Our first HHI trip report

Hi all!

I decided to do a small trip report for our HHI trip. We are still here and having a great time! Our trip was scheduled for August 21-26, 2011.

We are a family of 5 from New Jersey and decided to drive down to HHI. We left our home around 10:00 pm on August 20. Our boys, Nicholas (6 1/2) and Michael (4 1/2). Fell asleep right away. But my daughter, Abigail (21 months) decided to scream for 2 hours and once she finally fell asleep, she screamd every hour for about 10 minutes. We were able to drive without stopping for the first 5 hours. Everyone was awake for the day by 5 am. Oh what fun!

We arrived at the resort around noon. Our room was ready upon arrival. We brought everything into the room and then went to have lunch.

After lunch, Nicholas and I went food shopping. The Piggly Wiggly is about a 5 minute drive from the resort.

We didn't do much on on first day, but we did go to the pool before dinner. After dinner, we showered and went to bed early to prepare for our first full day in HHI.

In the midst of unpacking though, I realized I forgot my camera so unfortunately I have no pictures to post.

 

[nicole3874]

We arrived home late friday night! And spent most of yesterday preparing for Hurricane Irene. We had no flooding or loss of power, but many friends and relatives did.

So back to our HHI trip. On Monday, our first full day there, we decided to go to the beach. SC beaches are gorgeous and my boys loved the fact that the sand was perfect for making sand castles. They spent at least an hour building before even asking to go into the water. In the water, they spent an hour boogie-boarding. My 2 year old even went pretty far out into the ocean on her own. The waves are very tame compared to here in NJ. That was the best part for me. We went back to our Villa for lunch and naps around 1:30. This was our routine every morning for the rest of the trip. The kids enjoyed it so much. My 7 year old made a friend that lasted all week and his 5 year old brother tagged along!

In the afternoons, we would go to the pool for a little swimming. If we ate out, we went later. And if I cooked (yes, I cooked dinner 2 nights) we went earlier.

It was truely relaxing though.

There were so many activites for the kids to do here as well. The boys (ages 7 & 5) and i would go do an activity everyday during my daughters nap time. We made tye-dye mickey t-shirts which are so nice and I would definitely suggest everyone do this as a souveneer. We made shark tooth necklaces, slime, bouncy balls, mugs. My 2 year old even joined us to make a shell box. That was cute and then they wanted to go to the beach to collect shells. HHI has small shells, but some really nice ones. In the evening we played Goofy Bingo, went to the campfire, and went crabbing off the peir.

As for dinner, we were so busy that most nights we just grabbed something at the resort. But we did go to 2 restaurants while in HHI. The first was a suggestion from a bellow wdwmagic person, Steamers. Steamers is at the Cologny plaza and had some great seafood. We then stopped at the Frosty frog for a frozen daquari. I had the Fruitloop and it was just perfect. Not too sweet at all. They give it to you in a huge styrofoam cup and it stays frozen for hours. We then shopped at the plaza.

Our second dinner was at Parrot Cove. This is directly accross from the resort, within walking distance. We walked in and were a bit leary b/c it looked like a dive, but the food was great! We had hush puppies as an appetizer that my 2 year old loved. I had a pasta with crab meat and shrimp in a honey mustard cream sauce (sounded so strange that I almost didn't order it), it was delicious!!! My 5 year old had fried shrimp and gobbled it up while my unadventurous 7 year old had pasta which he devoured too. The 2 year old at some of all. And the best party of the meal was my frozen drink, the dirty banana. I strongly suggest that!

We left on Friday morning ahead of Hurricane Irene. We were scheduled to leave so we didn't have to change plans. Our drive home was fairly easy except for NC. We hit some nasty bands of rain and wind ahead of the hurricane. But we made it home safely and our area was spared.

I would suggest packing minimal. There are washing facilities. But mostly we stayed in our swimsuits most of the day. I actually wore no makeup and had my hair in a ponytail until I showered at night. That is odd for me.

I strongly suggest going to DHHIR. I know we plan to go back again and again.

 

[becanya]

So glad you guys had fun! We'll have to try Parrot Cove next time...we had never heard anything about it, but the crab pasta sounds great!