Friday, May 30, 2014

Hunter Wedding

We celebrated the much anticipated Elsner/Hunter wedding on Hilton Head Island over Memorial Day weekend.  It was a beautiful wedding.  I was lucky enough to be in the wedding of long time friends.  I've known Tom since our swim team days at Mackenzie Pool and he and I even went to a few high school dances together. 
SLUH Fall Ball '97
We had the rehearsal dinner on Saturday night.  It was the first time I had seen the actual venue of the wedding, not just the front of the building.  The wedding was to take place just outside the clubhouse overlooking the putting green.  It was very pretty. 



After a couple walk throughs we headed over to the rehearsal dinner at Wise Guys.  The dinner was great and the company was even better.  Scott and I left a little early and enjoyed a relaxing evening by the beach.

On the wedding day, Sunday, we had hair appointments at 11.  And a couple hours later the girls were ready to get dressed.  Zipf and I headed over to the clubhouse just in time to see Kristin getting dressed.  After girls only pictures we hung out front of the sales building since it was too nice to be inside.  Scott, Mike, Nicole and Brian hung out with Zipf and I for a little while before we had to walk over to the main club house. 


Paparazzi



The ceremony was great.  Tom's friend, Joe was the reverend.  And he did a great job!  After a beautiful ceremony it was time for pictures on the beach before the reception. 


The bridal party was announced and then it was time to relax and enjoy the night. 


We had a sit down dinner and then it was photo booth and dancing to finish out the night.  It was a great night and I was happy to be a part of their wedding.





Thursday, May 29, 2014

Hilton Head

We had great and relaxing time at Hilton Head.  I had never been and kept hearing great things about it.  While the beaches didn't look like the Florida Gulf Coast it was nice to go somewhere new and take Gabe to his first beach experience. 
Not so sure about this



Scott and Gabe walking back


Nice try for a family selfie
Our first full day there was on Friday.  We grabbed some breakfast and then Gabe, Grammie and I hit the beach.  Gabe enjoyed watching the dogs on the beach and digging in the sand.  We hung out at the pool for a little while and then headed back to our rooms for naps. 

While Grammie and Gabe napped, Scott and I found a Starbucks and then found Mitchelville. This was the first freedman's settlement in the South.  There was a lot of history to read there and then the sites were beautiful.  I was really happy we found this place.  Afterwards, Scott and I headed to the BI-LO for some groceries and gifts for our friends. 



 
Once we got back to the hotel, it was back to the beach and pool for us.  Gabe was starting to get into the pool.  He loved splashing and us gliding him through the water.  Later that evening we went to Harbor Town.  We climbed to the top of the Light House - a HUGE feat for Scott, while carrying Gabe- for some amazing views of the harbor.  Then we headed over to Harbor Town Burgers and Brew for some dinner and live music.  The food was good but we were getting close to some ones bedtime(again, not naming names).


He climbed to the top of the light house

Our boat  or James Bond's


On Saturday, Scott played golf with Mike and Tom while my mom and I took Gabe to the beach.  We had a great time.  Gabe was much more comfortable with the waves.  We walked up and down watching the dogs play.  Then we would play in the sand.  While we were playing in the sand we spotted a dolphin swimming fairly close to the beach.  Then there was a shark siting.  A 3 foot sand shark was swimming up and down the coastline (very close to the oceans edge).  Gabe and I followed it for a little while.  After a long morning at the beach, nothing was better than some lunch, Winnie the Pooh and a nap. 

Let's go to the beach



 
Gabe and Grammie

Just relaxing
After the nap we had to get ready for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.  Rehearsal was at the Port Royal Golf Course and dinner was a Wise Guys.  Dinner was great!  After dinner Scott and I went back to the hotel, sat down by the bar for a while and relaxed.

On Sunday, it was more family beach time.  Scott and I took Gabe to the beach and Gabe loved it even more than the day before.  He would run into the ocean and then let the waves chase him out.  He had a blast.  We saw another shark swimming close to the beach.  And Gabe just kept playing.  We did take him over to the pool to rise the sand off and get just a little extra play time in before I had to leave to get my hair done. 



On Monday, the day after the wedding craziness was family beach day.  Well, Scott woke up not feeling great, instead my mom and I took Gabe to the beach.  We set up our towels, umbrella and headed for the water.  By day 4 at the beach Gabe was an old pro.  He splashed, he ran into the water, he played in the sand.  It was a lot of fun hanging out with him for a few hours at the beach.  It was just what I wanted from the entire trip.  Scott eventually joined in on the fun.  Gabe really liked going out into the ocean with Scott. 

Later that night we headed back to Harbor Town for dinner, shopping and checking out the boats.


I think we could get used to this


Gotta see the boats

Good-Bye Hilton Head

 

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Drive to South Carolina

We hit the road for a family vacation/wedding weekend in Hilton Head last week.  We dropped Reily off with Nana and Grandpa and packed up Gabe, my mom and took off.  Before we left the house that Wednesday morning we made the best decision of the trip.  We downloaded Winnie the Pooh to our iPad!  What a life saver.

We left fairly early in the morning with hopes that Gabe would sleep and we could get to Nashville before he was ready for a break.  That didn't happen.  He didn't really sleep much and we ended up stopping for Starbucks in Marion, IL.  Of course Starbucks was in a Target so that means extra running around time for Gabe. 

Random Pig at a Random bathroom stop in Kentucky

All praise Winnie the Pooh

We made it over to Nashville and found a hole in the wall Comfort Food restaurant in the Arcade area of downtown.  I had Googled places for us to eat and when we got there we were too hungry to keep looking.  The place we found was great!  Gabe loved the Mac and Cheese and Scott was able to get his fried chicken.  After lunch we headed over to the Tennessee State Capital Building.  It was a hike up the hill to get there, but it was worth it.  This building didn't have a lot to see but did boast about the 3 presidents from it, Jackson, Johnson and Polk.  The capital ground even had the tomb of President Polk and his late wife.  Gabe did pretty good checking out the grounds.  I think he was just happy to be out of the car for a while.
Next politician?

Leaving the State Senate Room


Gabe's first state capital, Tennessee
We walked back to our car, which was parked in Painter's Alley.  It was completely random that we parked there but how cool was it to walk through so much history in a 2 hour stop?

Back on the road to Atlanta.  This was the first time I've drive through the Appalachian Mountains.  It was very pretty to climb up the mountains as we drove through eastern Tennessee and into Georgia.  We, Scott, my mom and I, decided that we are not fans of Chattanooga.  We were making great time until we arrived before 5pm and were stuck in rush hour traffic for 30 minutes barely moving.  The same could be said for the way back and the disgusting McDonald's we stopped in.  Once we got into Georgia it was smooth sailing all the way to the hotel.

After some hot tubing and swimming in the big pool and a good night's rest we were ready to tour a little bit of Atlanta.  We bought our tickets to the Coca Cola Museum early and stopped at the State Capital Building of Georgia first.  We didn't spend too much time at the Capital due to a cranky 15 month old (we won't name names).  But we did get to see the important rooms and the architecture. 

Georgia State Capital

Inside the capital building
Our next stop before heading to the beach was the Coca Cola Museum.  It stop was well worth the $15 per person to check out.  I'm not a Coke drinker at all but their Moments of Happiness advertising had me crying within the first 2 minutes of the video.  There was so much to see and read.  We even saw the actual vault where the Coca Cola recipe is stored.  Then Scott had the biggest treat ever, the ability to taste every single flavor Coca Cola creates, all across the world.  There was a huge room of 65 different flavors separated by continent.  Some of the European ones were not anything I could drink.  The best thing to see was all the different bottles, painted for each county or geographic region.  After the tour you were given a bottle of Coca Cola for a sample.  As a non-Coke drinker, it was pretty good!
Someone just couldn't hang(this is before the tour started)


Someone woke up just in time

The Coca Cola recipe is behind that door
Needless to say we were very happy we chose to stop there.  Then it was on the road to Hilton Head.  It was about 5 hours from Atlanta to South Carolina.  We arrived around 5, found our room and then dinner.  We were excited for our vacation to begin!