Family Vacation 2015 - Day 3 - Travel Day

Today was travel day. A long travel day. We got up and had our free breakfast and started packing up to leave. It's amazing how much luggage two adults, a toddler, and and infant can have. It doesn't help that we have to keep hauling a week and half's worth of clothes in and out of the car for just one night in a hotel. Anyway, we got on the road at 10:11and after that... Everything went great. Honestly, it could not have been a better traveling day. I kept waiting for something bad to happen... And it didn't. Well, except for a little issue at lunch. It was a minor issue, but I got to put this in here just for principle. What is up with restaurants NOT having changing tables in the bathroom!? What are we supposed to do? Change them on your filthy floors? Let me know which day of the year you decide to clean your bathroom floor so I can come and have a clean surface to lay my child on! Seriously though! I had to change Rylynn standing up in the stall. It is hard to take pee-soaked clothes off of a crying toddler (again crying because of the loud hand dryers) and then proceed to put a new diaper on and dry clothes, all with the toddler standing. How hard can it possibly be to screw a folding piece of plastic to a wall so that my child doesn't get hepatitis from your floor?!

Anywho... We drove for about two hours and it worked out so that we were able to stop for lunch (again, thanks Wendy's for not investing in a changing table), fuel, and to feed Denver all at the same time, which was amazing. Then we drove another 3 hours and, right when Denver was waking up to eat, we entered South Carolina and we were able to stop at the welcome center and use the bathroom and feed Denver and run around a bit to let off some energy. Then it was back on the road for another 3 hours til we finally met our destination of Beaufort, SC. 

Yes, we ended up in Beaufort instead of Charleston. Since we are last minute planners, and the fact that we did not consider the amount of people that would be in Charleston for the historic event of taking down the Confederate Flag, there were no hotels available. Plus, after much consideration, we decided that it might not be the best time to try and have a leisure and relaxing time in Charleston with all that's currently going on. 

Since we didn't have a whole lot going on at the time, Melody was able to search for another place to stay. We had already been to Savannah, GA and Hilton Head was too expensive. She came across this island town near Hilton Head called Beaufort that actually had hotels we could afford. Plus, that would only leave about a 3 and a half hour trip the next day to finish our journey to St Augustine. 

Now, back to the driving part... Like I said... It couldn't have gone better. We were pretty worried since we didn't have a TV in our car that this much sitting and traveling with a toddler would be horrendous. But we purchased a few new toys right before the trip and slowly introduced her to them throughout the trek. That, and about a billion stickers, kept her pretty content the majority of the ride :) 

It also helped that Denver slept the entire time! We really couldn't believe it. He would wake up to eat, and then right back to sleep. That was truly a blessing from God. Trying to drive that far with these two kids could have been enormously worse, and we are thanking God for that right now. Also, running around and playing hide and seek at the rest stop helps :) 

We arrived at our hotel in Beaufort at about 6:30. Got settled in and asked the concierge where a good place to eat would be. She suggested a place called Dockside. So we got the kids ready and headed that way as soon as we could, which was 7:45. Fifteen minutes later we were there and the parking lot was packed! It was a gorgeous view across the swampy, marsh area with some large sail boats docked there, and we could smell the water as soon as we got out of the car. We were excited :) We gave the hostess our names and she politely told us it would be about an hour til we were seated. So, quick recap... We ate lunch at 12:00 and now we were gonna wait an hour to order dinner at 9:00. That's not a good plan. We decided not to stay. We were really disappointed we couldn't eat there but we were trying to stay positive. There was a seafood restaurant directly adjacent to our hotel called Gilligans Seafood Restaurant that got mediocre reviews, but since nothing else was open, we headed there. One upside was that on our way to Dockside we went through a quaint little town called Port Royal with shops and restaurants that we decided we definitely wanted to visit the next morning :) 

Pulling into Gilligans we were a little skeptical. It looked a little run-down and outdated, but we were out of options. But, just like He had all day, God provided for us again. We were seated at a booth with an aquarium on the side, which Rylynn was ecstatic about. The restaurant wasn't crowded, which was good because me and Melody had to constantly walk around with Denver to keep him calm. Me and Melody took turns eating our food in shifts while the other held/comforted the infant, and Rylynn just ate and danced and was happy as could be looking at the fish and crabs. This was amazing to us since she had only gotten about an hour nap at around 11:00 in the morning. 

The food was good, it had a great view of the water, and Rylynn actually finished hers with little hassle. We had some issues at the end with slow service and bill issues, but nothing too major. Once again... Could've gone a lot worse. 

Then it was back to the hotel at about 9:45, a little TV, and then sleepy time. Another successful day of keeping our kids alive ;) 

My thoughts on the day - I just could not, and can not, stop thinking about how well everything went. I know that I can't expect this every day or in every situation, but I'm still so thankful. True, we didn't get to do everything we wanted. We didn't get to go to Charleston and we didn't get to eat at Dockside, but I think there are reasons for that. Who knows what Charleston would've been like and I know Rylynn had a waaay better time at Gilligans than she would have at Dockside. And every parent knows... A good experience for your kids is a good experience for you. So, I'm headed to sleep with a thankful heart and ready to see what challenges and joys lay ahead tomorrow :)