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September 02, 2010
a month in Hilton Head
We were lucky enough to spend the month of August in Hilton Head, SC. If you're wondering how we could swing this, it's because this was basically a working vacation. Finn had no camp in August, our nanny needed some vacation time. And while there are plenty of disadvantages to being self-employed, a great advantage (in our case), is that we can work pretty much anywhere we want.
Shawn set up "Hazen Creative East" in our bedroom, and I arranged a babysitter so I could work about 10-12 hours per week. We got a villa in Palmetto Dunes, which was a 10-minute walk to the beach and a short skip to the pool. During that time, my mom, brother, sister-in law, and nieces came to visit us for a long weekend. (Staying in a villa just a half mile away.) My college friend, Lisa, was there for most of the month with her family, just a mile away in the tony digs of her snowbird parents. And our friends, Lisa (yes! another Lisa), Grace, Tulio, and their kids came, too.
It was a great trip. Wonderful to have both friends and family there with us. The ocean water was more than 85 degrees, the beaches lovely. Our pool was shaded, which meant we could stay hours there without worrying about fair Hazen skin getting burned. (Well, Finn and Shawn that is. Cormac and I turned the golden brown color of a toasty waffle.) We saw herons, alligators, dolphins, egrets, and lizards of every color in their element. Took a side trip to Beauford, where Shawn discovered a great used book store. Considered "all you can eat crab legs" a personal challenge. Finn not only got comfortable in the water, but learned how to cannonball. We cooked out, frequented a wonderful restaurant on the beach, and ate ice cream almost every night. Watched movies and played cards.
Let me state for the record that there needs to be a new term invented for "vacationing" with children. This was not the laze-on-the-beach sort of trip. Holy smokes, small boys have a lot of energy. Put them in a new place to explore and you've got yourself a workout. There was a lot of schlepping, heat, hunger strikes, misplaced faith in swim diapers, and a boycott of the beach by a certain four-year-old when a dinner-plate sized jellyfish washed up on the beach. My 10-12 hours of babysitter time didn't quite cut it when it came to the work I committed to, so I worked at night. There were days when I totally needed a vacation from my vacation. Or at least for it to be five-a-clock so I could justify a glass of wine.
Yet, it was worth every day, particularly for the uninterrupted family time. These are the (somewhat) lame photos I took with my iPhone--Shawn has the good ones. But until he goes through the 400 or so photos he took, here are the 20 or so I took!
Posted by lisa at September 2, 2010 07:08 AM
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