Hilton Head is for Old People

The Boy and I got home from vacation this afternoon around 6pm, just in time to pick up a very tired Beast from the boarder. We got home, unpacked, went through the mail, and went our separate ways. The Boy headed home to get ready for his big interview tomorrow, and I headed to Rearn Thai to pick up some take out so I could veg out at home ... and write this blog!! Yeah for you!!

Vacation was fun and relaxing. More relaxing than fun. But it was good! When we got to the hotel, after a slight mix-up, they upgraded us to a king suite on the top floor!! Of course, we weren't oceanside, but we could see the ENTIRE island from our TWO balconies. We were the tallest building on the ENTIRE island. It was cool. We had two bathrooms, a living room, and a HUGE bed with amazing sheets and pillows. Very pleased was I!! To compensate us for the mix-up, our agent sent us $50 worth of gift certificates for shopping and dining on the island. Yeah!

DAY ONE - Saturday Night
The night we got there, after we checked in and got settled, we headed over to Harbourmaster's Ocean Grille for our 7pm reservation. I had amazing she-crab soup (which was more like a bisque and I desperately need to find a recipe for this!) and a nice bottle of wine. We stopped by the Hilton Head Brewing Company to taste some of their beers which were lackluster. Afterwards we went back to the hotel for an "early" night.

DAY TWO - Sunday
We attended St. Francis for morning mass and then headed to the Old Fort Pub (which in no way resembles its name!!!! Far more swanky than we expected!!) for brunch. I had an awesome chicken crepe (would have never thought!) and a tasty mimosa to wash it down. The Boy had some kind of steaky breakfast thing and a bloody mary. We both had some tea and than this fantastic fruit concoction for dessert. It was poached pineapple in riesling with candied ginger. Who would have thought!?!?
When we got home from brunch, we got the phone call about our $50 gift certificates. We had to go pick them up at the sister resort. We figured that we would walk the beach to get there. It was a beautiful sunny day with absolutely no clouds to be seen anywhere. It was breezy, so we needed a sweater, but it was about 67 degrees. We walked about 4 miles to the "heel" of the island. All the while we were observing all kinds of sea creatures getting trapped on the beach with the receding tide. I found this cool horseshoe crab shell (which I took home for Mom) and a ton of sand dollars. All of the sand dollars were still alive, so we left them alone. But there was this obnoxious woman (probably from Jersey!!) who was picking up the sand dollars even though they were still alive. It made me so angry!! We also saw jellyfish and sea sponges and a crab scuttling along. Every time we encountered something new, I had The Boy poke it to see if it was alive and to discover what it was. It became a big joke. We had plenty of laughs.
For dinner, we headed to Red Fish, a Caribbean/Cuban restaurant with an amazing wine list. I had this spicy pork dish that burned up my stomach!! It was super tasty though!

DAY THREE - Monday
We awoke and headed to the Hilton Head Diner for breakfast. It was the most expensive diner meal I have ever had! It was fr more restaurant than diner. It was yummy though.
Afterwards, we headed to "THE Must-See Spots on the Island" -- South Beach and Harbor Town. Turns out, not so much "must see." Everyone there was old and retired. The Boy and I were the youngest people around. All there was to do was go to t-shirt shops. Not so much our scene. We grew bored and went to Island Winery, which had "eh" wines. They did have a few nice ones but nothing special. I picked up a bottle for my mom and dad and a bottle for myself. A sweet apricot wine.
For lunch, we went to Reilly's Irish Pub. It was great pub fare with an uncomfortably intolerant atmosphere. A lot of Jew jokes. The Boy and I were totally astonished. It is Hilton Head though. Rich WASPs all over the place. In fact, the only people of color that we saw the whole weekend were service personnel. Not a single vacationer that we saw was from a minority group. Kind of shocking.
For dinner, we went to Juleps. We were one of two couples dining (it was a Monday night, after all) so it was quiet and nice. I had more she-crab soup (not as great as the first night. More of a soup and less of a bisque.) and crab-stuffed chicken breast. Tasty!!!
When we got back to the hotel, we went for a late-night stroll on the beach and smoked a cigar. The stars were amazing and the surf was pounding. We even saw two shooting stars!!

DAY FOUR - Tuesday
We went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast and then went to our individual time-share sales pitch. After we successfully dogged the purchase, we got on the road at 1:15pm and made it back to the 'boro by 6:15. Very nice. We were pleased!!

We had a wonderful vacation, but we very quickly realized that we are too young for Hilton Head. We like to go to cultural events (museums, concerts, things of the sort...) and HH lacks that. We like to go places and do things and walk around, but HH requires everyone to have a car (because everything is so oddly designed!) and really only offers lounging and leisure. We enjoy taking it easy, but we cannot sit on the beach doing nothing for four days (or more!). And we were surrounded by old people!! There was no one young around!! Only old people in Mercedes and Lexuses and pedaling around on bikes. Not really what we look for in a vacation spot. We like to remain active, not sedentary. There is plenty of time for that later when we are actually old!! So, we probably won't be returning to HH. It was a fantastic vacation, but once was enough.

Now it's back to real life. The family arrive on Thursday and I have a TON of things to do between now and then. Cookies to bake and decorate, laundry to wash, banking to take care of, house and bathrooms to clean ... Ugh. Yeah.