The Best Part of the Spring Break Road Trip

We arrived at the Marriott Grande Ocean hotel late in the afternoon on Sunday, March 29th.  The ocean stretched for miles at the edge of the hotel and it was hard to believe that we had just left a cold Chicago behind.  It was very windy on the beach and there were very few people out and about.  As I was snapping pictures of the kids, an older couple stopped their bikes and asked if we wanted a family picture.  The wind was quite fierce and sand was blowing everywhere.  They took two pictures and struck up a conversation.

They owned a time share on the beach and had been coming to Hilton Head for 31 years.  The couple looked like they were in their mid 70s.

 “What keeps you coming back to this island?” I asked. 

“Oh, we just love it here!  There’s so much to do and it’s just beautiful here.  We ride our bikes several miles each day all over the beach and the island.”   They gave us some tips of where to go and places to eat.  From the smiles on their faces, it was easy to see that they enjoyed themselves.  I could see why they enjoyed the island–it was indeed a beautiful place to be.

Soon after we left the beach, we jumped into a hot tub, joining another family with three generations that was lounging there.  None of us had our hearing aids on at that point but we managed to chat.  The family was spending their second year on the island and they had come back to the same hotel.  It was amazing to see how the island drew back people– but by the end of our trip, we held the same feeling of wanting to visit the island again.

The very next day turned out to be one of the most memorable parts of the trip:

Flying Kites At the Beach.