Driving, driving, driving, and yet more driving.  We left Corbin, KY around 9:30 Central time for the last leg of our journey.  The kids endured the car ride better than expected (Jenna did get sick, but bounced back right away).  Portable DVD players are great.  Haley watched Nanny McPhee more times than I can count, but it kept her happy.

We did have to stop and get some exercise in along the way.

We drove through parts of three states today, with the bulk of the time in Indiana.  It is a boring state, but at least the clouds looked nice.

We got home at 8:30pm, unloaded the car and basically collapsed.  I’ve got to be at work tomorrow.  My company was sold while I was away, so tomorrow should be quite interesting.

I hope you enjoyed the trip, and I hope you’ll have a chance to join us on another trip soon.

Well, I still have a lot of blogging I want to do from this previous week, but our connection at the beach was just too poor to keep up, so I’ll have to catch up instead.  It’s Saturday and we’re half way home.  The girls are all asleep in our hotel room, and I’m uploading/downloading photos.  I’ve taken almost six hundred photos with the borrowed DSLR, and yes, I do expect you to view every single one of them over at Flickr.

Oh, just kidding.  It’s late, I’m tired, so here’s just a random picture I like from our trip.

Good night.

Well, it’s time to head home today.  Before we leave the island (No!  I don’t want to go!!!) we have to stop by the mall and order some photos from Legacy Design.  There was a special event at the mall today put on by PetCo (or was it PetsMart), so while Jenna played, Haley and I looked at all the dogs and cats that were on display.  Haley really, really wants a dog now.  She got upset because the only pet she’s allowed to have are fish, and “they don’t do anything!  They just swim around.  You can’t do ANYTHING fun with them!”

Too cute.

We also saw other interesting pets there too, including:

After lunch at Philly’s, we hit the road.  We went through parts of four states and drove about 500 miles to Corbin, KY.  We’re half way home.

Our last full day on the island. 

Becky and Haley enjoyed seeing the sunrise so much that we all got up early today to see the sunrise and to play on the beach.  Avoiding the heat of the day allowed us (especially Jenna) to really enjoy the beach.  I went absolutely camera crazy today, and took over 300 pictures today.  Here are some of my favorites:

In the afternoon we went to Shelter Cove for a dolphin cruise.  It was a nice boat ride, and yes, we saw a few dolphin too.  On the trip back, the captain let the kids each have a turn steering the boat.

At sunset we met with a photographer to pose for family photos on the beach.  Becky and I donned the traditional white shirt and khaki pants, but the girls chose more colorful couture.  When the photographer was done, I pulled out the camera and took advantage of the remaining light.  Tomorrow we have to stop by the mall to view the proofs and order some prints.

I didn’t take a single picture today.  Becky took a couple with the point-n-shoot, but none that turned out too good.  The humidity fogged the camera up quite a bit.

Today was the only day with rain.  It held off for most of the day, so we swam in the pool a lot.  When the thunder rolled in, we went to the condo and watched a movie.  Dinner at the Old Oyster Factory.

Becky and Haley got up to see the sun rise from the beach.

Jenna’s feeling much better today, so we’re spending a lot of time at the pool to make up for the fun she missed out on yesterday.  After the pool we did a little shopping at the Pineland Mall.  It is HOT out today.

I’ve been slacking off on the blog for a couple good reason.  The first is that we’re having too much fun!!  The other is that even with the Sprint card, connectivity is challenging here.

I’m going to try to upload a bunch of photos later tonight, and I’ll link them here.  Here’s a quick recap of what we’ve been doing:

Sunday we spent most of the day at the beach or in the pool.  Once again I’m learning the importance of sun screen the hard way.  Nothing serious yet, just a little red.  We capped the day off with a little night time mini golf.  Jenna got a legitimate hole-in-one!

Monday was Haley’s Eighth Birthday.  We can hardly believe how fast she’s growing up.  Since it was her special day, we let her pick everything we did.  This included swimming, of course, and an early dinner at the Crazy Crab.  We finished the day with a movie and popcorn in our room.

Today is day five, and it’s been a pretty slow day.  The one drawback to those dark curtains that hotels often use (and that are in our condo) is that you end up sleeping way too late.  But, it is vacation, after all, and we were up late last night so, I guess it’s okay.  After a quick breakfast (Jenna left her breakfast on the balcony, to the delight of Mr. Cardinal), we decided to check out the playground that is near our condo.  We walked over and played for a bit, and then came back to our room.  It very hot today.  Jenna was feeling pretty poorly from the heat, so she and I are taking it easy in the AC while Becky and Haley swim for a bit.  We thought about renting bikes today, but it’s way too hot for that today.  We’d ALL have heat exhaustion! 

We also had a chance to visit with some of the island natives!

Well, that’s all for now.  I’ll try to get as many pictures online tonight that my connection will allow.  Remember, you can find them all here.

Today is Haley’s eighth birthday, so we let her set the agenda for the day.  We started the day with presents, of course!  Haley got some clothes from Justice, a Wii game, and the new Miley Cyrus cd.

We spent most of the day in Sea Pines visiting South Beach Marina and Harbortown.  Ice cream and souvenirs at the Salty Dog Cafe is a tradition, as is climbing up the lighthouse.

Our first full day on the Island.  We spent most of this day swimming, either at the pool, or in the ocean, and checking out our surroundings.  I’ll regret not wearing sunblock later in the week.

We bought fresh shrimp from the grocery, and had dinner in our condo.  After dinner, we took a drive which included a stop at one of the creepiest cemeteries I’ve ever seen, Union Cemetery.  It’s not as creepy as when Becky and I discovered it almost 17 years ago (they built a golf course across the street), but it still has a charm all of its own.  The graves are scattered about without the usually rows and columns, and several of the markers are homemade and hand-written.  The oak trees and abundant Spanish moss and the giant spiders complete the ambiance.

Started out from Williamsburg, KY.  Becky had been worried that we’d end up spending the night at some flea-bag Motel 6 type of place.  She said the Cumberland Inn had changed her overall perception of Kentucky!

Our route took us near Asheville, NC, so we thought we’d try to drive by the Builtmore estate.  This sign and a very, very brief glimpse of the house from the Interstate was as close as we got.  Kids get in free, but adults need a $51 ticket.  We thought about just sending Haley and Jenna in with the car and a camera.

Driving through the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina was a beautiful drive, but I was thankful to reach South Carolina.  We stopped at a rest stop near Columbia and experienced our first dose of the Carolina heat.  It was 103 and humid.  I LOVED it!

The butterflies at the rest stopped seemed undeterred by the heat also:

We reached Hilton Head around 7 PM and went directly to the Beach and Tennis Resort and got settled.  The girls were very anxious to see the beach, so we headed out there to play a little and take some pictures.  The sun was already setting, so we weren’t out there very long, and we were getting hungry for dinner.

After checking out the beach and the pool, we were very hungry, and it was getting late.  We headed toward our favorite restaurant, the one we always visit first when we get to the island.  When we got there, we were very surprised to see an empty lot!  A curve ball, for sure, but that’s when Cha-Cha came to the rescue!  I called Cha-cha and asked for Remy’s Bar and Grill’s address and phone number.  In just a few moments we found out that Remy’s had just moved, not closed.  Sure, I could have just called 411, but Cha-cha is free, and just plain cool

We were all quite tired when we got home, so we went right to sleep, with plans to sleep in.