The Sinyard Family: 2018 Spring Break Trip to St. Simons Island

The trip we'd been waiting for was finally here: we were going to St. Simons for spring break! Back in February as I sat stuck on the couch with a fever, I was daydreaming about feeling better and taking vacation when the destination sprang to mind. A quick text with David gave me the green light to get planning. He and I had been several times with friends when we were dating and the island held a lot of sweet memories for us. In fact it was there, three months into dating, that we had our first kiss! In addition to those sappy memories, it had some neat things to do with kids, it was bound to be warmer than our last two spring break trips (Charlotte and Chattanooga), and it wasn't too far of a drive. Check, check, and check.

That felt like a million long, cold years ago and we'd been counting down the days with excitement since. Finally departure day arrived. I woke up early that morning and snuck out to the gym for a quick workout before we hit the road. I was well aware of the amount of food that would be consumed over the next four days. I was also aware of how much it would help my patience and mood for the car ride down to have gotten in a little exercise.

Back at the house, we got the kids up, talked Audrey through a few moments of her fear of being homesick (“home is about people, and we will be with you!”), and got on the road at 8:38…not too far past our goal of 8:30. On the way down, we listened to music and a children’s audiobook for most of the way. We’d made plans to stop at a park for a picnic, but the weather didn’t cooperate, so we just did a quick restroom break at Cracker Barrel and then ate our sandwiches in the car. After lunch, I helped the kids work on a felt animal craft and then they played travel bingo. Not once during the 5.5 hour drive did we have to turn on the DVD player or devices, which makes me so happy.

Because the thunderstorms we were expecting upon arrival didn’t happen, we opted to stop by Fort Frederica on the way in. It was buggy amid the Spanish moss-laden oaks, but we came prepared with spray. We walked around attempting to articulate what life was like when the town stood in the mid 1700s. It was a hard concept for us as adults to grasp, let alone for a six and an eight year old who have never known a world without computers or cell phones. Pictures and displayed artifacts helped and, if we squinted hard enough, our imaginations could just make out townspeople in their layers and layers of clothes walking between the bakery and the blacksmith shop. We strolled out to the fort area and taught them things we had just learned ourselves when researching the stop: How James Oglethorpe built the fort and military-support town in the 1730s to be a defense against what was then a Spanish Florida. It proved successful when the British defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Bloody Marsh in 1742, which secured Georgia’s fate and future as a British colony.

After a quick stop in the onsite museum, we loaded up and headed to the rental house that would be ours for the next few days. The excitement on the way was almost palpable. For weeks and weeks we had been pulling up pictures on the rental site and examining every room and detail we could pick out. I had visualized us playing checkers on the wide front porch, doing a puzzle on the dining room table, and cuddling up for a movie night in the cozy family room. If you’re thinking I set my expectations a little high, you’re probably right, but remember I was sick for most of the month of February…daydreaming about vacation brought me through!

We pulled into the driveway and agreed to all stay together on our initial tour. As we climbed the front steps and entered through the gorgeous original wooden door, we “ooed” and “aahed” over every detail. We sounded like we were straight out of an episode of Fixer Upper. Every room held a new discovery to gush over. After the kids has sufficiently inspected the downstairs, they were ready to head up to their loft upstairs. They stopped at the top of the steep stairs and took in the adorable sight of their twin beds on one side of the sloped room and the “entertainment area” with tv and anorondack chairs on the other. They were giddy about all of it. I know Audrey was thinking about her Little House on the Prairie books and pretending to be Laura as she unpacked.

David went out to pick up a few groceries and dinner while I unpacked and the kids played upstairs. Before long I called them down and we settled in on the porch for a game of checkers. They played as I sat in one of the rocking chairs and offered hints. David got back and we helped him unload the grocery bags. I heated up hot dogs and peas for the kids and sorted out the BBQ plates he had picked up for us from Southern Soul BBQ, a local spot that several friends had raved about. We sat down in the dining room and ate our feast while chatting about the house and talking through our plans for the next day.

After dinner we decided we just had to go stick our feet in the sand for a few minutes, so we took the short two block stroll over to the beach. We let the kids take off their shoes, roll up their shorts, and splash in the freezing cold water. They laughed and screamed at every fresh, frigid wave while we laughed from the warmth of the sand a few feet away. After we’d decided their skin had had enough exposure, we walked back and dried their feet as best we could. We continued our walk along the village area and pointed out shops that we wanted to try the next day. As we got close to the house, we saw Moo Cow ice cream. David and I exchanged a look before I told them that if we were going to fit in 2-3 desserts during our stay, we had better start that night. They bounced up and down and we went inside to pick out our flavors. Vacation Mommy is So. Much. Fun.

Sufficiently sugared-up, we walked back to the house and got everyone ready for bed. I set the timer for them to read and whisper for a little while and only had to climb the stairs once after the lights were out when they called me up because they couldn’t sleep. I imagine the excitement of the days ahead and the sugar so close to bedtime were the culprits. It eventually quieted down and we all fell asleep until around 4am when Luke called and needed to go to the bathroom. David took one for the team and climbed the steep stairs to retrieve him and then again to take him back. And then again to take him tissue to blow his nose a few minutes later. Bless him.

I woke up a little while later and crept out of the bedroom to fix a cup of coffee and spend some quiet time in the family room. The kids began to stir around 6:45am and I let them read in bed for a little while before bringing them downstairs for breakfast just after 7am. Since nothing opens until 10am and it was much too chilly a day for the beach, we got ready for the day and hung out around the house for a while. We worked on a puzzle and played checkers until it was time to walk over to the lighthouse for our tour.

As we’d discovered the night before, the lighthouse was less than two blocks away. We walked over, bought tickets, and started with a short movie about the lighthouse history. After it was finished we were ushered into the keeper’s home, which has been converted into a museum. The downstairs was full of history of the lighthouse and island and the upstairs had roped-off period-specific rooms and artifacts. The kids were pretty amazed at the sight of the chamber pot and ice box! When we finished the keeper’s house, it was time for the main event of climbing the lighthouse itself.

One hundred and twenty nine steps later, we emerged at the top and I glued myself against the wall as we circled around the platform. I don’t know what it is (motherhood? age?!) but I get more and more nervous around heights each year, especially when they involve the kids. It was incredibly windy and we didn’t stay at the top long. We began the descent down, stopping at the platforms that are about every thirty steps to look out the windows. Safely at the bottom, we walked back through the keeper’s house to explore the surrounding grounds. We chatted with a guy that we’d stopped to ask to take our picture and he lamented about his almost-grown kids as he urged us to soak it up. I get it, Sir. I have the exact same heart-breaking thoughts these days when I see a chubby baby in her mama’s tired arms. It flies by even faster than anyone can ever imagine and there is not one single solitary thing I can do to slow it down. All the more reason to take these special trips.

It wasn’t long before our stomachs began alerting us that it was nearly lunchtime, so we walked back to the house and drove to a gluten-free friendly hamburger joint about ten minutes away. It was a delicious and well-earned lunch after our climb.

We drove back to the house and then walked over to the playground at Neptune Park. We spent the afternoon letting the kids play there and then heading into the local the library for a peak, perusing the shops around the village (which of course included an afternoon snack of frozen yogurt), and walking out onto the pier. Seeing the pelicans nose (beak?) dive into the water to search for lunch was great entertainment while we ate our yogurt. As we were about to turn back at the end of the pier, I thought I saw something out in the water. Sure enough, two dolphins kept surfacing about 300 yards away. We were in awe and stood waiting patiently for more glimpses. After we lost sight of them, we turned and went back into the village area.

Due to the wind and our children’s history of poor attitudes during the game, we decided to save the $30 and frustration and skip putt-putt. We went back to the house to work on our puzzle and let the kids play in the loft before getting ready for dinner. Even though they opened at 5pm, by the time we arrived at 5:20 it was already a 45 minute wait. As we were waiting outside, I overheard that the restaurant would take next-day reservations only, so I went inside and got us a 5:15 slot for the following evening. We called over to the Italian restaurant where we’d planned on eating the next night and confirmed that there wasn’t a long wait there. We put our name on the call ahead list just in case and headed that way.

As we walked in, I began second guessing whether our choice was a budget-friendly one because it looked like a nice restaurant complete with linen tablecloths (it doesn’t take much!) Sometimes I get so consumed checking for gluten-free options that I forget to consider much else. A quick glance at the menu proved that looks could be deceiving and we wouldn’t be breaking the bank, so we settled in. Audrey was so funny as she put on her best manners and spoke very prim and properly, even to the server, who she rarely glances at when we’re eating out. She even asked if we could do something more sophisticated than our “Live Without, Learn, Love” game that we invented last year in Chattanooga. Well. Excuse me, Madam! We had a great time reliving the day’s events and the tales we’d heard about the lighthouse. Most of our food was tasty, but Audrey’s gluten free pasta was especially delicious. It is such a win to me when she gets to eat out and actually enjoys it. We finished our fine dining experience and went home to unwind with a few minutes of Aladdin before tucking them in with great anticipation for the busy next day.

I woke up early again the next morning and snuck out to the living room with my coffee (made by what I believe to be the noisiest coffee maker in the world…but maybe that’s just how it sounds in a silent, small house at o’dark thirty!) The kids woke up about the same time as they did before – 6:45 – and we fixed breakfast and prepared for the day. After packing a picnic lunch and applying sunscreen, we finished up the puzzle we’d been working on (hooray!) and piled into the van.

We made a beeline for the bicycle rental place and sat in the parking lot waiting for them to open. Because we wanted very specific and limited bikes (the kind with a bar that attaches an adult bike to a seat and set of pedals for the kids in the back), we wanted to be first in line. David had called the night before and was assured that a few were supposed to be back in stock the next day. Thankfully they were, and we hurriedly put on our helmets before doing a test run down a side street and back. I’m not sure if it was just my imagination or the fact that I hadn’t just literally completed a triathlon as I had the last time we rented bikes like these, but they felt much easier and safer to maneuver than the ones at Callaway Gardens.

Satisfied that we mostly had the hang of it, we crossed the street onto the wide sidewalks and began our ride. David had mapped out where all we would travel and included stops at a few of the “tree spirits” along the way. These tree spirits are a famous collection of about twenty carvings on trees around St. Simons that a man and his son have done over the years. Many of them are now on private property, but there are seven that the public can access. Maps at the convention center and online give you a rough idea of where they are and then you have to find their exact location. It’s a really fun scavenger hunt and the kids loved pulling into an area and excitedly searching for the carvings. We also stopped at a nature trail area and walked down to the marsh observation deck for a little while. None of us could get over the beautiful live oaks and Audrey loved trying to scramble up their low branches.

After getting back on our bikes, we rode over to a Chick-fil-A for a quick bathroom break and then on to a park for a picnic lunch and visit to the playground. The super tall tunnel slides looked too fun to miss so David and I each took a turn, much to the kids’ delight. We saw two more tree spirits in that area, bringing our tally to four. A local man saw what we were up to and stopped to chat about the spirits and tell us how he saw the man’s son working on that particular one, which was a rendition of Zeus. We waved goodbye and pedaled down to the village area for the grand finale mermaid tree spirit. After finding it near the visitor’s center, we stopped by the lighthouse gift shop to buy an ornament for our Christmas “travel tree” that I’d spotted the day before. I’d planned on getting the pretty lighthouse one, but once we were there Audrey and I agreed that the one with the pair of dolphins was the best choice. It perfectly commemorated our special sighting off the pier.

Carefully tucking our ornament package into the picnic bag, we climbed on the bikes for the last stretch of road to the bike shop. We’d ridden about ten miles around the island and had had a blast. More importantly, no one got run over, which is always a plus. The kids kept great attitudes and worked really hard to “help” us pedal (not sure how much it really helped, but we certainly made it sound like it did.) We drove back to our rental house, threw on bathing suits and sunscreen, and packed up for a few hours at the beach.

Once we found a good public access spot where there was sand (at high tide, some of St. Simons’ beaches disappear completely), we parked and hauled our chairs and towels down. The kids immediately ran into the fa-REEZING cold water and proceeded to combat hypothermia while they jumped waves for the next hour or so. David and I waded in and out with them, but we mostly stood on the dry, warm sand and supervised. As we watched, squinting against the glare off the waves, we spotted the dolphins swimming again and excitedly pointed them out to the kids. What a cool extra moment God had given us!

When the kids had sufficiently exhausted themselves, they dried off and bundled up in towels in the warm sun. We didn’t stay long after that because they were pretty cold and miserable, so as soon as Luke got a chance to bury my feet and dig in the sand for a few, we trekked back to the van and went to the house for warm showers. After we’d cleaned up and warmed up, we had some time to chill before we left for our dinner reservations. Audrey and I read while the boys played checkers and then we headed out to fill our empty bellies.

The restaurant, Crabdaddy's, was already crowded when we pulled in at 5:05, which is impressive considering it supposedly opens at 5pm. There is no possible way they could've seated that many people in five minutes, so I'm assuming they actually open a little earlier. Thankfully we had our reservation and were ushered right to a table. The food was okay, but Luke's chicken was a little undercooked and my crab cakes were a little overcooked. Between that and the way they cram people in there to maximize space, I wasn't overly impressed and don't think we'll make it back should we find ourselves on the island again. The service was good, though, and the conversation and laughter was even better. We left with full stomachs and drove back to the house to park the van and walk into the village.

The kids each had $10 to spend on a souvenir, but hadn't found anything by that point, so we went back to a couple of stores for them to choose something. I'd also been regretting not buying a purse I saw the day before so I went back and grabbed it, counting it as my souvenir. Once the kids selected their purchases, we made our way through the dinner crowds that were spilling out onto the sidewalks and walked down to Dairy Queen for our final dessert. After much deliberation over what to order, we ate on the attached deck and all shared bites of our chosen treat with each other. There was a sadness looming over us knowing that it would soon be time to pack up and head home, but we told the kids we weren't going to spend our last hours focused on that. We wiped off our sticky mouths and hands and began the short walk to the rental house.

After everyone got on their pajamas, we piled on the couch and looked through a photo album that the owner's had made showcasing the renovation of the house. It was pretty cool to see the "before" and made us appreciate the "after" even more. Though they protested, we knew the kids were absolutely exhausted from their day of bike riding and wave jumping, so we declared it bedtime, said prayers, and tucked them in. David and I weren't too far behind.

Around 5:30am, I heard someone fall out of the bed overhead and rushed upstairs just as Audrey called for me. She had tumbled out and climbed back in, but she wasn't hurt. I tucked her back in and went downstairs to start my coffee and the day while the rest of the house got another couple of hours of sleep. Those early morning hours when I'm the only one awake are just the best. All the sleepyheads eventually started to stir, and we began the arduous process of getting ready, packing, and tidying. The mood was for sure one of disappointment, but we kept reminding them to try and stay positive.

When we'd sufficiently checked every nook, cranny, and drawer to make sure we'd gathered everything, we left a note in the guestbook and locked the door behind us. We waved goodbye and drove over to the village for one last stroll down the pier. We didn't spot any dolphins this time, but there were plenty of birds and fisherman to watch. David took the kids back to the nearby playground as I walked through an antique market that had just set up. I didn't find anything worth taking home, but there sure were some interesting things to look at. We met back at the van a few minutes later and began making our way off the island towards home. My brother was meeting us for lunch about an hour away, which lessoned the immediate sadness of leaving a bit.

As we dodged traffic and rain showers, we listened to music and retold all of the trip's funniest moments and memories. Before long it was time to pull off to the Cracker Barrel and meet Uncle Brian, who was kind enough to have already secured us a table. We gave him the highlights of the trip and caught up on his life and news of Annelise in between bites of country cookin'. An hour later and bellies full, we thanked him for driving all the way to meet us and hugged him goodbye. I raced Luke to the van, trying to let him burn off every bit of energy he could manage before the long trek home.

The GPS quoted us four hours to our house from there, but of course with all of metro Atlanta returning from spring break trips, it was closer to five (six total). Thankfully our Waze app rerouted us to back roads, which were not only quicker, but much less stressful and more scenic than the interstate would have been. What on earth did we do before Waze?! We spent a lot of time in traffic, that's what.

The kids did pretty well and we listened to another children's audiobook and let them watch a DVD. When they got whiney towards the end and began picking on each other, I decided device time was in order and passed back the iPad and Kindle. While they were entertained, David and I listened to some podcasts and lamented the week ahead and the return to normal life. About an hour out, I logged on and ordered us some pizza to be delivered for dinner. We pulled up right as the delivery man was at our door, so we threw it in the oven to keep it warm and unloaded the car. Thirty minutes later with the kids' essentials unpacked and laundry started, we sat down to finish Aladdin with a yummy pizza picnic dinner. We were home. Sad about it, but as I always tell the kids, that just means it was a really great time.

The relaxing night and the lazy morning we had today helped take some of the sting out of our vacation being over. I am most definitely not ready for life to resume normal pace though, and I imagine there will be some tearing up on my part after the kids get out at carpool in the morning. With every passing year, these little babies God gave us become more independent, funnier, and interesting. These are most definitely the "golden years" between the physically exhausting baby and toddler stages and the emotionally and mentally exhausting teen years. (Although do not get me wrong...being in the middle means you occasionally get a good dose of both sides.) They are coming into their own and we genuinely and thoroughly enjoy spending time with them. It was a fantastic trip and we thank God for it!

Some pictures from the last few days: