Collin’s grandfather died this past spring. One month shy of his one hundred and first birthday. He lived an incredibly FULL life and obviously, at age 100 we knew the end was near, but it was still pretty tough for all of us. We loved that man so much. For all of our marriage, Abie (Collin’s grandfather) had lived in Jacksonville, but the low country of South Carolina, specifically Fripp Island, is where Collin has memories of his grandfather being the happiest. He has TONS of childhood memories from this place. Last spring when we returned from Abie’s memorial service in Beaufort, Collin was feeling nostalgic and hopped on the SC state parks website just to see if he could book a site at the elusive campground, Hunting Island. It’s the only campground in the area and it’s nearly impossible to get a reservation there. Well someone must have just canceled a trip, because Collin snagged four nights at one of the ocean front sites! That never happens! He was so excited to tell me about it and then I crushed him with “Babe, we can’t do that. That’s Mak’s third week of school and Clara Beth’s first community day at co op.” But he didn’t cancel the reservation and I got to talking with my other homeschool momma friends and they were all like Pshh, that’s WHY we homeschool, GO ON THE TRIP. So we did. We homeschooled right there on the beach and I’m so glad we did. It was the BEST little vacation for all of us. And as we were packing up, an older lady came up to us to ask us about our Airstream. She told us that she and her husband used to have one but that it was just her now and she missed it so much. Then she looked at Clara Beth who was snuggled up to my arm and said “You take every single opportunity you are given to go out in this camper and you take that little girl with you every time you go.” Mak wasn’t standing there, I’m sure she would have instructed us to take him too. 😉 Her words were exactly what I needed to hear and they reminded me just how fast this life goes by. At the end all we’ll have is memories and I really hope that I have a TON in my bank.
So here we go, Hunting Island. Seriously, I just don’t think it gets better than this as far as campsites go! This one was from Collin’s phone on the last sunrise of the trip. We want to live here. So do about a million other people.
This was the hardest part about our campsite: sand EVERYWHERE. It was okay because that view, but seriously, sand was everywhere.
Every morning I woke up before the sun rose and stumbled over Collin out of bed and dragged my beach chair down to watch the sun come up. It was incredible. Collin and Clara Beth, and occasionally Mak, would eventually join me out there.
On the first morning we saw the sea turtle volunteers coming around to see if any nests had hatched the night before. One had and we had missed it! This is when CB became determined that she would see one on our trip. I love that early morning sleepy face. =)
Early morning frisbee. These make me laugh.
And, no, we didn’t do as much school work as we do at home, but we did have to get a few hours in each day in order to keep up. Airstream school.
With this view outside of the window. Glory.
And Hunting Island provided some pretty perfect field trip opportunities. The light house was beautiful!
And no trip to this part of the state is complete without a shrimp burger from the Shrimp Shack.
And more school at the Nature Center…
Another sunrise because I couldn’t get enough…
Finally the almost teenager joined us.
And here is where the absolute BEST part of the trip happened. Clara Beth has been obsessed with seeing sea turtles hatch ever since we saw a little sea turtle program at the Huntington Beach State Park nature center a few years ago. I’m still so sad about that place burning down. Well, we had just finished a family portrait attempt (family part didn’t happen because of crazy wind but Collin got some great ones of the kids) and I was taking them to get an icee when we heard Collin shouting for us from the beach. A nest was hatching and we got to see about 100 baby loggerheads make their way to the ocean!!! It was INCREDIBLE!!! Collin had the fish eye lens on the camera which wasn’t the best for pictures of teeny little turtles, but I love these anyway!
That face!!! She was SO HAPPY!!!
Back in the camper winding down for the night with a little inspirational movie. You know, Bon Qui Qui.
Last sunrise of the trip…
She was watching a video of the turtles from the night before.
And then the turtle volunteers came by again and there was one little turtle from the night before still in the nest! So they rescued it and we got to watch him make his way to the ocean. Poor thing, it was low tide, so he had a loooonnng way to go. And this time we had a better lens for teeny turtles on the camera!
We were going to do these photos when the light was better but we were watching the turtles. So the light isn’t the best but I love them anyway. =)
It was a wonderful trip and I’m so glad that my friends convinced me to take it. One I’ll remember forever!
