So this past weekend we went to Hilton Head. We were lucky enough to be able to go down and stay at my Aunt and Uncle's condo fairly last minute. We were really ready to get away! My Aunt mailed me the key, I picked Adam up from school early and we were out of the house and on the road by 2:30 (way earlier than I had anticipated). We get on the road and sit in traffic immediately after pulling out of the subdivision. We sit in traffic for about 15-20 minutes and as we are turning onto 316 I notice the kids look awfully short. Hmmm, might be because they do not have their booster seats. We turn around of course. Second trip out of the gates put us a little past 3 o'clock. There were the pretty standard delays out of Atlanta on a holiday weekend and we hit a pretty bad storm somewhere in Middle Georgia. We get down to the condo about 9:30. If you are doing the math that is a 5 hour trip made into 7 hours which may be standard for some families but they have never been on a road trip with Robert Hagerman. The kids were still awake and exhausted. We were ready to get them in the bed ASAP!
I go to get the key (that I had obsessively checked for in my purse about 6 times on the way down) and unlock the door while Robert is unloading. Only one problem...the key doesn't work. It had been a while since I had been down there and I am thinking maybe I don't remember the number of the condo. I call my Aunt and Uncle but they didn't answer. I called my Grandmother but she didn't answer. I called my Aunt and Uncle back, no answer. I called my Grandmother back who answered and gave me my Aunt's cell phone number. I got a hold of my Uncle who assured me that we were at the correct place. The copy of the original key (made at Home Depot) just simply doesn't work!
We started to mull over our options wondering where we are going to stay. My brain normally shuts down at about 8:30 so I didn't have a whole lot of ideas. We thought about calling a locksmith but my uncle assured me that we could take the door that goes to the mud room off the hinges with a screwdriver and a hammer. Only problem is we didn't have a screwdriver or a hammer! We found the local True Value but they were closed.
Our only option at this point was to call my Aunt's friends in the complex to see if they have any tools. Nobody was home however and I am sure that they were not really ready to give a random person a hammer and screwdriver to break into the condo. Panic started to set in a little bit as the kids were getting ready for a breakDOWN as we were preparing for breaking and ENTERING. We decided at this point that I would just walk around and knock on doors and ask completely random people for tools. The first door I came to with lights on was lucky number 13! I knocked a couple of times and a young woman and an older couple came to the door and stared at me blankly while I gave her the whole "So what had happened was..." speech. They actually gave me the hammer and screwdriver and we were finally ready for the breaking and entering portion of the program.
We finally got in the condo around 10:30 and get unloaded. I thought at this point that Robert must be REALLY tired because he didn't get all the bags out of the truck. No, my wonderful perfect husband got all the bags out of the truck...I just forgot to bring the one that I had packed for the kids downstairs after packing it so carefully at home! Not to worry, sure we didn't have stories to read or a change of underwear but we DID have bathing suits and games for the beach! So we made up our own stories for bedtime (way more fun) and they were quickly asleep. Also quickly awake....
Our next day started a little before 6 AM. The kids were WAY excited to the beach. We were probably at the beach at 8:30 AM! They were definitely not afraid of the waves and had a blast!
We came back to the condo and I went shopping for some groceries and souvenir shirts (insert change of clothes). We made lunch and had a much needed rest.
After our rest we headed over to Shelter Cove for the Arts Festival, to grab a bite to eat and catch the Shannon Tanner show. If you have been to Hilton Head with kids in the past 24 years you know Shannon Tanner. If you have not... he is a great performer for the kiddos and gets them really into moving around and sharing in the music.
Sunday we started off a little later and I got in a run down the beach. We headed off to play at the beach a little later and stayed a little later. We came home for a little downtime and let the kids play some games. Apparently Tristan would rather pee his pants than get up and go to the bathroom when he is into a video game! So this is the reason we headed out to eat with Tristan going Commando. (this will become important later).
After eating at the Crazy Crab in Sea Pines we headed over to the best playground ever! I mean you might actually be able to hurt yourself at this place, awesome Live Oaks to climb, tree houses. Awesome! It was a beautiful night, not too hot and time to just enjoy the kids playing.
About 5 minutes after we get there Tristan runs up to me with a horrified look on his face and announced, "I WENT POTTY IN MY PANTS!!". So my poor child who never has accidents pooped his pants when he was wearing nothing but Umbros! Luckily Umbros wash out easily. Unluckily the stupid Crazy Crab which is a HUGE restaurant with a million kids (because why else would you eat at the Crazy Crab unless you knew you could take your kids) has the smallest bathroom known to man with only two regular stalls and no handicap accessible stall. By the time we left the bathroom there was a line of about 10 Moms with kids. Fabulous.
Despite all the pitfalls it was great to get away. We had a great time and now have great stories to tell. I mean what is a family vacation without a little National Lampoon story to tell!
