Edisto Island

So last week was G's Spring Break aka my favorite week of the year. We have several big events coming up--Joal's returning to Africa, replacing the atrocious carpet in our house with beautiful wood floors, and a trip to Texas when school's out, so in an effort to conserve dollars, we decided to forego the usual spring break vacation trip.

That is, until I realized that Joal was going to be working in Augusta, Georgia for three days of Spring Break. Now granted, Augusta, GA isn't known for being a hot vacation spot. Frankly, there's not much to do there, at all, but, it was someplace to go that didn't cost much (Joal was already planning to drive down and his hotel was a work expense)...basically we just had to eat...and we can do that pretty cheaply. And we got to be with Joal, instead of miss him.

Deciding to go with him on this little trip is probably the most sporadic thing we've done in a while. It was a very short conversation...and there was absolutely no planning...which is very much unlike me.

My boys have grown up traveling, staying in hotels and riding for long distances...their basic requirements are met if there's a pool at the hotel. :)

So on the drive down, I was looking at the map on my phone and discovered that we were going to be about 135 miles from the beach! The beach!! And not just any beach...Edisto Island, South Carolina...which has been on my list of beaches I want to visit for years, thanks to an old scrapbooking friend (Mel) who took some amazing pictures there many years ago.

If Augusta, GA, has anything working for it, it's that it's relatively close to a fabulous beach! Granted, 135 miles is not exactly a quick trip, but when you live in land-locked Tennessee where there is *no* salty water, 135 miles seems like a mere jaunt.

So we settled into a nice Hampton Inn and Suites in Augusta on Monday evening and the boys and I made our plan for going to Edisto Island, South Carolina on Tuesday. Tuesday morning, we got up a little later than I had planned, but we ended up arriving at Edisto Island in about three hours. One hundred and thirty five miles takes a bit longer forever to travel when it's 2-lane highways all the way and when there are about 645 turns along the way. Do you know how hard it is to obey the 45-mile-per-hour speed limit when you are headed to the beach? I did pretty good but it was a challenge on those back roads of South Carolina, I must admit. Still, we were getting a beach trip...so no one in my car really cared that it took us three hours. :)

Edisto Island is beyond words. Sometimes only photos will do.

The weather was wonderful...it was breezy and 75...the sun was shining! It's not "the season" in Edisto, so there were a total of 6 people on the beach...including the three of us. It was too cool to swim but we had a blast playing in the sun and the sand.

Edisto Island has a hundred or so privately-held beach houses along the coast, but in between the houses are public access points to the beach. Parking was a breeze at Point 38 and we enjoyed about 3 hours playing in the sand, wading into the ocean and hunting for shells, which were numerous. I'm grateful that the boys like the beach as much as their mother...Not that I wouldn't drag them along even if they didn't. :)

Edisto is very "un-commercial". There's a Piggly Wiggly for groceries, a gas station and a few restaurants. There's a state park. And the houses/rentals.

Tuesday also happened to be Greyson's 8th birthday! In previous years he's been a little bummed that his birthday usually falls during Spring Break as it means most of his friends are unavailable for a party. This year however, he declared that spending his birthday on the beach was "the best ever". :)

I concur.

--Sarah