Stan and I rented a house at Edisto Island in June. Jenny and Kyle and their family, Luke and Hannah and their family, came to stay with us.
On a side note: We booked the house through VRBO and I won't do that again. We made the reservation and gave them the information to make the initial payment. They were suppose to take out the final payment first of May. I assumed they did. Then, two weeks into May, we get a phone call from the owner of the house. Seems like VRBO didn't take out the 2nd payment and we were in danger of losing our first payment and the reservation. They told the owner they couldn't get in touch with us. Since the owner of the house did get in touch with us, I find that hard to believe. And, why they had all our information from the first payment and had told us they would do the 2nd payment first of May, I don't know how they could say they hadn't received the payment. The VRBO app did't work. And who do you call to take care of the situation? It took us half a day to finally get someone at VRBO who could handle taking the payment. Also, once we were at the house, the flooding caused all appliances to go out of power. We had lights but no air conditioning, no fridge, stove, etc. Stan started his career in construction as an electrician and is now an industrial engineer and maintenance manager. He tried to call the owner about the problem but the poor owner of the house didn't know what to do. So Stan had to take over and call the electric company who had to come out and temporary a new connection until the flooding went down. It took half a day to get the air back on. The owner was fortunate to have Stan staying there instead of someone who wouldn't have known what was wrong and what to do about it. And, of course, VRBO was no help at all to the owner or to us, as renters. A local realtor who is used to doing rentals would have been able to liaison about the payment and the electrical problem. They would have known what to do. So from now on, we will use a local realtor to book a vacation home/condo. VRBO did not best serve the owner or the renters.
We had such a good time together and the kids got along great! Here are some pictures of our vacation trip and the digital scrapbook pages I made of our beach trip.
Natalie with her Daddy, Kyle.
Brett
Chasing crabs at night by flashlight
Sorry my gown tail is hiked up too much.
We have never stayed there before but we liked it. We definitely didn't want to go to Myrtle Beach, SC. It's just too crowded and too much going on. We wanted a peaceful place and a safe place to let the children play. The restaurants we tried on the Island were very good. We had good pizza from one on the first night there. We were all so tired, we just couldn't cook and clean after the long trip. We went out to McConkey's Jungle one night. It was the best fried food we've had in a long time. Between all of us we had the fried pickles, fried mushrooms, fried fish, fried shrimp and it was delicious. Crispy, light and great flavor. Another night, after the two families left to go home (they had to leave a day or two early), Stan and I ate at the Waterfront Restaurant. It was also very good. I had the Parmesan and Horseradish Crusted Grouper and Stan had the Scallops St. Pierre and both were excellent. There was a long wait for those in larger parties. For just the two of us, we still had about a 20 mins wait which wasn't bad. But if go as a party, be prepared to wait. I don't know if they take reservations. There is a cute little park across the street if you need to let kids play while you wait. Both restaurants had menus on their websites so you can check for prices and menu items. Keep in mind, this is a small community and it's 2 hours from any larger towns (you have to drive inland a good ways and then go up or down Hwy 17) so the little grocery store, the restaurants and shops have a captive audience and can make for some crowding and wait times. For an introvert like me, that was uncomfortable, and for someone who hates to wait (like Stan), it's aggravating. The rest of the week, we cooked at the house for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We took turns cooking and cleaning. Everyone pitched in for a good time. The grocery store is small but does have the essentials. We had to make daily trips to the store for stuff although we brought a lot from home. It was a lot of pain to stock, transport and store all the groceries we brought (we had a tiny kitchen). But, it was probably for the best financially and for things they might not have had if we hadn't brought so much from home. Between all of us we had a pickup truck, our car and pull along trailer, Stan's car, Jenny's minivan with cargo bag on top.
The last day before we left, Stan and I drove to Bluffton, SC to shop at the thrift stores. People who buy and sell vacation homes and condos at Hilton Head Island are always changing out stuff so you can find some great things at these thrift stores. We ate lunch at Chow Daddy's and it was seriously delicious burgers. High end burgers but great food! This trip I didn't find anything at the thrift stores so it was a 4 hour round trip fail this time. But usually I find a lot of good stuff.
After having prepared for this trip since February, we couldn't believe it was over so soon. It made me very sad when they had to leave to go back home. We enjoyed being together so much. It took me a couple of weeks to recuperate and be emotionally ready to work on my beach trip pictures. Such wonderful memories!
