Cahl had a work conference in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and Brinley and I were lucky enough to get to tag along. We flew in to Savannah Georgia on Sunday, and made our way over to Hilton Head Island. The island is beautiful, with huge oak trees covered in Spanish Moss hanging over the roadways. Because the island is a Loggerhead turtle habitat, there are very few street lights anywhere, which makes driving at night kind of spooky but really cool too. The conference was held at a big resort right on the beach, so we had a great time playing and swimming in the surf, and finding sand dollars.
Wednesday I was still feeling pretty crummy, but managed to pull myself together for a dinner cruise that Brinley and I had surprised Cahl with. We drove over to the other side of the island to check out the lighthouse and board the boat for dinner. It was a really pretty cruise up and down the intercoastal waterways. We even saw several dolphins, which is always fun!
Thursday was another pretty laid back day spent by the pool, and later in the day we checked out Fort Howell, which is a pentagonal earthworks fort built in 1864 during the Civil War, by the 32nd United States Colored Infantry Regiment. The fort's primary purpose was to protect the nearby village of Mitchelville, which was the nation's first freedman's community. It was really cool to walk along the pathways and see the fortifications while reading the incredible history.
Saturday we checked out of the hotel in the morning, and headed back to Savannah to do some sight seeing before it was time to head home. We had breakfast at Debi's Restaurant, which was amazing, then we walked down through the historic waterfront area, including walking up and down the Stone Stairs of Death! We also checked out the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist and some of the historic parks and squares downtown before we had to start making our way toward the airport. We stopped at Bass Pro Shop to look for some things, and I ended up getting really sick in the bathroom. It was bad enough that I ended up in a nearby Emergency Room. After a few hours of testing, hydrating, and getting the sickness under control, we missed our flight home and poor Cahl had to scramble to get us a hotel for the night and flights home the next day. I hate that our trip was clouded by my getting sick, but I am still really thankful that Brinley and I got to have the opportunity to go and hang out with Cahl for the week and see so much cool new stuff! Hopefully we can go back someday and see even more!
