Hilton Head, South Carolina

I had no idea what to expect from Hilton Head, SC. I started to "google" images of island before we left to get an idea of where we were headed and I was SO excited. Ive been to Hawaii many times, and Cali, but havent had the beach feel of sand dunes. Russ of course jumped on the chance to come along. If you see a pattern in any of my work trips, he has only been to the ones that are along the coast..hmmm. Cant say I blame him! We had one day at the beach before I had to work. It was so much fun!!

The ocean water here was amazing! I have never been in such warm ocean water! I cant say it was very clear, but man oh man was it warm! And Dolphins!! We saw dolphins every single day playing in the water. There was one time I was wading out in the water and watching a dad play with his daughter, and trying to get her to catch a wave. Right as he sent his daughter on the board in the wave a dolphin shared the wave with her! It was crazy. It scared the poor dad to death not sure what it was at first. But I thought it was cool. We left mid day to get some lunch and to go para sailing! We had never been and thought it would be something fun and different. Waiting for our boat to come pick us up!

All suited up and ready to sail!

Up we go!

We got higher in the air than I anticipated. It was SO great. It was so peaceful and quiet, we couldnt hear a thing. No wind, no boats, nothing. We just floated through the air and chatted away looking for sharks and dolphins. We did spot a few dolphins!

As they brought us in closer, they offer you a little "dip"

It was such a great time and I am so glad we got to go up at the same time and share that together.

Russ on our way back to land. There were dolphins just feet next to our boat! I loved it :)

We had lunch and went back to the beach!

We wrote each other love letters in the sand

We went to another part of the island where all the oober rich folk live. It was BEAUTIFUL! You had to pay just get in and pretty much had no beach access unless you were a resident, or guest to a resident. There were golf courses everywhere, ponds, bike paths and cute little restaurants. We had dinner at the Salty Dog Cafe. It was really good, and I loved the logo.

We walked along some ponds in hopes of seeing an alligator but it never happened.

We also walked our way into a resort and spent a little more time on the beach there.

We drove back to our hotel, and spent the rest of the evening playing in the pool and walking along the beach at night. Russ is a fantastic swimmer! I love to watch him swim, he has such great technique and can hold his breath FOREVER! There was only the 2 of us and a couple of kids playing in the pool so I dared him to a handstand war. I knew he would clearly win since he can hold his breath so long, but we did. I held my breath until i thought my lungs would explode and came up out of the water and he was as strong and steady as can be. There was a little bar hut in the middle of the pool so I hurry and swam to the other side of the bar where he couldnt see me. He was still standing strong, nothing but legs out of the water until he finally came up, so proud of himself only to find he was alone in the water with a couple of kids searching all over for me. I was pretty much dying laughing. I swam over to him and we laughed forever. It looked like there was just this grown 35 yr old man doing handstands in the pool alone. I laughed so hard that night in the pool. So much fun.

The next day I had to work. We went to the BEAUTIFUL resort where the event was being held and Russ and I ran down to the beach for a couple hours before I had to go set up.

The ocean water was so perfect again, we swam for a couple of hours and played in the small waves. Russ even was spotted laying out for a sec. This doesnt happen very often.

We went back to our hotel and I got all ready for the evening. Russ went to a popular pizza place close to our hotel and brought back dinner so we could eat together before I had to leave. I worked the rest of the day and would text Russ when I got the chance to see how he was doing. Oh he was good, just hanging out with turtles, playing in good size waves, and reading a book in a hammock.