It was 35 degrees when we pulled out of our driveway in North Carolina around 9am. By the time we pulled into our rental’s driveway in St. Simons Island around 5pm, it was 70. That’s how we like to start our spring break trips!!
For this year’s warm weather spring break pursuit, our family roadtripped to St. Simons Island, one of Georgia’s barrier islands and part of the Golden Isles. It’s adjacent to past destination Jekyll Island and similar in feel to last year’s pick Hilton Head, but it had a charm all of its own. I’d love to tell you about it and share a few photos, if you’d like to see!
How we chose St. Simons, in short:
1) John is committed to a warm weather spring break trip. 2) We generally try not to fly all five of us unless it’s necessary because of the expense. 3) Over the years, we’ve found that lower Georgia is a reasonable road trip that reliably delivers warm, beachy weather.
After casting about for something new, we landed on St. Simons!
Sunday was our day of departure, and mostly spent en route. We listened to The Mona Lisa Vanishes audiobook for free through Libby and the big kids and grown-ups all enjoyed it. (I suspect Annie liked it a little less than last year’s pick, The Wild Robot.) We also stopped for lunch at old favorite Lowcountry Produce, and I only mention it because I had one of the best salads of my life at their table: chopped romaine, lemon dijon vinaigrette, warm red potatoes, bacon, goat cheese, tomatoes…! Must recreate.
Upon arrival in Georgia, we unloaded the car, toured the house, did a little unpacking, then drove over to Ember for our first dinner. Though in a strip mall, it’s a low-lit, fancier vibe inside. We split several wood-fired pizzas, which were very thin-crusted but yummy.
Monday morning dawned beautifully sunny (a theme, as you will soon see!). We slept in and let the kids watch part of 101 Dalmatians on the TV in their bunk room after they woke up — the height of luxury. Lest you think I’m completely anti-screen, they did this every morning, and it was a highlight of the trip :)
Our big adventure of the day was biking to the eleven public “Tree Spirits” around the island. Carved into live oak trees by a father-son duo, these fanciful pirates, mermaids, and faces were fun to spot as we criss-crossed the island on our bikes.
Our route was a 12-mile round trip (!), though we stopped along the way to watch small planes land and take off on the airstrip, to tour the St. Simons Island lighthouse, and to eat lunch at Porch, a chicken emporium.
Porch got two thumbs up from the whole family; my spicy fried chicken sandwich with pimento cheese, pickles, and coleslaw was especially delicious. (It might have been my favorite meal of the whole trip.) We also lingered to play a few rounds of corn hole and giant connect-four on the lawn before hopping back on our bikes.
As for our other midday stop, the lighthouse was beautiful and the visitors center looked brand new. A fun feature of this lighthouse as compared to others we’ve visited: we got to tour the keeper’s house, which was outfitted with period furnishings. There was also a 10-minute movie playing on a loop with the history of the lighthouse and keepers that we watched before we climbed to the top.
The whole adventure was enjoyable, but I will admit it was not the most relaxing for me. This was Annie’s first vacation riding her own bike versus riding in the trailer or a bike seat, and while she is an excellent bike rider (especially for a four year old!), she is nowhere near as reliable as the big kids: she’s more likely to get distracted, to stop short, to zig and zag when she shouldn’t, or get rattled by a pot hole. Plus, she takes up about one-quarter the visual space of John, so I felt the need to be right on her at all times to make sure that cars could see us both. Needless to say, I was on high alert the entire time.
That being said, the route was essentially completely flat, which made us feel we could bike for miles – and we did! There are multi-use paths throughout the whole island (which was the only way this worked), but just as a heads up I felt that they were a little closer to the roads, or the roads were a little busier, than in either HHI or Jekyll Island.
After finding all 11 Spirits (and playing some hoops on the basketball court in the park near the last one), we triumphantly rode back home. We swam in the backyard pool for about an hour before quick showers and changing for dinner.
Even in our fancier clothes we ended up biking to dinner (one of my favorite parts of vacation!), which was just up the road at the Georgia Sea Grill. This was definitely a fancier restaurant, with some older gentlemen in jackets. (I love a clientele that’s not afraid to dress up!) Service was leisurely and our kids were ready to go by the time the check came, but the food was delicious and they did a great job keeping a lid on things. Once home, the kids quickly got into pajamas and I read a few chapters of our current readaloud before lights out, though Annie fell asleep a few paragraphs into the first chapter :) It was a big day for little four-year-old legs!
On Tuesday we followed a blueprint that we perfected last year in Hilton Head: beach, pool, cookout at home. We began the SSI version by biking to town for breakfast at Palmer’s Village Cafe, which was delicious but had a very long wait. (We browsed in the nearby library to kill some of it.)
Then we packed up our beach cart (our rental house had come with a rental credit, which we used for the cart, two adult bikes, and a skimboard) and walked to the beach, which Shep calculated at 149 steps from our rental’s front door. We played for a few hours, building sand castles, throwing the frisbee, trying the skimboard, and wading out to a sandbar.
Once back at the house, we hopped in the pool and enjoyed some poolside snacks we’d picked up at the Winn-Dixie earlier that week: Croc Bites cheese, crackers, salami, grapes, and baby carrots. Later, John fired up the grill and we ate hot dogs and chips poolside. We ended the evening with a short bike ride to Moo Cow for ice cream cones, then it was showers and a Tuesday-edition family movie night viewing of Zootopia 2, which we all enjoyed. We have very few photos from this day, which we’ll take as a sign of a good time!
Wednesday morning started early. We ate breakfast at home, then drove an hour south to St. Mary’s, the port town for Cumberland Island National Seashore.
Longtime readers might remember that Cumberland holds a special place in our hearts: John and I first visited this barrier island the spring break of our senior year in college. We returned many years later with June and Shep, in 2021, but since Annie had never visited, we decided to tack it onto this trip, too. It’s something of a liminal space for us, shifting effortlessly between past and present.
We took the 9:30am ferry over. It was another beautiful day, which made the 45-minute ride through the marshes a delight. Our four hours on the island were spent walking along the beach (we found three sand dollars and a giant blue whelk!), eating our packed picnic lunch beside the Dungeness ruins, and exploring the live oak forest luxuriously draped in Spanish moss. And all along the way, we saw wild horses — more than 20, including some babies.
Though they tell you to stay at least 50 feet away, the horses aren’t shy about coming quite close to visitors, as you can see below :)
We also got to see a sea turtle rescue in progress! This gal was being carted off the island after being found with too many barnacles on her shell. They were taking her to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, which we’d visited!
Several kids napped on the hourlong drive back to St. Simons, charging us up for a quick bike over to Southern Soul BBQ for dinner.
We were really looking forward to it, as we had biked by the day before and it had smelled so good, but… we were disappointed. However, I think we’re liable for some of the blame — as good North Carolinians, we ordered pulled pork with vinegar sauce, and it was pretty flavorless. Maybe we should have ordered the brisket, or their signature sweet sauce? However, the coleslaw and potato salad were also pretty flavorless, so I don’t think the blame rests solely with us.
We biked home, stopping by St. Simons Sweets for ice cream cones before an evening dip in the pool and showers before turning on Survivor.
As our last full day, we had kept Thursday’s itinerary purposefully open so that we could revisit favorites from earlier in the week if we wanted. We started with breakfast at Palm Coast, which ended up being everyone’s favorite breakfast spot. (We were seated right away, which probably helped!) Then we biked our way over to the World War II Home Front Museum.
Housed in the original Coast Guard station for St. Simons Island, it’s operated by the same group as the lighthouse museum, the Coastal Georgia Historical Society. Both of these museums were beautiful, impressive, and really well done — they must have some generous benefactors!
The kids truly enjoyed the Home Front Museum. You know how sometimes you go to a museum and the technology is pretty cruddy? This was not that. Everything was custom, responsive, clever, and so well done. We completed radar training, navigated airships, learned to tie knots, built Liberty ships, sent code, and more. We spent about two hours at the museum before biking over to lunch at Fiddler’s, which won top marks from all of us for vibes. Our food was great, too!
And then we were off for a final beach visit. It started out great: Annie and I sculpted a mermaid in the sand, June and Shep worked on a sand barrier at the shoreline, and John perfected his skim boarding technique. Inspired by his progress, I gave it a few more goes… only to crumple to the sand in pain on my third try. To make a long story short, the pain worsened throughout the afternoon and evening (including through dinner at Coastal Kitchen, which was otherwise very nice) – I even made John carry me out to the car because I didn’t feel I could walk on it. After ice, elevation, pain meds, and a night of sleep, I was feeling much better in the morning. We still went straight to the urgent care orthopedic clinic once back in Raleigh, where they confirmed I had a midfoot sprain (but thankfully no fracture!).
A week later, I am out of my boot, mostly pain-free, and almost walking normally. I trust the happy memories from our trip will far outlast the hiccup at the end :)
One more tiny detail to share! Throughout the week we worked on a Magic Puzzle, and it was the perfect interstitial activity. We did one for the first time last spring break after borrowing it from my sister and liked it so much we decided to buy a different one and bring it along. They’re really well done, complete with intricate illustrations, novelty-shape pieces, and a shape-shifting surprise at the end. Highly recommend!
As always, thank you for letting me share! I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about St. Simons in the comments!
Though I have been to Maine almost every year of my life, I had never been to Acadia National Park until summer 2025. This often surprised people, and felt like a gap that needed be filled in my Maine resume. Last year, we decided to rectify the situation, and in August, we made it happen. I’d love to share some photos and a few details on what we did, if you’d like to see!
Like many national parks, Acadia takes a bit of work to reach. We flew into Portland (Breeze has a direct flight from Raleigh!), rented an SUV, and drove an hour and a half north to spend a few days with my family on our island in the Midcoast region. And we weren’t alone! It was a delight to travel with family friends and get to introduce them to our beloved place.
Day One
After a few days in the Midcoast, we drove 2.5 hours further north to reach Mount Desert Island, home to Acadia. We arrived in time for a late lunch at the appropriately-named Lunch Bar Harbor. It’s on the Village Green (one of two central hubs in Bar Harbor — the other is the waterfront) and it was tough to find parking even on a Tuesday afternoon. This made us thankful we’d rented bikes for the week, meaning this was one of the only times we’d need to find parking downtown. We ate our paninis and grilled cheeses on the green, picked up a few cookies from The Sweet Bite to bring on our hike, and hopped back in the cars to head to the park.
John had mapped out our hikes in advance, and Tuesday afternoon’s was the Gorham Mountain/Cadillac Cliffs loop. As usual, he did a fantastic job, selecting a hike that had a great view at the top and was challenging but not too taxing for the kids (five of them, who ranged in age from four to nine). Everyone enjoyed navigating the iron rings, crawling through rock tunnels, and bouldering up the mountainside.
Though we were a bit short on water (since we had partially emptied our bottles at lunch) the cookies were a great reward at the top, as was the beautiful view of Sand Beach. In total our loop was 1.7 miles.
Once back at the bottom, we piled into our cars and drove about 15 minutes out of the park and back into town to check into our rental home. After considering several options all over Mount Desert Island, we opted for this one, and we were very pleased with it! In addition to the floor plan, aesthetic, and amenities (a goodie basket of local treats, s’mores supplies, a foosball table and so many toys in the garage, and the best host guidebook I’ve seen in years), we loved that it’s owned by MDI natives who teach at the high school on the island.
Bethany and I quickly made a grocery list and drove a minute or two into town to pick up supplies for the week at Hannaford’s. Dinner our first night was at Abel’s Lobster, a picturesque spot on Somes Sound (the only fjord on the East Coast!) with an incredible sunset view.
We waited about 45 minutes for a table (they don’t take reservations), but there’s plenty to look at while you wait. We wandered down to the marina next door, played a bit of corn hole, and got drinks at the bar. Once we sat down the food was delicious.
In addition to its three bedrooms, our rental had a yurt, and that’s where the kids slept. Though it was a tiny bit nerve-wracking (it was located about hundred feet from the house with no way to lock it) the kids were excited to sleep in such adventurous surroundings. It also meant the adults were free to chat, play games, and move freely about the house in the evenings without worrying about waking anyone up, which was a real gift!
Day Two
The only small downside to our rental? It was at the top of a steep hill, which meant every bike ride to and from town — including our first one on Wednesday morning to pick up our bikes — ended with a final push of exertion. We just told the kids they were earning their ice cream :)
We rented bikes from Acadia Outfitters, which was fine, but the guide book said Bar Harbor Bicycle Shop was hands-down the best bike rental option and because they didn’t steer us wrong otherwise I’d choose them if we could do it over.
After stowing the bikes and breakfast at home we drove out to hike the South Bubble. I had heard horror stories about Acadia hike parking while planning this trip, but this was one of the only, or perhaps only, times we had to wait for a parking spot. (It was a small lot, for one of the park’s most popular hikes, and we waited about 20 minutes.)
This hike was just fine but probably the least interesting for our crew, which tracks with my grand theory of hiking with kids: they are so much more likely to complain on an easier-but-boring trail than they are on a harder, more interesting trail. Though more challenging hikes might seem intimidating, we find that they’re almost always the better pick for our crew.
Something else I’ve realized over the years: I’m not afraid of heights, but I am afraid of edges, especially when it comes to kids. While I was never worried about edges on the Gorham Mountain hike, South Bubble made me quite nervous at times.
This all sounds kind of negative, but it was a lovely hike and fun to spot our next destination while still up on high: Jordan Pond House! We were not able to make a reservation in advance (they only release a few for each day) so we waited about 30 minutes for a table — but again, there was plenty to do, and the kids enjoyed poking around at the edge of the pond until our number was called.
We sat on the lawn for lunch and had a picturesque view on a bluebird day. We ordered a few of their famous popovers to split (so yummy); I ordered the chicken pot pie, which is also served over a popover. I loved the whole experience, but if you have a kid who’s nervous around bees (as we do) just know that they come out in droves when the jam arrives with the popovers. They have a whole jam protocol in place and no one got stung, but just something good to know.
One more random note: the bathrooms at Jordon Pond House, a park property, were not great. This was kind of surprising, because it’s otherwise a nice spot, and the bathrooms everywhere else we went in the park were fine.
After wrapping up lunch, we drove over to Cadillac Mountain for our 3pm reservation. (Timed entry is $6 and slots open 48 hours in advance.) We spent an hour and a half at the top: taking in the view, clambering over the rocks, looking at the ranger’s interactive activities, chatting, and picking and eating a LOT of huckleberries. Fun fact: Cadillac is the highest peak within 50 miles of the East Coast all the way until you reach Brazil!
That night we opted to eat an earlier dinner at home (spaghetti and meatballs in the backyard, yum) then biked downtown for ice cream at Jordan Pond Ice Cream & Fudge Shop. This was at the other green center of Bar Harbor, the one on the waterfront, and it was a good five degrees colder than at our rental. We were sad we forgot our sweatshirts! (We visited in late July/early August and had impeccable weather — sunny skies and mid-70s temps with just one grayer day.)
While at the waterfront we spotted the restaurant, Geddy’s, where we had a reservation for our final night’s dinner. My heart sunk a bit when I saw it, because while I’m sure it is perfectly lovely, it looked a little more touristy than I had anticipated. Put a pin in that, we’ll revisit :)
Day Three
Thursday was Shep’s birthday! We ate breakfast at the house then headed to the park to start our day at Anemone Cave. Like a few other attractions in Acadia, this one needed to be timed to the tide, as you can’t enter the cave if the tide is too high. (We used this site to check the tides in advance.)
Not only did we hit the tide right, but we hit the crowds right, too — when we arrived, there was only one other family present, but by the time we left there were about 40 people inside.
When it got more crowded we walked along the coast to explore the tide pools, which the kids loved. In addition to the eponymous anemones we saw an urchin, periwinkles, hermit crabs, regular crabs, and — after MUCH dedicated searching by John — a beautiful palm-sized sea star.
From there we drove a few minutes along the park loop to Sand Beach. By this time it was spitting a bit – not your ideal beach day – but we made the most of it, dipping our toes in, throwing the football, and exploring the lagoon behind the dunes. We also ate the picnic lunch we had packed back at the house. To be fair, we might not have swum much more even if it had been sunny — the ocean temp was about 53 degrees during our visit — so we didn’t mind having a cloudy day.
After an hour and a half or so we returned our beach supplies to the cars and set out on foot for Thunder Hole — a 10-minute walk along the coast. Thunder Hole is another of Acadia’s more-famous destinations, but John had wisely warned us to keep our expectations low (which, as all EFM readers know, is a major key to life happiness!). He was right to do so, because even though we arrived in the ideal mid-tide range, it was a calm day at sea and the Hole was not particularly thunder-y.
We had left this afternoon open in our schedule. After realizing it was our best chance to take the bikes on the carriage roads, we zipped back to the house, repacked, and zoomed down the hill to meet the free Island Explorer bus at 3:15pm. We had the bus to ourselves and riding on a mini coach bus was an exciting novelty to the kids :)
We opted to ride around Eagle Lake, a 6-mile loop. Though we saw plenty of e-bikes, we were all on manual bikes — the big kids on their own, our friends’ five-year-old on a tagalong and Annie (4) in a trailer. There were some hills as we pedaled through the peaceful, misty Maine forests, but the kids conducted themselves valiantly and we made the 4:30pm bus home with time to spare.
Dinner that night was at Side Street Cafe (we rode our bikes downtown) and we were grateful we made a reservation. We all enjoyed our food and the kids really enjoyed the complimentary air-dry clay handed out with the menus, which did a bang-up job at keeping them occupied. We ended the night with birthday cake back at the house, and I think Shep felt celebrated even though he had to blow out three hastily-lit matches instead of birthday candles :)
Day Four
Friday, our last full day, dawned bright, warm, and crisp once again. We biked downtown to Jordan’s Restaurant, drawn in by the blueberry pancakes on the sign out front. While the blueberry pancakes themselves were a bit underwhelming, the blueberry muffins were particularly delicious and the classic diner vibe was a delight.
From there, we pedaled down a side street to the sandbar to Bar Island. This was our final destination that required timing the tide, as the sand bar only opens for the hour and a half around low tide (and they won’t let you forget it, with dire signage warning you to be back across to the mainland at the appropriate time lest you be stranded and require a $150 water taxi rescue). We moseyed our way across, stopped to stack several rock cairns on the far side, then walked up to the summit for a view of downtown.
Once safely back across the sandbar, we split up: June and the moms headed to the Village Green for a tiny bit of shopping (Window Panes was easily our favorite store!) while the dads took the other kids to Sherman’s in search of keychains. We met up to return our bikes then walked back to the house to have a clear-the-fridge lunch.
Up until now our day had gone pretty much as we had planned it, but in the afternoon we veered from our itinerary and it was 1000% the right decision. Isn’t that a good feeling?! We ended up canceling our kayak rental as well as our 5:15 Geddy’s reservation, and instead, we were able to do our planned final hike — Beech Cliffs — at a more leisurely pace AND have time to take a dip in Echo Lake at the end.
Beech Cliffs was a perfect final hike, a real crowdpleaser with four ladders to climb and a gorgeous view of Echo Lake and the far islands at the top.
Swimming in Echo Lake was a delight, too — much warmer than expected (about 75 degrees!) and just so fun to swim in the shadow of a mountain.
After changing back into clothes in the parking lot, we drove straight to our new dinner spot, plucked from the pages of our rental hosts’ guidebook: Sweet Pea’s Farm Kitchen. We were charmed from the minute we stepped foot on property: there were high-bush blueberries to graze on while we waited for our table, a fire pit to gather around, rolling green paths for the kids to run and chase each other, and a sumptuous garden filled with tomatoes, leafy greens, sunflowers, dahlias, and so many other beautiful things.
This dinner lives on as a perfect evening in my memory: good friends, delicious food (wood-fired pizza and jewel-like salads!), a soft sunset, and fun conversation recapping our highs and lows from the trip. 10/10 would recommend if you ever find yourself in Acadia.
Because we couldn’t help ourselves, we ended the evening with one last scoop of ice cream at Mt. Desert Island Ice Cream – our favorite of the shops we tried (of which there are many in MDI).
Day Five
After packing up and checking out of our rental, we made a last-minute decision to visit the Bass Harbor Head Light Station before going our separate ways. It was a bit out of the way, but an easy path down to the water once we got there and worth taking the scenic route out of town.
And there you have it, friends! As an honorary Mainer, I am SO glad I can finally say I’ve been to Acadia, and would heartily commend it to any reader looking for a New England adventure. Happy to answer any questions in the comments, as always!
Though John was joking when he talked about ordering up the “perfect weather package,” you could have fooled me – the weather for our time on Hilton Head Island was practically perfect in every way: mid- to high-70s during the day, sunshine and blue skies, a cool sea breeze blowing in off the ocean, and low humidity. Bliss!
The part of our spring break we actually could control – the itinerary – was pretty good, too :) I’d love to tell you about it, and share a few photos, too, if you’d like to see.
We chose to make the drive on Monday morning, meaning that we had the whole weekend before we left to pack, prepare, relax, and look forward with anticipation, a beginning that seemed positively luxurious. Listening to The Wild Robot audiobook (which we did for free through Spotify Premium) made the five-hour drive go by in a snap – it was equally engaging for the 3-, 6-, and 9-year-old riders as well as the grown-up ones. Plenty of audiobooks have not held all three of our kids’ attention, but this one was a winner all around.
With a lunch stop (at Lowcountry Produce, an old favorite!), we arrived on the island around 4pm and drove straight to pick up our rental bikes. (We had planned to bring our own, but a craaaazy situation the week before we left – getting gas from a station that had its diesel and regular unleaded tanks swapped, meaning we filled up with diesel (!!!) – left our car in the shop and us driving a rental van to South Carolina). We had enough time to unpack, explore the house, and make a quick trip to the beach before a storm blew in and rain began to pour.
As usual, John did a fantastic job finding our rental house. It’s always tricky to situate yourself in a place you’ve never been, especially on an island as large as Hilton Head, but we’re happy with where we landed – about a 10-minute bike ride from Coligny Plaza (a central cluster of shops and restaurants) and just 88 steps (as promised in the listing!) from a stretch of wide, pristine, nearly empty beach.
The house itself wasn’t fancy, but it was a family’s dream – as far as we could tell, lovingly stocked by a pair of grandparents. There were sand toys for the beach and pool toys for the heated pool; a beach wagon, towels, and chairs; a stool to reach the bathroom sink; and books, toys, and stuffies in the double-over-double bunk room. The only negative, in my view, was that the pool was not fenced, and so I was on low-key alert at all times, and we had to keep the kids on a tighter leash than usual in terms of being outside without us. You can find the Airbnb listing for “Beach Nest” here or book directly with the owners, Rick and Denise, for a discount here. (No kickback to me – they just had a little card with the info in the house and I thought I’d pass it along!)
The rain tapered off as we pulled up to Fat Baby’s Pizza. It’s a casual, family-friendly spot, and we were seated right away when we walked in at 6:30. They serve enormous slices of thin crust (though not New York-style) pizza. The kids gobbled up the pizza and were entranced by the screens at each table that displayed the colored placemats of past pint-size diners. They studiously bent over their own coloring sheets, scanning them just before we left – and were delighted when they showed up on the screen, too!
We stopped at Publix on the way home for some drinks and a few beach snacks, then tucked everyone into bed.
The next morning, after a quick breakfast at home, we loaded up the wagon and headed straight over the dunes to the beach. While the water was a bit too cold for full-on swimming, the kids had a grand time skipping through the waves, building sandcastles, and throwing the frisbee. We fully availed ourselves of the house’s beach supplies, adding only our trusty Shibumi, the pride of North Carolina.
We walked back to the house after a few hours, showered off, and then rode our bikes the short trip to The Sandbar, just down the road at Coligny Plaza. (That’s the bike path, below.) Though not directly on the ocean, it had the feel of a beachside shack, and we ordered accordingly: fish tacos for me, a sausage, peppers, and onions sub for John, and various fried things for the children.
After lunch, we decided to venture across the road to Lowcountry Celebration Park, a sparkling gem of HHI. And rightly so – it’s a very cool playground with a pirate ship climbing apparatus at its center and water elements and boardwalks (with gators!) all around. The playground was nearly empty when we were there in the early afternoon; John and I happily swung on a bench swing, watching our kids play and listening to the HHI Symphony rehearsing in the amphitheater for a performance that night.
After an hour or so, we biked back to the house via the beach, changed clothes, and switched into the van to drive to Harbourtown, a marina and shopping hub nestled in Sea Pines.
Sea Pines is a giant, beautiful resort community that takes up a quarter or so of Hilton Head. We were thrilled to find a surprise Sea Pines pass waiting for us at our rental, but were prepared to pay the $9 per day entrance fee. (If you go, know that the fee must be paid in cash.)
We gazed around, exclaiming, as we drove through the live oaks, taupe-and-green Lowcountry homes, and alligator-filled lagoons that make up Sea Pines. Then, with a bit of time before our dinner reservation, we did the tourist thing and climbed the Harbourtown Lighthouse. There’s a beautiful view at the top and some fun Coast Guard history as you climb the steps. It’s a quick attraction and we still had time to admire the ships in the marina and play at the playground under the oaks before our 6pm reservation at Quarterdeck.
Though Quarterdeck was one of our fancier dinners, we found it to be quite family-friendly: the tables are situated around a bar, so the noise level was pretty high, and the atmosphere was upscale casual. The kids’ entrees also came with a side option of roasted vegetables, which, being the mean parents we are, we made all three order. (One ate all of them, one ate half, and one ate almost none, which we considered a success.) Back at the house, we cuddled up to watch the first half of The Wild Robot movie.
Wednesday was another beautiful morning, and we started with breakfast at Watusi Cafe. It was a bit hard to tell what we were in for from the internet, but what we found was an upscale setting with a decidedly warm and friendly feel. Our waitress, Bernie, was a huge part of that and it was a delight to chat with her. The food was delicious, too… even though Shep looked like he had rolled in chocolate chips after finishing his loaded pancakes.
From there, we drove out to the west side of the island to meet our captain for an 11am dolphin tour, booked through Dolphin Discoveries.
We had originally planned to rent kayaks and explore the marsh that way, but couldn’t figure out the proper combination of family members and boats to make that work at our kids’ ages. So, we splurged for the more expensive private boat tour, and were very glad we did. We loved our captain, saw tons of dolphins just a few feet from our boat, learned more about the area and its waterways, and skipped the frustration that inevitably would have resulted from two adults trying to paddle three small children in the hot sun with nary a dolphin in sight.
Back on land, we hopped in the car and made a brief visit to the Coastal Discovery Museum. I would not necessarily recommend it if you’re planning your own vacation – we wanted to visit because it was nearby and I had been there for a Southern Weddings photo shoot many years ago and wanted to show a specific arching tree branch to the family, but it’s a tiny operation and not much of an attraction.
But from there, we drove about ten minutes to Fish Haul Beach Park, which I would recommend. It’s a quiet beach with tide pools, muddy flats, sandbars, and rocky outcroppings, perfect for exploring – which we did! We even managed not to lose any shoes in the mud :)
After an hour or so of exploring, we headed back to the house and the kids finally (their words) got to cannonball into the backyard pool. I loaded up a plate with snacks – slices of Croc Bite cheddar cheese, circles of salami, crackers, grapes, baby carrots, and pickled green beans – and we devoured it in between games of Marco Polo. Eventually, John hauled himself out and fired up the grill to cook a few hot dogs, which we ate poolside.
With the sun low in the sky, we showered off, hopped on our bikes, and rode on the beach to Coligny Plaza for ice cream cones at The Frozen Moo.
Thursday we had another quick breakfast at home, then drove back to Sea Pines to hike the Sea Pines Forest Preserve. Where the Coastal Discovery Museum’s trails were a bit underwhelming, the Sea Pines ones were glorious, with boardwalks twisting through green swamps, spindly waterbirds, a wildflower meadow dotted with bright blooms, and alligators lurking in lagoons. We explored for about an hour and it was well worth our time.
Lunch was at Truffles Cafe in Sea Pines, where we had made an emphatically unnecessary reservation – there were maybe two other tables occupied in the restaurant. This was probably our worst meal choice of the week, not because the food was bad – it was not! – but because the atmosphere wasn’t really matched to what we were looking for. It was more of a ladies-who-lunch vibe, and would have been a better pick for a fancier dinner. Just not really what we needed for a quick lunch after hiking!
We headed back to the house, changed into our suits and sunscreen, and trotted out to the beach for two hours or so for more sandcastles, wading, and kicking the ball around. Then it was back to the pool for another two hours of Marco Polo, tag, and cannonball contests. The pool was small, but just big enough for our family of five to happily play, and plenty warm thanks to the heater.
Then it was time for showers (is there anything better than showering before dinner after a day outside at the beach or pool?) and a short drive out to Hudson’s, a Hilton Head institution for over 50 years. 90% of their seafood comes from local waters, including from their own boat and processing facility right next door. They don’t take reservations, but our 45-minute wait for an outdoor table on the docks (our longest of the week) was well worth it. The kids loved watching the terns wheel and dive and the crabs scuttle in the tanks, awaiting their fate.
Our original plan was to mini golf after dinner, but with the wait we ended our meal later than we expected, so we headed home to watch the second half of The Wild Robot and shifted mini golf to the next day, our final night.
We had left the itinerary for Friday, our final day, mostly open. We ended up repeating several favorites from earlier in the week: a bike ride for breakfast at Watusi Cafe and playing at Celebration Park, then time at the beach followed by playing at the pool and charcuterie snacks back at the house.
We had an early dinner reservation at Coast in Sea Pines, and it was the perfect way to end our vacation – I’d highly recommend placing it as a capstone to your trip, if you can swing it. Coast is a beautiful oceanfront restaurant, and we had made an outdoor reservation. There was live music, golden late-afternoon light, and yummy food: just one of those meals when you look around at your beautiful family and beautiful surroundings and soak in how grateful you are. We walked out to the beach after dinner, then mini golfed at Pirate’s Island, as promised.
(A note to the kind readers who gave me HHI recommendations, many of whom mentioned Gregg Russell’s Harbourtown concerts: we had planned to go to his Friday night concert, but a sign was posted earlier in the week to say it was canceled! Next time, I suppose :))
As always, thank you for letting me share! I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about Hilton Head in the comments!
It seems funny to return to a sunny summer adventure here at the end of the year, but I couldn’t let our biannual family trip to Northern Michigan pass without a mention on EFM! As always, we loved our time visiting with extended family (there were 35 of us in total!) and exploring the picturesque towns and lakes of the North.
In its original form, this post was supposed to include not only photos from our trip but my answers to your questions about organizing extended family vacations and reunions. I’d been plugging away at the draft for weeks (you had such good – and so many! – questions!) and was about 3/4 done… but alas, it’s just a few days before Christmas and time to get this post up. I’ve tabled the longer discussion for the new year and look forward to revisiting it. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy a peek at our time in one of our favorite places in the world!
(I’ve written many times before about Northern Michigan with more detail, but don’t hesitate to ask if you have questions about where we are or what we’re doing!)
I took almost the exact same photo (on the right) a few years ago – same girls, just reading longer books now :)
In the midst of all the kayaking, fishing, dune jumping, ice cream eating, card games, family meals, and s’mores we took a few family photos, and they are a treasure. I’ll use one to wish you all a very merry Christmas, peaceful time with the ones you love, and a few moments to celebrate the birth of a most special tiny baby – Emmanuel, God with us. I’ll be back in a few days with 2024 superlatives and my yearly recap. xo!
