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Spring Break at Hilton Head

Penn State usually schedules spring break around the 2nd week of March. It's still pretty cold, so staying in town for the week isn't always delightful. This year, I was determined to find a beach with temperatures at least in the 70s. 

I used a website with short descriptions of family-friendly beaches along the East Coast to choose a place to go. I searched along the coast from north to south, checking each location's weather forecast during the week of spring break. I determined that we could reasonably drive down to South Carolina to catch some warmth and sunshine. So, that's what we did!

First, we prepped the van. Gavin and Brooklyn were so excited for their week off; they were good helpers. 


They're cute in their matching-ish outfits.


I did not spend much time on my appearance, and it was COLD in the garage where we were working, so I had my hoodie up. When I finally came in the house, Sean told me I looked crazy. It was just messy hair from my hoodie, but, ya, he was right.

We divided the drive into two days: first, to Charlotte, NC, and then, what was supposed to be the shorter leg of the journey, to Hilton Head, SC.

In Charlotte, we started our morning with some time at a fun arcade/laser tag place.



During our time at the arcade, Gavin's stomach hurt pretty bad. By the time we went for lunch, he was throwing up. Poor guy. We used a drink cup from Panda Express as his emergency-expulsion-catcher and stopped at least twenty times from Charlotte to Hilton Head. He looked like a zombie, and I know he felt worse.

But we made it!!

The first day at the beach was delightful—sunny and warm. Gavin spent the morning resting in the hotel room, but he ventured outside later. It took every ounce of his energy to make the 10-minute walk down to the beach, so he napped the rest of the day underneath a towel blankets.



I'm a nerd about wildlife and plants. Anytime we go somewhere new, I have my eye out.













I liked the place we stayed. And the weather was decent enough for the first two days. The third was pretty cold, but even though the kids had the option of staying in the hotel room with Rick, we WENT TO the Beach and LIKED it. (As in, we froze, but kept commenting on how grateful we were to be there). We did have a good time tormenting the seagulls that last day.









We got home late on Saturday night after a stayover in the Raleigh/Durham area. I was grateful for a quiet Sunday to reorient ourselves before going back to life duties on Monday. As I dutifully prepared my seminary lesson, even though I really wanted a nap, a thunderstorm blew into our area with a vengeance. The lightning and thunder were loud but not alarming. The whistling wind was different. Ominous. It shook the windows more than usual and seemed like an iron hand pushing across the landscape. Within minutes, the electricity was off.

No worries. We wanted a quiet Sunday, and we got it. Gavin and Brooklyn played Monopoly. I set aside my computer and phone and worked on putting trip stuff away.


When Sean was dropped off at home, he told us one of our trees was down across the road. Phooey! Since Rick also just got home, I went out to investigate.





I didn't get pictures of the original collapse because I discovered a crew of people out there with chainsaws, loading up our wood. (That's a weird story for another day.)

Rick and I dismissed the "helpers" and worked for about an hour in the rain to get the big logs up the hill and most of the debris out of the street. Both of us were wet, tired, and cold and could have really used a warm shower, but the electricity was still off. No electricity means no water from our well.

We went to bed without electricity.


That's me with my usual resiliency. (eye roll)

We were without electricity for about a day and a half. The piles of sandy beach laundry and wet tree-cleaning clothes had to wait. Dishes piled up in the sink. We took dinner-making supplies to the church and hung out because our house was too cold. We all really wanted showers.

But we made it. We were overjoyed when we came home from the church Monday evening to find our electricity on, even though we expected it to be off until Wednesday.

I was pretty worn out that first week back. But I still made myself go out and clean up the tree on Saturday in the windy spring weather while Rick was away with Brooklyn at a basketball tournament.

Life goes on. Every break is balanced with strain. And there is eventual rest after every challenge.

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