

I promised pictures, but I’m afraid that I’m going to disappoint you all.  I took a few pictures – but nothing particularly exciting.  You see, when you’ve been to same destination as many times as DH and I have been to Hilton Head Island, there’s not a whole lot of anything new to take photos of … nor is there much of anything new that we did to share … not that we had plans of doing anything terribly exciting … our idea of a perfect Hilton Head trip is one where the majority of our time is spent relaxing on the beach … and indulging in the fresh seafood.  And this was as close to a perfect Hilton Head trip as we’ve had.  So without further ado, I give you a bit of a recap. 

 

We left Thursday morning, as soon as I was done at DD’s … well, as soon as we said goodbyes (thankfully I was able to hold it together until I drove off … then the tears flowed!).  We took our time on the road and made it to Lexington, KY – the middle of horse country.  Of course I had to take a picture of a horse farm for T#2 who is a huge horse lover. 

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I was tempted to stay in Lexington a little longer as there was a table of women at Panera who had gathered for breakfast and stitching … several brought their knitting and a couple brought some quilting.  I would have loved to join them!  But the beach called me … and I did get to do a little stitching … not with that group of women, but in the car, with DH.  I finally decided to get myself a portable project for our trips … and decided to see if I couldn’t do a little stitching in the car.  And I could!  Open-mouthed smile  I did have to look up fairly frequently, and I did have to put the stitching down when we drove through the Smokies (lest I get car sick on all those twists and turns).  Yay!

 

We stopped Friday evening in Spartanburg, SC … just a little over 4 hours from Hilton Head.  Our plan was to get to the Island just in time for lunch Saturday … and we made it. After lunch, we were afraid that it would be too early to check into our hotel, but we thought we’d go ahead and park at the hotel and go on out to the beach.  This sand sculpture greeted us as we entered the lobby.

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We were pleasantly surprised to be able to check in and get to our room right away.  Unfortunately our room didn’t have an ocean view … if we had chosen to pay half again as much for our room, we could have had a view like this:

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It would have been wonderful to have been able to sit out on the balcony and watch the sun rise … but paying that much for the room would have meant a shorter stay.  We decided that we could just walk on down to the beach if we wanted to see the sun rise … and have more time on the Island.  Winking smile

 

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The first thing we did was reserve a couple of beach chairs and umbrellas … so we could spend our days reading or stitching.

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We saw our very first star fish ever on one of our walks … it was still alive, so we left it where we saw it.

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We went down to the beach every morning in hopes of seeing the sun rise.  It was so cloudy every morning that I was worried that we wouldn’t get to see the sun rise … thankfully the skies weren’t too cloudy on our next to last day on the Island, and I was able to get a nice shot of the sun rising.

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I would have liked to have gotten a shot of the harvest moon rising, but it was cloudy that evening. 

 

We also saw fishing boats that weren’t very far out to sea – another first.  One boat went by and must have turned around as we saw it coming back from the other direction … with a “companion”. 

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I wondered if they were catching our dinner?  As I mentioned, when we’re not on the beach, we’re indulging in the fresh seafood available in Hilton Head.  When we’re that close to the source, why not?  Winking smile

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I discovered a little quilt shop on the Island and persuaded DH to stop by on our way to dinner one evening.  There weren’t a lot of fabrics that caught my eye, but I did find a couple of pretty blues.

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Of course, the colors aren’t true <sigh> – they’re both darker and more of a true blue.  I suspect I might use these when I made quilts for T#1 and T#3 (coming up on my list).

 

I had to take a picture of these license plates to share with you all!

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Too bad Illinois doesn’t allow numbers in the middle of letters on their plates, or I’d be ordering these for our car!

 

I was pretty productive with my hand stitching … I’m stitching up hexagons to make a Grandmother’s Flower Garden, and I have made good progress.  Here’s one of the flowers (not sewn together yet), with little patches of the outer ring (the red).

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I’ve stitched up quite a few of the darker and lighter rings … I have more of them to stitch as well as most of the centers and all of the red ring hexagons (aka the “path”).  This will be a secondary, portable project – to take when I expect to have “waiting time” (for appointments, when traveling, etc.). 

 

We made it back home late Monday afternoon … with enough time to unpack, do a couple of loads of laundry, and take it easy.  It’s wonderful to be back home, and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing my Ts in a couple of hours.  But there’s a piece of my heart that remains back on Hilton Head Island.

17 comments:

  1. Ohhh, it sounds like the perfect vacation! So glad you had a wonderful/perfect time! We will head home today, cutting our stay in Jackson a day short. Would like to get out before the 12-18" of snow!~Jeanne

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  2. I'm so glad your beach trip was a good one! Just hearing about it makes me long to go back...

    Your new quilting project is going to be a pretty one :)

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  3. Good morning and welcome back! Glad you had a good trip. It all sounds like my kind of vacation...lots of beach time and ocean view with sunrises and sun sets, stitching time, relaxing and plenty of good seafood! Glad you enjoyed. I am loving the new quilt project!

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  4. Wonderful pics! Hubby and I have been to Mt. Rainier many times and when we come back it always appears I take the pictures in the same place each time!

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  5. Welcome home!!! I am so jealous - it sounds like the perfect beach vacation!!! We are planning a nice trip to the sea next summer - hopefully :*)

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  6. I am so glad you had such a nice trip. I thought about you and prayed you would have perfect weather.
    It looks like you did.
    I am so glad you had a little sewing project to work on in the car. I cannot sew in the car anymore. I do get car sick.
    I am glad you are home as well. I bet it feels so nice again.

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  7. What a nice vacation! Love the license plate - you can't have numbers between the letters in your plates? Is there a reason?
    Welcome home.

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  8. Welcome home! Thanks for sharing your pictures.
    I'm stumped on what that license plate is saying... :/
    I'm not really a beach person, but a vacation like that sounds so relaxing...and yummy!
    I'll just settle for a weekend trip to Kansas City to see my babies! ;)

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  9. ahhh - looks/sounds like a great trip... but there really is no place like home.

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  10. Ahh...so happy you had a fun time, Kathy! Loved seeing your pictures! I'm always ready to head to the beach, any time, anywhere!

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  11. What a lovely trip and I think it's awesome that you enjoy it year after year. We haven't been to the beach in a long time so maybe it's time for us to plan a beach trip.

    We missed you and glad you're back from your fun time!

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  12. Well, Kathy, that is a very good holiday post! It sounds like you had a good time together and enjoyed yourselves. The pictures are quite good, too! Glad you had a good trip.

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  13. Welcome back, I 'm glad you had a nice trip. The weather has been just about perfect for beach goers. I thought you had some great photos. Hoping to get some beach photos myself this weekend, last festival of the year, which features a sand castle competition...we shall see

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  14. I know exactly what you mean because we have been going to Mammoth Lakes for 18 years now and the pictures look the same each year. I know the view would have been wonderful but I would have rather stayed longer too. The beach looks lovely. I could use one of those right now! I've never seen a live starfish. Beautiful sunrise. Sounds like a very nice trip.

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  15. Love your hexies...perfectly sewn and gorgeous fabrics!

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  16. Glad you enjoyed Hilton Head...it is a beautiful place!

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  17. I may have mentioned once or twice that I love HHI! You're making me want to visit soon! :)

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I am SO glad you stopped by! No proving that you're a robot here ... I want to hear what you have to say! ;-)