Batsche Bunch: Hilton Head Island

So after our Disney vacation we drove up the coast to South Carolina to meet my whole family in Hilton Head Island. It was just a short drive compared to what we had done to get to Disney and the kids did great again. This portion of the vacation wasn't so much about the sights, but the people. We were meeting my parents, and both sisters and their families. It was a great week to just spend time together and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.

Our family has never made the trip to Hilton Head Island before, but everyone else had been there multiple times. I assumed it would be similar to Myrtle Beach or Cocoa Beach, but I was wrong. It is a very secluded beach where it hasn't been commercialized and is not very touristy. There were no bright yellow arches at the McDonald's or any billboards lining the streets. The whole feeling was just relaxing.

We spent a lot of time at the pool and beaches and went on a lot of bike rides. There were wide bike paths all throughout the island so we did a lot of riding. The kids loved going on bike rides. We had brought their seats from home and rented bikes from Hilton Head Island. All the bike rides were pretty comical..for onlookers. I may have had a rough time on the bike rides. I had a hard time stopping, starting, slowing and pretty much everything except for the coasting. My family had a good laugh at my expense. Luckily there were no crashes or injuries. There was one bike ride that was just dreadful. The sun was up and hot and there was no shade riding on the beach. I thought I was dying. So Zach and I took a turn from the rest of the family to take surface streets back to the condo to get some shade. Maybe not the best idea, but not the worst. We cut over in a neighborhood that we had to wind through to get back to the main streets, which added some back tracking and more time, but I could ride in the shade so it was better. Then Chloe fell asleep on the ride and I was worried she passed out so I had Zach tap her helmet to see if she was alive and she wasn't waking up so we stopped (under the shade tree) and woke her up just to make sure she was okay. We all made it back to the condo safe and sound, but I was bright red and tired. Other than that all the bike rides went really great.

Both kids loved the beach. This was Levi's first time at the beach and he jumped right in. He would go out with Zach towards the wave breaks and loved it. He enjoyed running in the waves and playing in the sand. Chloe loved it too, however, not at fearless as he was. Both kids would get really excited whenever we would say we were going to the beach.