Life's A Beach

Life's a beach. Well, it was for a few days last week, anyway.

I've had the words "Hilton Head!" written in big, bold letters on my calendar for a couple of months now. Counting down until our little vacation gave me something to look forward to as a break in the monotony of this current virus life we are living in, a much needed hiatus from reality and a chance to get away and relax. Sometimes you just need a breather: not a fancy, sightseeing trip to a far flung location, but a good old beach trip where you throw your trusty lounge chairs and cooler in the car and head down the highway for salt marshes and sandy bluffs.

Our trip was probably much like many of your vacations: filled with sunshine, downtime, and lots of relaxation. We spent three days laying on the beach reading and people watching, enjoying cold drinks from our cooler and afternoon snacks from the comfort of our chairs. Our exercise came in the form of walks to and from the beach bar, dips in the ocean, and strolls around the Harbour Town Marina in the evening reading the names of boats and their home ports as we ambled.

We enjoyed every kind of seafood prepared every possible kind of way: fried, broiled, steamed, stuffed, chilled (no raw oysters for us on this trip, however; they aren't in season and this did not seem like the year to try our luck with something like oyster poisoning). We ate crab, shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, oysters, fish, a few more handfuls of shrimp, and made sure to include that all-important vacation food group at every possible meal: hushpuppies! There were daiquiris and mojitos and a couple of rounds of dark and stormys, too.

Clint got a little sunburned and the humidity destroyed my hair once or twice. We had sand in our bathing suits and shoes and in the car and we could not have cared less. We never set an alarm clock and we never thought about getting in a hurry or running late. Aside from one half-hour semi-emergency conference call, Clint was able to leave work behind and our puppy was, from all the pictures and videos his pet sitter sent, having the time of his life while we were out of town. All in all, it was a low-key, laidback, much needed, restful respite. Now, let me share a few pictures from our getaway that I hope you'll enjoy (if you don't enjoy them, please let me know and we will venture back to the beach to try again...I aim to please).

Our patio overlooked the Sea Pines Harbour Town Marina and famous Lighthouse.

Hudson's Seafood is one of our favorite restaurants in Hilton Head.
Please stay six feet away from my hushpuppies.

No trip to Hilton Head is complete without listening to live music
out on the deck of the Salty Dog Cafe.

And speaking of dogs, Charlie was back in Charlotte having the most fun
with his pals Oliver and Fresca. He seriously barely noticed us when we came back to get him.

We made sure to get a picture with our masks on, for posterity. What a weird time.

For those of you wondering what life with me is like, it's clearly very relaxing.

The shrimp nachos at the beach club had been on my mind since the last time I ate them, 
two years ago. I wonder if they had been thinking about me, too?

Here we are at Shelter Cove Harbour and Marina, all cleaned up for a nice dinner.

We tried Ela's On the Water for the first time and it will not be our last.
We started with the crab stack appetizer (jumbo lump crab, avocado, mango and cucumber) and then feasted on seafood scampi and scallops with crab risotto. 

All smiles for our last night in Hilton Head.

You know Clint is rested and refreshed when he starts agreeably posing for pictures.

Or maybe he was just giddy because he was on his way to eat this crab boil at the Crazy Crab?

The time went by too fast, as vacation time tends to do. We always think the hallmark of a perfect trip is when you leave wishing for just one more day. We may have wished for just one or two!

Ahh. I needed that.