Our vacation

Ok, I hope all is well out there. I am going to warn you....this could be a long blog. As most of you know, Chris and I headed off on our vacation on May 20th. We left out Thursday morning for the first leg of our trip..Gatlinburg.

We made good time to Garlinburg. As soon as we got to the exit, we went to Bass Pro Shops. I bought jerky seasoning (which is in the dehydrator) and Chris got a new flashlight. Then we headed on up and Chris went to Smoky Mountain Knife Works and bought a new knife. We drove on to Gatlinburg and checked into the River Terrace hotel. Chris was not feeling well by this time. His allergies were really terrible. So, we walked to a little place on the strip and ate then we went to Walgreens and bought allergy meds and Kleenex with lotion. The rest of the night was quiet in the room. We got up Friday morning to head out to Lancaster, SC to the Shores' house. We took the Foothills Pkwy. I got some great morning pics. Here is one:

We had a fairly uneventful trip to Steve and Peggie's house. We did hit a streak of rain outside of Charlotte when we stopped at Chili's. (BTW, this trip took a little planning as I don't eat fast food anymore.) But, we got there and were greeted by a very happy Maddy, "mommy" and "mom mom". I can't believe how far Maddy has come! She is talking so clearly! I did make the mistake of trying to get her to say "sheep", though. :) We had a nice night. Saturday was Chris' birthday. Steve to Katie to look at a car and I went to get an oil change. We all had a good birthday dinner for Chris. I think he had a great time. Sunday morning, we got up for breakfast with the family before taking off for Hilton Head!!!

We had an good drive to the coast. We stopped once at a rest stop for a break and the weather was great! It was not quite hot with a breeze. We got to Hilton Head aroung 1:00pm and was told the room wasn't ready yet. So, we walked around the cute little shops, bought hats and went out to the beach. We forgot the sunblock for the couple of hours on the beach, but only got a little red. We finally got checked into our room at the Holiday Inn Oceanfront (which was a pretty nice place to stay) and changed for dinner. We walked down the main street and found a little place to eat called Kenny B's. It was an amazing little cajun place. You ordered at the counter and it was little! The food was incredible! The next day we went out on the beach some, but the weather was hit and miss the whole time we were there. One night we tried to walk on the beach and had gotten maybe a 1/4 mile and it began to rain. Then it began to pour. If we had pina coladas, it would have been perfect. Our hotel had a tiki bar out by the pool with a great view. We took off one day after spending some time on the beach and went to the Sea Pines area that included Harbour Town. We went to the top of the lighthouse and were treated to an amazing view! We also walked through a nature preserve there and saw the "Vanishing Swamp" and an Indian Shell Ring. On our final night, we booked a sunset catamaran sail. We packed a light dinner of fish spread, shrimp, fruit, crackers, cake, wine and beer and took off. It was so amazing! We both really enjoy sailing on catamarans anyway. There were about 15 people on the cruise. We took off and saw some amazing houses and boats. There was even a private island with its own state of liberty! We saw dolphins on our way out, too. That was a first for me, outside of an aquarium. When we got out into the open water, we could see Tybee Island. The sunset was incredible! On our way back in, a dolphin swam right by our boat and so did jellyfish! It was fun. I hated to leave the next day. We drove a very long time to get back home on Wednesday. Once we did, it began to storm and I had to go pick up Shiloh. So, that is the main points of our trip. Here are some great photos from Hilton Head.

I have more pics posted on Facebook. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing good. I might actually start posting more often!