Kiawah Island Part I

We finally sneaked in a family vacation after a year of selling, moving, job changes, and buying. It is our last year of being able to guilt-free take advantage of traveling during the off-season before Nolan heads to Kindergarten next year!

We wanted a low key place that we had beach and pool access and still warm in late September and landed on Kiawah Island, SC, which is right outside of Charleston. We took a direct flight there from Newark, which is a lot closer now since we've moved. The kids did great on the flights - Nolan is so easy to travel with now, and Emmy although she didn't nap as we'd like, didn't cry and was happy playing and entertained by being in the airplane.

He's a travel pro (and recently learned how to give a thumbs up! :)

Me with the wiggle worm! Luckily I'm a veteran mom now and had a bag full of tricks to occupy her!

Everything went smoothly with our flight, getting our checked bags and rental car (as smoothly as it can towing a ton of bags and installing 2 car seats). It made for a long night - the kids were exhausted when we landed and we stopped quickly at Zaxby's (a place we miss being back North!) then I kept the kids occupied on the 40min drive to Kiawah by sitting in the back seat and singing "The Wheels on the Bus" and "The Ants go Marching" songs a million times. We rented a house on the Kiawah Island resort with 3 bedrooms and a kitchen and were super happy with it. The kids went to bed as soon as we got home and Joe and I watched the first Presidential Debate then headed in ourselves.

The view from our back deck. I loved the big trees with Spanish Moss!

Our Rental - everyone was happy and lots of space to spread out ;) Emmy slept amazingly the entire time too!

Day One at Kiawah: Joe ran to the grocery store to stock up in the morning and we hit the resort kid pool when it opened at 10am. We stayed until lunchtime and headed back to eat lunch at the rental (we could walk everywhere!) then walked over to the beach. We had most of the places to ourselves!

Ready for the pool!

About to walk over to the pool

Awesome kid pool!

No crowds - the offseason has it's benefits! Still plenty warm.

Having fun at our "private pool" :)

Emmy loved wearing sunglasses like Mommy!

There was a little alligator slide that Emmy was obsessed with going down a million times in the kiddie pool, and Nolan loved exploring and turning all the wheels to make the water fountains change. You could walk around the entire pool easily as it was never deeper than a foot.



After lunch, we walked over to the beach. There was a very short light rain shower when we first got there that ended up being the only rain of the entire trip! We really lucked out with the weather while there (and were thankful to not have gone a week later when a major hurricane hit and the area was evacuated!)

The ocean was amazing! It was even warmer than the pool water, and at low tide (which was most of the afternoon), you could walk out so far and the waves were so gentle. It was perfect for young kids and much less stressful for parents.

Emmy was a sand girl and Nolan was an ocean boy this trip.

Amazing near empty beach!

So calm and warm!

Love!

She was focused and was happy playing in the sand for hours

same day after the sun came out!

Nolan wouldn't leave the water!

Day Two we hit the pool again in the morning when it opened then headed to Charleston after lunch. The first stop was to the Low Country Children's Museum in downtown Charleston. The kids loved it!

Big foam building area similar to Please Touch Museum

They also had an adorable grocery store complete with working bar code scanner and touch pad checkouts!

Shopping the produce

Nolan the cashier

Scanning the barcodes

entering the non-barcoded items manually - adorable

They also had an outdoor section with games and a garden.

Life sized connect four!

Checking out the outdoor area

Hanging out outside

Old fashioned fire truck

On the truck!

Other big hits included a huge pirate ship indoors and castle with tons of passageways (Nolan's favorite).

Inside the castle - I could barely fit!

The kid did not want to leave!

After the museum, we wandered around for a bit to take in the city. It was a bit hot and easy to get cranky/tired but eventually we found a family friendly place that served southern food.

Adorable charleston

I love Nolan so proud that he can do thumbs up!

Emmy doing it with assistance :)

We grabbed some ice cream to top off the evening and headed back to Kiawah Island. We were treated to the most beautiful sunset on the way home and of course "Don't Stop Believin'" came on the radio at the same time (Hi Emily!) It was a great day and Nolan is still begging to go back to the museum!

Our view on the way back

I'm breaking this trip up into a few posts - back soon with part II!