Charleston/Kiawah Trip Report

All these rains in South Carolina (how awful, right?!?) jogged my memory that we had vacationed there during my blogging hiatus, and thus hadn't shared a proper trip report! So let's journey back to August 2014, shall we...
We rented a house on Kiawah Island, South Carolina for a week. With so much to bring and air travel basically taking as long as car travel by the time you accounted for layovers, having to get there early, etc, we decided to drive down. We left on a Friday afternoon and stopped half way to stay in a hotel overnight in order to break the trip up for the boys (or us?). We also packed tons of activities, treats, and other bribes for the boys to enjoy on their 8 hour car ride! Colton was awesome...Levi had a little more difficult time!

Driving also gave us the chance to stop in Charleston for a couple hours on the way in. We got some lunch at the Butcher and the Bee (yummy BBQ squash!) and explored a downtown farmer's market...and the beauty that is Charleston...for a bit.

After a bit of a scare in the form of a car accident which luckily turned out to be nothing more than a time delay, we finally arrived at our house for the week.  Before our vacation, I had a lot of confusion as to what Kiawah Island actually was. Turns out the island itself is home to several condos, homes, bike trails, beautiful beaches, and the Kiawah Resort. The resort itself has several restaurants, pools, and its own beaches. Our house was technically affiliated with the resort which meant we got resort privileges...could use the pools, gym, chairs on the beach, golf course at a discount (not important to me, but for Josh and my parents who were with us), etc. We debated whether that was necessary before booking, and once it was all said and done, I think we were all glad we had gone that route. It just gave us more options as far as things to do, especially because the Resort had two kid-friendly pools with slides and things that the kids loved! 

Over the course of the week, we did a lot of swimming...

And, of course, hit the beach.

One of Kiawah's trademarks is that people literally ride their bikes on the beach during low tide. Luckily, we were able to rent Colton a training wheels bike so he was able to experience it too!

Aside from tons of fun in the sun, we also managed to make it back to Charleston one day (it was about a 45 minute drive). We had lunch at the Tatooed Moose where we were sure to autograph the booth, did a carriage tour, and spent some time walking around. It was hotter than hot, but I'm glad we got to see some of the city. 

We also took some time to explore the Angel Oak, a 300-400 year old tree on Johns Island (which is about 20 minutes from Kiawah). Everyone made fun of me for scouting out this tree and wanting to see it, but it was pretty darn cool!

Of course, it wouldn't be a vacation without eating, and we did lots of it! Our best meal by far though was the night we had a chef come to the house to cook for us. I'm still dying over his shrimp and grits!

Overall it was a great week in a beautiful place. We made lots of memories, and have some beautiful pics to show for it!

But hands down my boys' favorite part...the part they still talk about most to this day...were the bunk beds! Their room had bunk beds...their first experience sleeping in them..and from that point on, they have expected each hotel to have them as well (which amazingly we have managed to find...). Every time they ask to go on vacation, my boys ask to go to the bunk beds in Kiawah (or Disney World, but that's for a different post), so it seems only fitting I leave you with a shot of their beloved bunk beds...