island camping

in a previous post, i alluded to our family's non-camping travel style.  this is a great difference to how i generally traveled in my childhood, which was predominantly tent-based.  i have not, particularly, missed camping & have developed quite a fondness for motel travel....but i really wanted the boys to have a try at it.  SO i jumped at the chance to join my brother and his family, who are regular campers, on a beach vacation down at Hunting Island State Park.  okay, so i know that summer beach camping is a potentially perilous start to developing a love of tents & sleeping bags - but i was willing to chance it.

a long & steady drive down to within close proximity of the Georgia line,

and we arrived at the beautiful but eroding beach.

boys marking out lines for a game of two-square

my sweet brother brought one of their tents for us to use (we, actually, do posses a couple of small ones) and provided some refresher instructions on how to get it into a standing position.  tents really are so much easier to put up now than in my childhood, which involved metal poles and heavy canvas.

view towards the ocean.  yes, that is a Sandra Boynton sheet on my bed.

room with a view

 fortunately, we only had one rainstorm,

and it chose to arrive early one morning

rather than in the middle of the night.

thank you.

the wind during the storm was fairly ferocious, but i simply gently pushed out the oceanside of the tent every few minutes & we survived just fine.  no flooding, either, which was great!

beach four-square with cousins

 the cousins are as stairsteps:
Samuel (16), Joseph (13), Alex (10), and Samantha (7).

Alex, Joseph, Sam, and Samuel

our campsite was within sight of the ocean - all we had to do was walk around the tent, and we were on the beach!  a great sea breeze and somewhat overcast days kept the mosquitoes away up until the last day & made the nights tolerable (once we adjusted to sleeping with a fine dusting of sand from head to toe).  generally, the morning ocean was calm and the afternoon choppy.  we mostly saw yellow flag warnings; Joseph and i wondered what would prompt them to put up a blue one....eeek!

we made frequent trips to the camp store for ice and chocolate bars, and i spent a little time hanging out watching over a charging ipod.  i found it amusing to see the graffiti on the picnic table, which mainly implored readers to "follow me on...."  um, doubt it occurred to them that providing a twitter handle eliminated vandalism anonymity, eh?

each morning, the low tide exposed a long sandbar that we all enjoyed exploring.

in this video clip, my brother Jeff is walking with his daughter & nephews.

Sam (crouching), Joseph, and Samuel on sandbar.

my brother lives near the ocean, so he has acquired some beachy accoutrements such as kayaks and surfboards, which he hauled along on the camping trip.  the kayak was a particular hit with my two, and Samuel also tried the surfboard.

Joseph and Uncle Jeff

Samuel and Uncle Jeff

 

Samuel catches a wave

of course, we made s'mores

every

single

night.

Sam with a super-sized s'more

we ate at the campsite all meals but one,

which we had at a nearby seafood joint

that decorated in one-dollar bills.

Samuel, Joseph, Jeff, Alex, Kelly, Sam

disheveled proof that i was there.

my one food allergy.  but pretty to take a picture of, for sure.

ordered by Alex!

Sam is very fond of her entertaining cousin Joseph

we enjoyed a warm afternoon walking around Beaufort.

their eye on the prize

at the end of our walk,

the kids started naming all the houses

in flavors of ice-cream

based on their paint colors.

the trees were as beautiful

(and sometimes more so)

as the old houses.

raining spanish moss.

 

spanish-mossed crepe myrtle

 

i was quite taken with this stone house - usually they are wood or brick.

duck-duck, tree!

reinforcement of low-hanging tree in preceding photo.

marsh view of the stone house.

fern-covered branch, a serpent on the lawn.

a tree swing!

a palm & a live oak.

sand + sun = lizards.

Sam, Kelly, Alex

Alex, Jeff, Kelly, Sam

Sam's 'Nature Stick' (feat. Cheerios)

our last morning was still & sunny.

fishing boats & ocean trees (the beach is shifting).

Samuel's last kayak ride.

he has always loved the beach.

morning with pelicans.

so, the first night was a little challenging, for some more than others....sand in one's bed is a bit of an adjustment if you've never experienced it before.  old hat for me.  that & sleeping on rocks, which was not an issue at this campground.  been there, done that.  we were cushy-camping with therma-rest pads this time.  unheard of when i was a kid.  the communal bathrooms were a little challenging, for some more than others....best advice:  keep the flip-flops on & economize one's ablutions.  but the beach more than made up for the small trials!  and we loved hanging out with aunt, uncle, & cousins!  a good time was had by all.