Kiawah Island 2018

This year Seth and I vacationed with the Lehmans on Kiawah Island. My family has been there twice before, both times with another family who introduced it to us in the first place. Not knowing when we picked the destination that we would have two injured family members, it turned out to be a great location with a good mix of relaxation and activity. Danny was a trooper with his broken collar bone and thankfully Dad’s back wasn’t hindering too much in respects to sand-castle building.

We headed out Father’s Day after church and drove to hotel in Kentucky, making a stop at Chinese buffet on the way. It was an honor to our patriarch who seems to enjoy lukewarm Chinese food more than some others in the family…I didn’t even think to warn Seth, who as a general rule avoids this particular ethnic cuisine, that this might be a possibility because, well, I don’t want to let out too many family secrets but Chinese food and traveling isn’t the best combination with Lehmans.

After stopping late at a hotel and getting up really early the next morning we kept heading east. I got to hang out in the room with these sleeping beauties for a while. Sometimes you just need a few minutes of quiet to stare at them and soak in the wonder of still, sleeping babies.

Once we got to the island, our days blurred together and we did the same thing over and over. Breakfast and devos, trip to the beach, home for supper, bike ride, ice cream, and games. Really, there was maybe one day that varied a bit but that sums up our five days on the island.

A few notes: (1) In case some of my readers haven’t tried this, by clicking on a picture collage you get a close-up of each picture within that collage. Most probably know the trick, but I don’t want anybody squinting at the tiny thumbnails. (2) I don’t remember exactly who took each picture so thanks Mom, Maria, and Jim for sharing photos 

Grocery shopping before heading on the island!

Our VRBO was great. Clean, updated and classy, and well-stocked. The kitchen and dining area was well suited for our needs, definitely a huge plus. We also spotted an alligator in the pond out back–something to enjoy from a distance.

Speaking of alligators, we saw a few on our bike rides. For being awkward on land they sure are graceful creatures in the water.

Lots of hours spent in the sun at the beach! The water was very warm, sometimes to the extreme that it wasn’t very refreshing. But it was still fun to be by the ocean and we spent hours in the swells. Some other favorite beach activities were building sandcastles, playing bocce ball and slammo, capturing tiny sea animals, and flying kites.

Dad’s interest in sandcastle building was piqued the first time we went to Kiawah. He bought a kit with an instructional video and found that the sand was easier to work with than what we played in on the West Coast. This year before going he continued his research and gathered the necessary gear for some serious castle building. And while the girls got groceries, Dad and Seth went to the hardware store to get a pump sprayer that is used to spritz water and glue over finished parts of each sculpture. Some lasted a few days but in the end the water or wind had the final word.

A highlight of Kiawah is the biking. It’s our mode of transportation to the beach and ice cream shop and a great way to tour the island. Since Danny was still healing from a broken collar bone and had switched to an adult tricycle he didn’t go on many long rides with us. Overall, he was a great sport and the extra large basket on his trike was convenient for hauling things to the beach.

And before we were too sunburned we got some family photos.

Doing vacation in mid June means that the rest of the summer you don’t have a week long getaway to look forward to, but it also means that you can get your blog post up before the end of August. So I guess that’s a win