After two and a half months of jam-packed activity, the Hayes family was ready to take advantage of the school mandated spring break. The early months of every year end up being jam-packed full of action. Coming off the Christmas holiday, we quickly move into four birthdays in three months for all of the members of the household, plus both of our moms as well. Sawyer turned seven in January where we surprised he and Hunter with a five night Disney Marvel cruise. Emily turned 40 in February, enjoying a weekend staycation at Disney and a surprise birthday party at the Chroma restaurant. We also threw in a few surprise visitors (ask me about the double surprise where Emily surprised her mom by bringing her brother down, who then surprised Emily by staying for the surprise party for HER) and a birthday dinner for Emily’s mom. I turned more than 40 in March and enjoyed a chill beach day and some delicious seafood with Emily, followed by Captain Marvel with the kids and pizza with the in-laws! And we finish our birthday celebrations with a trip to Hilton Head Island during Spring Break to celebrate Hunter’s 12th birthday! We were excited to have a slightly more low key destination this year for our spring break and birthday festivities.
The last time we visited the island was during our spring break 2017 for Hunter’s 10th birthday. He wanted to come back again to celebrate his 12th birthday and we were eager to oblige. Emily did a great job during the week of getting us packed and ready to go. We packed up the car and cleaned up the house and hit the road just after 9 a.m. It looked like a scene out of the movie Vacation as the car was beyond full with all of our travel gear. Add to that an oversized dog trying to fit in between the boys in the backseat on the way to the doggy daycare, and it was a recipe for Funniest Home Videos. All we needed was Aunt Edna strapped to the roof! As luck would have it, Emily’s parents Kee and Colonel were going to be joining us in Hilton Head for a few days to celebrate Hunter’s birthday, so they graciously took a couple boxes of gifts from our car to take up with them. Grandma Kee wished us safe travels as we were were off on our holiday road! A quick stop to drop off Peach for her week of doggy day care and we set the GPS for Hilton Head, SC.
What normally is about a five hour drive from Orlando to Hilton Head took us seven hours on this particular day. We had plenty of time in the car to contemplate why the traffic was so horrible. We thought it was a combination of FL schools’ spring breaks starting on Friday and many students in the Carolinas and Georgia whose spring breaks were ending. Whatever the reason, we ran into traffic just south of Jacksonville and it never ended up getting much better. The traffic forced us to stop at Burger King for lunch which is never our first choice, but it was either that or some rundown homicidal BBQ joint, so we put our trust in the King. The three boys in the family thought that food was alright, but Emily was having a moment with her chicken sandwich that was well, quite special. I believe there is history with this particular sandwich but, needless to say, Emily was satisfied by the King on this fine Friday. Because the restaurant was not the picture of cleanliness, and we didn’t want to find white chalk lines in the bathroom, we walked over to the Dunkin Donuts next door for a dessert donut and a bathroom break before getting back into the fray of cars on HWY 95.
After a bit more time in the bumper to bumper highway traffic, we arrived at the FL/GA state line and pulled over for our customary stop at the GA Welcome Center. It is a nice location just off of HWY 95 for a quick stop to stretch your legs before continuing your journey. There is also this long green torpedo looking thing that we have gotten the boys photo with for years. Keeping our streak alive we captured the photo yet again and were on our way. Thanks to the nice man who did not move from his perch on the front of the torpedo, the entire torpedo is not pictured.
One of our fun little detours, thanks to our traveling companion Waze, was a quick reroute off of I75. I don’t remember exactly where it was, but it took us down a street with the strangest assortment of homes. There were beautiful homes with colorful plants right next to homes that could have been mistaken for junkyards with all of the crap that was lying around the lawn. Hunter, as quoted in the video below, said that we were traveling through the “seedy underbelly of Georgia.” For those of you Great Movie Ride friends, you will remember this line from the attraction.
After many “are we there yets” from me, we finally crossed over the scenic bridge that led us onto Hilton Head Island. Emily, in her planning wisdom, placed an order for grocery pickup at the Walmart on the island. Thankfully the Walmart was only 15 min from our resort because the bags of groceries took up every remaining inch of space we had left in the car. But this sure beat spending an hour at the grocery store picking all of these things out immediately upon arrival.
We ended up arriving at Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort just before 5:00. We were excitedly welcomed by the amazing Cast Member wearing her Mickey and Minnie gloves waving to us as we pulled up. We took the stairs up to the check-in desk and were greeted by Laura who helped us check in. She quickly returned with an envelope addressed to Hunter wishing him a Happy Birthday. Because I work with many of the folks at the Disney Hilton Head Resort in my current job, I was able to meet a few of them in person for the first time, which was nice. The team could not have been nicer and more welcoming to us. There was also cookies and lemonade in the lobby for Guests to enjoy which the boys took full advantage of.
After check in we found a parking spot and brought as many of the grocery bags as we could carry to building 18 to check out our room for the week. We were greeted in the room by a cute DVC gift bag and card from the resort team which was a really special touch. The bag included some candies and other treats for us to enjoy during our stay. Our room looked out over the marsh and water and was perfectly located in the middle of all the fun things to do at the resort. We were excited to have finally arrived so our vacation could begin.
While Emily worked to get the grocery situation put away, the boys and I headed back to get the rest of the car unloaded. This of course gave us an opportunity to pick up one of their fun wooden luggage carts which the boys have always enjoyed taking rides on. With all of the stuff it took us a couple of trips back and forth which ended up being more fun than work. The boys helped lug all of the stuff up the stairs which was a welcome benefit.
After getting the majority of the room settled, it was just after 6:30 pm and we were hungry. Our traditional first meal in Hilton Head has always been to order in Giuseppi’s Pizza & Pasta, who deliver right to the room at the resort. Looking ahead at the weather, we realized that this was going to be one of our nicer evenings to head out to eat if we wanted to. As we gave the proverbial finger to tradition, we hopped in the car for the 4 minute drive to Poseidon Coastal Cuisine for dinner. We first ate at this location on the last night our of Hilton Head Spring Break 2017 trip, Being a bit chilly and windy we opted for the inside seating. It was the perfect meal to start out our vacation. We started with a half dozen steamed oysters from the local area. After we ordered I took the boys back to see where the oysters were getting shucked to order. Hunter even ate one, which I believe is now his third time eating oysters (all captured in the video at the end of this blog post). For dinner Sawyer of course got the customary butter noodles, Hunter got NY Strip with whipped potatoes that he was excited about, Emily got the Stuffed Shrimp which she enjoyed, and I got the New England seafood Casserole, which was delicious.
After dinner we took the short walk to the local Kroger, which is attached to the restaurant shopping center. There were a few items that we weren’t able to get at Walmart so we took a spin around the store to complete our grocery gathering. One of the items they don’t allow you to pick up at Walmart there is alcohol, and boy did we need some! We had fun walking down the beer and wine aisle, picking out some unique, sometimes local, items that we wanted to try. The boys enjoyed the trip down to toy aisle where they each got a pick out a Matchbox car, which took a lot longer than you would think.
Back at the resort we brought our last batch of groceries to the room. We took a few minutes to get the rest of the room situated and organized for our week’s stay. Sawyer was excited to take an epic bubble bath in the giant jet tub in the resort. Emily loaded up the tub with soap and the combination of the soap and jets made a ridiculous amount of bubbles. Emily and Sawyer had fun throwing balls of bubbles at one another.
Spring Break 2019 Hilton Head Day One Travel Video
After we were in our pajamas and cozy, I warmed up a few of the bakery cookies that we got at Kroger to enjoy for our dessert. The perfect end to a long travel day to Hilton Head. So grateful that we arrived safely and very much looking forward to a relaxing stay on Hilton Head Island.
