Trip to Hilton Head Island

Zack and I were really excited about going to Hilton Head Island with his family...well, at least I was SUPER excited. It was my first actual vacation since going back to work. Zack and I went down to his parents house on Friday night and we headed out on Saturday.

Rachel and I often joke about traveling with Zack and Ben's family. It is very different than traveling with either of our families...not bad, just different. Growing up, my dad would tell us what time we would be leaving and we would leave exactly at that time. It's not exactly the same when traveling with Zack's family. A departure time will be set and usually we leave a little later than anticipated....but then who can pack when they find something like this to be distracted by!?

Haha! That's not actually a true representation of why they run late. There is usually a flurry of activity , packing and trying to tie up loose ends before leaving. But, I got a kick out of my Father-in-law running into the kitchen dressed like this...

We actually got on the road at the designated time despite Zack's Dad's antics. Zack's mother's side of the family were all going down to the beach and we caught up with his grandparents and Aunt, Uncle and their girls on our way down. The trip down was uneventful, but it was nice to finally make it down to our destination.

We got the cars unloaded and decided to go get some dinner. We went to a family favorite seafood restaurant called Steamers. Zack's parents love the She crab soup there. I was a little worried initially since I didn't see anything other than heavy pastas or expensive steaks on the menu as alternatives to seafood. Thankfully, I was able to get a chicken finger kids meal...I even got a frisbee out of the deal and it was the perfect portion size since I wasn't very hungry.

the frisbee was my plate

Whitney and Kelsey

This usually means some kind of mischief is about to occur.

We were waiting for our food or a while and they thought it would be funny if someone stuck their head up thought the hole in the table. They talked whitney into doing it first, but her ponytail kept her from being able to get her head all the way through. So, Matt did it...never a dull moment! :)

After dinner, we went back to Zack's grandparent's room for cake and ice cream and then headed out to the beach. It was getting dark, but it was nice and windy. So, Uncle Chuck brought their kites down to the beach and we tried to fly them.




Sunday morning we went to another restaurant that we traditionally go to while we are in Hilton Head. We decided to go out for breakfast to Skillets or as Father-in-law calls it Skillet lickers to celebrate Father's day. Unfortunately my Father-in-law wasn't feeling very good. So he didn't end up coming along. The food there is so nicely presented and comes on these little while skillet shaped plates. I always get the same thing whenever I go, Bananas Foster Pancakes....they are REALLY good. Rachel got some fruit filled crepes that were really pretty, Mama Sandy got a skillet, while Matt and Zack got Western Omelets.






We headed back to our room after breakfast and got ready to hit the beach. I made sure to put on lots of sunscreen since I HATE to be burned...and I am so pale that it is inevitable. We got all of the beach gear toted down to the beach and decided to jump in. I didn't think about it, but I didn't reapply my sunscreen when we got out and I sat down in a beach chair to read while I waited for myself to dry off some....oops, big mistake...my chest, shoulders, and legs were burnt to a crisp by the time I realized what was happening it was too late...yuck! I hate sunburn! I wasn't alone, Rach and Ben also got a little toasted by the sun.

We went back to the room to get ready for dinner. We had grilled out hamburger and hotdogs and all gathered in Zack's grandparents room on the first floor to eat dinner together.

Hilton head has a ton of bike paths and so when we are there, we typically rent bikes for the week. So, after dinner, we headed over to a bike rental store to get our bikes for the week.


After acquiring and securing our bikes, we headed back to the room for a friendly game of Quelf. Rachel and Ben had never played before. It turned out to be a very silly game and a lot of fun. I had to wear a belt around my head like a nija and Matt had to drink a glass of the water by only drinking out of the side that would be opposite the one you drink out of. It was pretty humorous to watch him figure out how to do it. There were many other silly things going on, but iI cannot remember them all.


Every year that we have gone to HHI, Mama Sandy and I talk about how we should paint pottery, but we always forget that it is there until the end of the week. So, this year we decided that it would be a fun thing for all of the girls to go and do together while the guys went and played tennis. So, Monday, we went to the pottery place and painted pottery. It was a lot of fun and the finished products were really cute.

Getting ready to go

Aunt Shirley painted this really cute plate.

I made a Canister to hold utensils in my kitchen

Whitney painted cute initials to hang on the wall

Kelsey wanted to make a picture frame

...and Mama Sandy thought that was a good idea so she made one too!

Rachel decided to make an initialed vase for her friend as a shower gift.

After we finished our pottery, Aunt Shirley and the girls went to the beach and Rach, Mama Sandy, and I....being burned opted for shopping instead. :) We shopped until someone called to let us know that they were all ready to eat dinner.

After dinner, we decided to go for a bike ride on the beach...It was really nice out there a little windy so it wasn't overly hot.



Tuesday, we decided to do one of our other traditional activities. We headed out to Pirates Cove and played putt putt. It of course has to be a competition and we have to keep score. I would like to point out that while Mama Sandy, Rach and I might have had the lowest scores, we did all get holes in one.

This Hawk just swooped down right in front of us onto the putt putt course.

The guys wanted to play a second 18 hole course. so, Mama Sandy, Rach and I went to Shelter Cove to shop while they played their second round. Once they were finished we picked them up and headed back to shelter cove to grab dinner. We had planned to watch the fire works in Shelter Cove that night and had heard that it was going to get REALLY busy and that it would be very difficult to find a place to park. So, we had opted to just hang out there and wait for the fire works. So, we found a Mexican Restaurant and grabbed dinner.

The food was really good and we left absolutely stuffed. We couldn't finish all of our nachos. Thankfully we had a cooler in the car and we took them home in to go boxes to eat later.

We had some time to kill before the fire works and so we walked around looking in the shops and taking silly pictures. My Father in law and I had a deal. He would lay on the ground in ront of Poseidon's trident if I would. I think that he didn't think that I would really do it...

...but I think that it was worth it to get this picture of him! Ha! He is such a ham!




While wondering around waiting for the fire works, Mama Sandy and Ben got stopped by a guy who asked them if they would like to listen to a short talk for a free Dinner Cruise. Rach and I thought that they had just gone to the bathroom and we were waiting....and waiting...and finally they came up to us smiling and asked if we would be interested in doing this talk. I immediately felt my insides start tying into knots. A few years ago when we were in HHI, Zack and I had gone to a time share presentation. I don't know if any of you have ever been to one of those, but I can only describe it as one of the most painful experiences of my life and a complete waste of 5 hours of my time...yes I said five! It was like going to a used car lot amplified by 1000. It was WAY high pressure sales (which i hate) and we had to have said no about a million times when the guy finally decided that we meant it. Then we were shuttled into another room where they hit us with another sales pitch. At this point we we mentally exhausted and we ended up buying only to make it back to condo to be hit by buyers remorse. We promptly decided to send it back...I think that we lost money on the deal...but the thing that I came away with from that experience was that there was NO way that I wanted a repeat performance....and here my family was looking at me with big puppy dog eyes saying, "Please, Paula, we really want to go on this free dinner cruise it will only take 45 minutes to an hour tomorrow, Please?!"....can you blame me for folding?! ...besides, isn't there strength in numbers?

Once we decided to torture ourselve the following day, we headed over to a Shannon Tanner concert. We sat and watched part of his concert...by this time we were getting pretty tired. So, we opted to skip the fire works and head back to the condo and go swimming.

Wednesday morning we got up bright and early to head over to the sef imposed torture...I mean presentation. I know it is rude, but I brought a book...I promise that I gave them a full hour of my time before I opened it. I had only agreed to give them an hour...I mean can you blame me for zoning out as the man droned on and on? Besides, it apparently gave my family some entertainment.

Seriously?! What were we thinking?

We could be out here in the fresh salty air admiring this site...

But no, we are in here...in retail torture! This cruise better be worth it!

Once our hour and 30 minute self imposed jail sentence was over, we headed back to our condo. We headed over the the pottery place to pick up our finished products. Then Rach and I decided to go shopping since we hadn't finished going through all of the stores.

We headed back to the condo once we had finished shopping and we had lunch. The guys had discovered that if they put the cap back on their empty water bottles and twisted them until the air was really pressurized, they could shoot the lids off. So they enjoyed trying to see who could shoot theirs the farthest.


We decided to go down to the beach Wednesday afternoon since there were big waves. We had a great time jumping over and through the waves and riding them on the buggy boards. Thankfully my sun burn had started to improve and I was REALLY careful to stay in the shade when not in the water and I had slathered myself with a thick layer of sunscreen.





We decided to get together and eat leftovers for dinner and then we played a game of Quelf with Uncle Chuck, Aunt Shirley and the girls.

This was the only picture I thought to take. It is Whitney having to be a human pretzel.

Thursday morning, we decided to go for a bike ride. I was feeling a little bit like I was having some post nasal drainage and thought that it must be some kind of allergies. I suffered with it for a while until I finally took one of Rach's allergy pills.

I continued to feel worse as the day went on, but Thursday night we were going on our dinner cruise and after suffering through that talk, I was not going to miss out on my reward. We headed over to Harbor town at about 4:30-5 since we were supposed to be leaving on our cruise at about 6:30

We stopped at the Harbor Town play ground to take some family pictures...normally, I would be all about that, but I was not really feeling all that good.

not sure who the little one at the top of the stairs is...I guess she isa token family member!

Zack's Aunt and Uncle were meeting his grandparent's for dinner at the Crazy Crab. So we went off in search of our boat. Ben went up to the ticket counter to redeem our tickets only to find out that because we had discounted tickets we were required to pay a $10 per person port fee...hmmm...so much for a free cruise. Ben called Vacation Station to discuss the matter with them since they had stated that the cruise would be free. He and Mama Sandy expressed their disapproval and feelings of misplaced trust and eventually the company stated that they would write a check for $75 to cover the port charge for each of us and the charge to get into sea pines.

Zack and his stubble...Zack and Matt had a competition to see who could grow the fullest beard in a week. So, Sunday they had both shaved for the last time and they were periodically comparing to see who was winning. :) Zack's been threatening to grow a beard ever since he was carded in Walmart for food samples because the lady thought he was still a minor! ha! He was married at the time. I thought that it was funny...He was not that amused! :)



At about 6:30 we climbed aboard out ship and were seated at our table. By this point, Zack's famly had started to notice that I was not feeling great. They offered to take me back to Uncle Chuck and Aunt Shirley to have them take me back to the condo...but I was determined to stay because I had sacrificed my emotional health to get tickets for that cruise :) ha!! So, i took some Dramamine and tried to will myself to feel well. The cruise was actually really nice. It was an all you can eat steak dinner. I was pretty full after just one plate. They started us off with a salad.

We ate this as we pulled out of the harbor and watched the light house disappear from sight.


We made our way through marshes in between several islands. We saw pelicans and dolphins playing in the water. It was really a neat experience, and I am glad that we did it.

Our second course was the main course. Steak, potatoes, green beans, and mac and cheese. Zack Matt, and I think Ben went back for seconds.


They finished off the meal with a brownie and chocolate mousse. it was good, but rich!

After we finished our meal, we headed topside to watch for wildlife. It was beautiful and the was a nice breeze.

We headed back to the dock at about 9. Once we got off the boat, we headed back to our condo and Rach, Ben, Matt, and Zack played a game. I went straight to bed once we got back...and I spent the next 3 days in and out of consciousness.

Friday I am not sure what everyone did, but I laid on the couch occasionally being awake and alert enough to watch amazing wedding cakes episodes that were on TV. The whole family minus me went out to Wild Wings for dinner...I just didn't feel up to it. Ben gave me some of his Tylenol cold and sinus..This helped me feel a little better. primarily I think because I was running a fever. Other than chills alternating with sweats, body aches and feeling like I had post nasal drainage I had no other symptoms. I eventually built up the energy to brush my teeth and crawl up into the bed.

Saturday morning I slowly and painfully attempted to get packed to go. Zack's dad build me a little nest in the very back seat of the car where I could lay down and I pretty much slept the whole way home. I felt awful. When we got to Zack's parent's house I went straight to bed and remained there until Sunday when Zack and I left to head back to our house. I called our office manager on our way home to let her know that I wasn't sure that I would be at work on Monday.

...i had texted Dr. D to let her know that I was sick and told her that barring liver or kidney failure from doping up on cold medications I would be at work on Monday. I woke up at 6 on Monday am....still felt bad and took my temp. I was 100.8 so I took some dayquil, let Amber know I would be there and went back to sleep for another hour. When I woke at 7:30, my fever was gone. I went to work feeling AWFUL! I hadn't been out of bed in three days and had not really eaten anything since our dinner cruise. So, needless to say I was weak and felt terrible...and of course my day was busy. I saw 23 patient's, but at one point had 26 or 27 patient's scheduled...thank goodness I had some no shows or I don't know if I could have made it! ...I didn't make it to small group which I was disappointed about, but I just didn't have the energy for it. I really didn't start feeling good again until Wednesday or Thursday of last week. I took the whole week off of going to the gym. I finally went back this Thursday...I really didn't think I was going to make it though the class without passing out yesterday. I had to stop a few times, but I finished it...and then today I went to Zumba...still a little weak, but I was able to participate the whole class.

Our vacation was a lot of fun, but I of course wish that I hadn't gotten sick...my family speculated that I was over come by the stress of having to go to that talk...and that is what made me sick...hmmm...could be! :) ...I'm just glad that no one else got it...I wouldn't have wished whatever I had on my worst enemy!!