Vacation - St. Simon's Island Edition

Every other year the Howell Clan goes on a family vacation to Hilton Head Island (HHI) with another family that they are close with. This year however it was decided to go elsewhere. A certain son-in-law and a daughter wanted to try someplace new. (Now for certain Howell folks this would have been trip number ten to HHI, so we decided to spice it up.) After a short Sunday meeting, led by my wife, we picked out the things that would make our ideal place: someplace new, watersports, beach, tennis and golf, all within a 13 hour drive of Pittsburgh.

So.. after some web searching and research the following places were suggested: OBX (the Outer Banks), Tybee Island, and St. Simon's Island. After a lot of back and forth between the kids and the parents, the decision was made to try St. Simon's Island in Georgia. Although it was at least an hour farther south than our typical venture (much to my wife's dismay), it looked like a nice place that wasn't too crowded, yet had most everything we were looking for.

Tradition dictates that this family getaway occurs over the week of the fourth to allow as many possible days off (i.e. holiday). We arrived on the island on the Friday before the 4th. Little did we know that because of the holiday, basically the entire surrounding population of Georgia was also planning to enjoy the island! Since the island is only about a 15 minute drive from one end to the other, you can imagine the wall of people we encountered - on the beach, in the streets, on the pier, and so forth. As with any typical Independence Day celebration we had fireworks, which was quite fun viewed from the rocks next to the pier where they were shooting them. :-)

Once the fourth of July crowd finally went back to work on Tuesday, the beaches became much less crowded, and the winds became much more violent, which lent itself for some excellent boogie boarding opportunities with my wife. (Some opportunities were more successful than others lol.)

We even were able to go out on the water in a catamaran with a bonafide sailor, which was my number one goal for the week! And (sadly) since the island didn't end up having waverunners, we ended up doing this twice!

But of course, what would vacation be (for the Howell's at least) without some rousing games of tennis? ;-) Although there weren't any courts in the complex we stayed at, there were a few public courts within biking distance away, which we frequented a couple times during the week.

So, all in all, it was a very relaxing week, with some sun, sand, surf, food, exercise...

...boating, and fun with the Howells!

At the end of the week, we spent our last evening walking on the beach and having some last thrills with sparklers while the sun went down. Thanks for the fun, St. Simon!

- Robbie