Girls' trip part 1

Well it has taken me two months to finally begin writing the posts about the girls trip I took back in March with my mom and sister.  I'm pretty ashamed about that, considering that here lately I feel like I have nothing to write about, and here I have this awesome trip that my mother took my sister and I on, that is full of material to write about, and yet I've been too lazy to sit down and actually write it.  So I've decided to make myself a little more disciplined and get to it!  So the story that all of you some of you have been waiting on! 

It all started back in January when my mom told me that she had purchased a Groupon for a two night stay on Hilton Head Island.  (if you don't know what Groupon is, it's a site that has some awesome deals)  My mom has always been all about us, her wonderful children, so she automatically knew she wanted that little stay on Hilton Head to be just a girls trip.  So we all consulted our schedules and asked our wonderful bosses if we could have the first Friday in March off (which thankfully, they agreed to) and we were set to go.  By the time the date got here we were all so excited and so in need of a break.  Because I don't like driving long distances by myself, I decided to drive to Macon to meet up with my mom and Allie (my sister) and just ride to Hilton Head with them.   For those of you not from the Southeastern United States, Hilton Head is right off the coast of South Carolina.  This is what it looks like:

 I met them at lunch time and we had Panera for lunch.  And let me just tell you, that lunch kicked off a weekend of some wonderful tasting food.  I became addicted to Panera while in college in Athens and consider it one of my favorite restaurants, behind Taco Bell and Bonefish of course.  Imagine my utter dismay and chagrin, when first taking husband to Panera and hearing those cursed words "I just don't really like the food here" cross his lips.  Oh the horror!  So because I am a kind and self sacrificing wife, I never make him eat there.  Needless to say, I never get to eat there now.  Side note: he doesn't really like Taco Bell either, but that is just a non-negotiable.  My devotion to Taco Bell could be grounds for divorce if husband ever even considered refusing me my Taco Bell.  (not really, but kind of) 

So after enjoying a scrumptious (yes I had to spell check that word) lunch, we headed off towards Hilton Head.  After being in the car for 3 hours already and then another 3 hours towards Hilton Head, I was ready to get all kinds of dramatic about my legs falling asleep and feeling claustrophobic (yep, had to spell check that too).  I  pull off dramatic REALLY well.  But alas, we finally made it to Hilton Head Island.  Well, we made it to the bridge heading to Hilton Head.  And here's where things did get all dramatic.  Well, at least in my head. 
And now is when I give you a little history lesson on me and bridges.  Ya see, we just don't get along.  I'm not afraid of heights, not afraid of spiders, not afraid of most things.  But bridges, and the subsequent water that necessitates said bridges, Oh, and the man eating sharks in said water...yeah...not so good.  I vividly remember being about 4 years old, going over the bridge to Panama City, wearing a blow up alligator floaty.  I thought that if we crashed through the side wall of the bridge and plummeted into the ocean, my alligator floaty would preserve my life via it's floatation capabilities.  It's really intimidating cartoon reptilian face just MIGHT end up scaring away a shark or two as well.  Pretty soon I got old enough to realize that the impact would probably pop a hole in said floaty, and I simply got too big to squeeze through the dinner plate sized hole.  

And here is me and my alligator floaty.  I knew some of you would doubt it's existence, so I braved the cobweb that is my old Dell laptop to find this little gem for you guys.   

So, I came up with another plan.  If I rolled down my window while crossing a bridge, the car would take on water fast enough (through the open window, see) that the pressure on the outside and inside of the car would equalize faster, thus allowing me to open the door and make a faster exit.  The only flaw to this would be that because of the faster equalization, the car would sink faster, giving me less time to realize that "holy cow my worst fear really just came true." (Say that sentence in a mildly hysterical voice)  I considered unbuckling my seatbelt for every subsequent bridge crossing, but then realized that the absence of a restraint around my body would probably mean that, during the fall, I could possibly hit the roof of the car and knock myself unconscious.  And then what good is an easily opened door, if you're knocked out and can't open it?  So now I just roll the window down, close my eyes, keep my seat belt on, and maintain a vice grip on the "oh crap" handle.  Suffice it to say that this method has a 100% success rate.  Should that percentage ever decrease, I think I would be too terrified to survive.  And you thought I was kidding about my fear of bridges?  Yep, I've really thought through this whole nearly impossible scenario.  So now that I've explained all of that...want to see the most impressive bridge we passed over?  

 A real Golden Gate ain't it?
So now that we all realize how irrational I am and that I should probably be medicated for my bridge triggered anxiety, shall we continue?  At this point you are probably assuming that either A. our car did not careen over the side of the bridge or B.  our car really did fly into the ocean and my well thought out plan really did work and saved me and my family.  For the excitement of the blog, I wish I could tell you the correct answer is B, but we all know that my life is not near as exciting (and as previously stated, I do dramatic REALLY well, so you would have heard this story waaaay before now if B had in fact happened).  Needless to say, the real story is A. 


Aaaaanyways, once we survived the passing of Golden Gate part B, we went ahead and checked in at the hotel. 

And yes, I am including another picture of the bridge.  After this picture, I put my head between my knees...

The first room we were assigned was right at the entrance to the first floor, and therefore was right by the elevator and vending machines.  Now, we are normally not high maintenance people, but we decided to just see if they had another open room.  The front desk kindly confirmed that yes! they had another room available and gave us a key to check it out.  We skip on down to the room, opened the door, and there were someone's belongings everywhere!  So we very quickly closed the door, thinking there might be someone actually in the room along with their belongings.  We all just kind of looked at each other for a minute and were like "uhhh...Ok, I guess we need to ask again for a different room."  My mom was convinced that the person was a squatter, and went back to the room after they were supposed to have checked out.  Don't know if that was the case, or the hotel just doesn't keep very good records of who is where.  Thank goodness we didn't walk in on the people when they were actually in their room!  We went back to the front desk and told the attendant what we had encountered and she got really confused and then the manager had to get involved and find us another room.  The moral of this story: whenever you're in a hotel room ALWAYS do the little slide lock at the top of the door.  Never know when someone like my family could walk in on you and your stuff!  But anyways, third time was the charm!  
We freshened up a little in the room and then decided to go to dinner.  We read some reviews and decided to go to an "authentic" Italian restaurant in town.  Well, we didn't quite know how authentic the restaurant was until we called for directions and the person on the other end of the line didn't speak a lick of English.  (she totally would not have understood my use of the word "lick" in that sentence)  She passed the phone off to another person, who spent the next 15 minutes on the phone with my sister trying to tell us how to get to the restaurant.  Only, she was completely clueless, and sort of rude on the phone.  Turns out, we were like 1/4 mile down the road from the restaurant and the lady had no clue where we were.  Anyways!  We finally made it there, and lo and behold, the rude lady on the phone?  Yep, she was our server.  She had some major control issues too.  If you tried to pick up your empty plate or your cup needing a refill to hand it to her, she'd huff and glare at you like you were killing her puppy.  And the next time around she would like sneak up behind you and snatch your plate away quickly before you had a chance to sully it with your diner's hands.  It was all so abrupt!  I was a server for several years in college, and I know how frustrating the job can be, but you also have to realize that the person you are serving is who will be leaving your tip.  You grin and bear it, even if they're annoying you.  Though I never got annoyed when someone tried to hand me their empty plate, I even thanked them!  The food was mediocre, and obviously the meal was tainted by the service we received, but we still left her a nice tip, because that's the kind of people we are.  Along with that money I wanted to leave her a note that said to get some Xanax, but that wouldn't have been very nice.    

After dinner, we walked around a couple of shops and admired the pretty, expensive stuff in them.  We were all tired after riding in the car all day, so we decided to go back to the hotel and watch a little tv before bed.  My mom and sister don't have cable in their house, and I didn't until I got married, so it's always exciting to be able to watch HGTV and Animal Planet when we're on vacation. 

So that's the end of day one!  Hopefully I'll post about day two tomorrow!  It'll have more pictures too, promise! :)