Hilton Head vacation

We're back! Phew!

Here's our vacay in a nutshell: it rained. A LOT. We had one day of sun on the island. One. We found other things to do, so it wasn't a total wash-out (get it?), and one of the other non-sunny days was nice enough that we were able to get out and ride bikes around the island, but it could have been a lot better. It was a huge blessing that we didn't have to actually pay for the Marriott villa we stayed in (we were using my Grandfather's timeshare). I'm glad we went, and HHI is gorgeous, but I would have loved to have had more sun!

Oh, and I will never go on another vacation where Jer and I don't have our own means of transportation. We rented a van in GA and all drove down together (Mom, Dad, Katie, Jeremy, Meredith, me). My dad was the only one authorized to drive... This would have been fine had the weather cooperated as we could have just ridden our bikes wherever we wanted to go, but as it was, it was kind of a pain to not have our freedom. That sounds mean - I love my family, and I was glad to be able to spend time with them, but the older I get, the more fierce my need for independence becomes!

Meredith is a great traveler. She did great on all the planes and in the car. I can't ask for a better baby.

Here's the pics. Some of them are large, I know - I'm experimenting with using photobucket to load my blog pictures.

Meredith just loved the beach. As soon as we let her out, she was making us walk her right into the water. She promptly sat down and splashed around.

I had to throw this picture in there because it cracks me up. Jeremy is sitting in the sand playing with Meredith, who is in front of him, but it looks like it's just Jeremy all by his lonesome and here comes my mom to play with him. Okay, maybe it's not that funny, but it makes me laugh.

Playing in the sand. Yes, she ate a lot of it.

All bundled up in the bike trailer after getting soaked through at the beach. She loved our bike rides. They put her right to sleep! I think this is my favorite picture from the trip.

We went to the historic town of Beaufort, SC one day. There are tons of beautiful, historic homes. It was overcast and chilly and very, very moody walking down these old streets. The trees were gigantic and all just dripping with Spanish moss. So cool.

Playing in our hotel room. We had to push the beds together, and Meredith liked playing in the "crack". Jeremy bought me a new flash unit for Mother's Day, so this is me experimenting with the bounce flash. I HATE direct flash in pictures, but love my SB400 since it lets me tilt the light to bounce somewhere other than directly on the subject.

Our hotel was a short walk from Shelter Cove Harbor and Marina. There's a huge statue of Neptune in the middle of the square. Here's Meredith looking up his skirt.