Bettinger Family Vacation

Jenn and I decided to go to South Carolina for our family vacation this summer. We are going to spend 3 days with Joe and Sarah (Jenn's friends from college) in Columbia, SC. We will stay with her old ROTC instructor and his wife in Clover, SC and then 3 days in Charleston, SC (including Myrtle Beach), a night with friends in Cincinnati and then home. About 2000 miles driving and 10 days. We are really looking forward to seeing how Mady responds to the ocean...time away from work, cell phones and email. A time to bond, reflect, relax and recover.

Thursday May 8th

We left Thursday morning a little after 6. Jenn and I were pretty nervous about how Mady would do, driving over 500 miles in one day. Let me just say that she did great! She slept a full nap in the morning and took at least a semi-decent one in the afternoon.

The only disappointment so far is that it rained 99% of the drive. It slowed us down a bit and it was hard getting in and out of the vehicle at each stop. I also injured my back earlier in the week, and it was giving me fits, but I was able to drown it in ibuprofen.

The other “incident” was lunch. We brought lunch food with us, so that we would have snacks and eat sandwiches whenever we wanted. Jenn was holding Mady on her lap at an Arby's, and she cried a little, coughed and then gagged a little. Then she did it again, bringing up more lunch, then she let loose, all over the table, floor and Jenn’s lap. It smelled horrible! We think the driving didn’t sit well with her stomach. Actually, it was best case scenario all things considering as we were able to get everyone changed and cleaned up, and she didn’t do it in her car seat. Imagine smelling that for the next 2000 miles and 10 days!

We made it all the way to Knoxville, Tennessee. We checked into the Marriott and relaxed. Went to a really nice place for dinner. Went back, put her to bed and Jenn and I watched TV in bed until we fell asleep on a dream mattress…

Friday May 9th We woke up this morning, got all packed up, ate some cereal, made coffee and hit the road again. The Smokie mountains were fantastic. Beautiful green, blue sky and perfect weather. It was a joy weaving in and out of the mountains. We drove to Asheville, NC and we had a few hours to kill, so we decided to see Biltmore estates. It's referred to as the nation's largest home. It sits in the middle of beautiful gardens. We only had a couple of hours, so we thought it would make a nice stop...the only issue was it was $47.00 a person to get in. We decided against visiting Beltmore Estates.

We finally arrived in Columbia, SC a little after 4pm. Sarah met us and we hung out until her husband, Joe got home. They have a palm tree in their front yard! (technically, it's a palmetto, but who cares) We went to bed pretty early as we were all pretty beat. Little over 800 miles driven so far.

Saturday May 10th We decided to drive to Hilton Head Island today. It was a little farther than I expected (160 miles one way) but the drive was fun with our friends in tow. I love the beach and I love real estate, both are abundant at HHI. I love the old architecture and the sea side villas. We stopped off to see the "green home" that HGTV is giving away and that Jenn and I have entered to win multiple times (so have Joe and Sarah). Come to find out, it costs $20 a person, and we only had a few minutes to spare before we were to meet some other friends of Jenn's from college, Jeff and Jenni. We decided not to tour the "green home"...do you see a theme? We went to Jeff and Jenni's place on HHI. We ended up going to an AWESOME BBQ restaurant for lunch. I had this huge baked potato that was filled with pulled pork bbq and covered with sour cream, butter and bbq sauce. Sounds crazy, but it was simply heaven.

We drove around the island for a bit, found a place to park and then did a little shopping. Found a neat palm tree charm for Jenn's bracelet. We ended up after a while walking out on the beach with Mady. She LOVED the water! She fell in, so we took off her pants, and just let her run around in her diaper and shirt. (No one knows us here, right?) We got some really good picts. Needless to say, she was not happy when it was time to go. We'll have fun this week in Charleston when we get there. After we left the beach, we drove around looking at the awesome ocean front homes...a little out of our price range to say the least. We did notice a lot of smug people that turned up their noses at us...

Got home about 8pm, exhausted, but satisfied and hit the hay. Total mileage so far, almost 1200 miles.

Sunday May 11th We decided to go to the late service this morning so that Mady could take a nap in the morning and we could enjoy ourselves in the afternoon. We went to SeaCoast church with Joe and Sarah. They have a great worship band, and the ministry on not judging was very convicting. It was a good service overall.

We came ready to church to go out directly afterwards, and we decided to go to the zoo. Joe and Sarah had only been once, but it was at Christmas time, so they enjoyed themselves too. Mady's new favorite animal (besides "puppy") were the turtles. She learned how to speak most of the animal's names that we taught her, and she really hooked on to "tur-tul." The weather was perfect, and we thoroughly enjoyed the relaxing stroll through the zoo.

Afterwards, we stopped at "5 Brothers" a famous burger shop that's been named in national magazines as "best bang for your buck." The burger, come to find out, is actually a double burger. To get a single patty, you have to order a "little burger." The fries are the kicker though, they have these huge cups of fries that they fill, then they "POUR" fries into your bag...so it's a paper bag with a burger and a ton of fries in it. It even filled me up. I think Joe and Sarah were surprised how much a CF patient can eat...

When we got home, we relaxed for a bit and then they offered to watch Mads for us so that Jenn and I could have some down time. We took them up on the offer and headed out. We stopped at a couple of places to find a new pair of shoes for Mads (we lost one of her sandals at the beach...it must have fallen out of our bag), not finding anything we liked, we drove down to the river walk that weaves through downtown Columbia. It was quite romantic, as it sprawls down each side of the river and runs under fantastic old bridges. It was a nice quiet time for Jenn and I just to enjoy ourselves. Got home and again hit the hay pretty quick as we were pretty tired.