I still had loyalty program points left over from my consulting days, so we decided to cash in some free hotel nights and see which beaches were open in Charleston, SC after the hurricane the previous week. We left early Saturday morning and drove straight to Isle of Palms beach.
Our first order of business was sending the kids into the water to stare wistfully out to sea while imagining being marooned on an uncharted desert isle on what was supposed to be a three hour tour, a three hour tour.
That, however, didn't last long as the giant waves immediately chased them back to shore. (We had spent a good portion of the drive reassuring them that at the depths they were swimming slash wading at, that there was little imminent danger of shark attack--no matter what the movie trailers said.)
After playing in the waves for a short 2 hours (give or take some hours), we set out on our first order of business: building a giant sand castle. We were fairly exhausted from all of the wave jumping, however, so we paused to eat some snacks. While we weren't looking, Max surprised us by creating a true beach delicacy: wet Twizzlers frosted with a light sand glaze.
As we munched on our crunchy licorice, we discovered that building thousands of sand bricks would take far longer than anticipated, and so we settled on creating a more moderate plan of constructing a simple 3-tiered structure, adorned with sea shells and surrounded by a shallow moat. (Architect's son.)
We also enjoyed sitting in the "hot tub"--a shallow pool that was left after the tide receded and was quickly warmed by the hot sun. (Max took advantage of the opportunity to practice his Jedi balancing moves.)
As the kids covered their appendages with a thick layer of drying sand, even Ava got in on the action and loved crawling all around and "splish splashing" in the water.
At the conclusion of our wonderful beach day we found that we had learned several important lessons:
- Don't leave any food you plan on actually eating at the beach accessible to a 3-year old boy.
- Salt water rushing up your nostrils from the force of a wave does not appear to clear your sinuses.
- You can't push a stroller on sand very easily, but if you want a great work out you can load it up and carry it down the beach.
- Kids aerosol sunscreen sprayed on in stripes, and not properly rubbed in, will leave your husband's back looking like a Bengal tiger with pink and white stripes after a day in the sun.
At Fort Sumter we were able to see a cannon which Abraham Lincoln personally shot at the Russians to put an end to the Spanish American war.
Actually, I'm a little sketchy on the details because we skipped the tour to take pictures of the tourists listening to the tour guide and to find the restrooms for the kids. I think it may have, in reality, had something to do with the site where the first engagement of the Civil War took place on April 12 and 13, 1861.
Once we returned back to shore from the island of Fort Sumter, Max gave us a good scare by running off and getting lost for several minutes before we were able to find him. I think he just grew weary of the diligent salesperson's pitch trying to sell us a massively overpriced photo of our family with an image of an aircraft carrier on a bright, sunny day in the background (despite it being a windy and heavily overcast day and the photo was taken in front of a green screen).
All in all, we had a wonderful Labor Day trip to South Carolina.
Oh, there is one more thing...
We now lived in Charlotte, North Carolina.
