Our trip started off on September 7th with a drive down to Columbia, SC where we stopped over for a day to spend some quality time with cousins Kate & Luke. These three together are just the best! They packed in lots of fun including playing with Kate's dollhouse, and enjoying a bedtime story together in their tent!
The next day we went to the Columbia Zoo to see all the baby animals!! They currently have a baby giraffe, baby lion cubs, AND a baby gorilla!!! SO cute! Hannah had fun, except she did not like it when the tiger growled. After a yummy lunch at Chick-fil-A we drove the remaining 2 hours to Isle of Palms to start our beach trip!
On Sunday we invited the Wheeler fam down to the beach for the day so these cutie pie cousins could spend some more time together. They had so much fun playing in the tide pools, eating a delicious dinner at our favorite restaurant- Poe's, on Sullivan's Island, and playing at the playground!
On Monday we had a glorious day at the beach. We spent the morning playing in the pool and at the beach playing in the sand and the tide pools. Then we headed back to the condo for nap time, and in the afternoon we (Stephen) hauled all our beach gear back out to the beach for a 2nd session. Luckily our condo had a huge beach wagon because we had so...much...stuff! Hannah had the best time making a sand castle and helping me with a drip tower and working hard at what she called "her garden" on the beach. She would use all her little molds to make shells, starfish, and crabs in the sand and then she would water them with her watering can and say she was watering her garden. It was adorable. She loves the beach so much!
Ugh. Hurricane Florence. Last year our beach trip was cut short by a day because of Hurricane Irma. This year the timing was even worse and we were evacuated after only 2 days at the beach :( Thank goodness we sprung for the travel insurance this time, but still...we were so very very sad and mad that we had to leave four days early. Mark my words, the Summers family will never ever plan a beach trip for any time during hurricane season again, ever! Stephen salvaged our vacation though with quick thinking and the help of some good friends :) We made it inland without any problems and stayed the night in North Carolina with our friends Barbara and Perry. Hannah and Barbara were BFF's and we enjoyed the day playing with their pup Sophie, walking around the lake at Stephen's alma mater Gardner-Webb, and swinging. The next morning we drove to Gatlinburg for part 2 of our vacation.
We love the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg. We went as soon as it opened and pretty much had the place to ourselves. Hannah had a blast crawling in all the tunnels, seeing all the cool fish, and playing on the indoor playground. The best part of this aquarium is the penguin exhibit. All their penguins have little name tags on their wings which is such a fun touch. She remembered two penguins from the last time we were there in May named Frank & Momo, and we saw them again! We got her a cute little t-shirt at the gift shop with a picture of Momo on it :) After the aquarium we enjoyed a nice lunch at my favorite Gatlinburg restaurant Calhoun's.
The next day we had breakfast at our favorite breakfast spot- the Log Cabin Pancake House. Hannah liked putting different toppings on all her mini pancakes- butterscotch chips, strawberry jelly, and grape jelly! Then we went to the park down by the Park Vista and played on the playground and dipped our toes into the cool creek. In the afternoon we did some outlet shopping and went out to dinner and were back at our cabin in time to see a pretty sunset. Even though we didn't quite get the vacation we were planning on, we still had such a wonderful time. The best part was just the 3 of us being together the whole time. Hannah was a total delight and just went along with all of our location changes and car rides like a pro. I'm so proud of her!
Our beach condo was our best one yet, which made it even harder to leave so early :( It was decorated so cute and beachy and plenty spacious for the 3 of us with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It had a huge balcony overlooking the ocean with a big comfy outdoor sofa. Hannah and I watched the sunrise out there both mornings and she liked pointing out different shapes in the clouds like an alligator and a whale, I love her so much! Hopefully we'll be able to rent this one again next year!
Stephen was an awesome travel agent and found us this gorgeous cabin totally last minute. It was brand new and just perfect for us. The views were spectacular and the cabin was super nice and cozy. Hannah's favorite part was playing with the wooden bear & pine tree Tic-Tac-Toe set. :)
Sunrise in Isle of Palms on the left, and sunset in Gatlinburg on the right. I feel like these 2 pictures sum up our vacation perfectly... started at the beach, ended in the mountains...not what we were expecting and not what we had planned, but when you put them both together they make a beautiful picture!
No comments:
Post a Comment