Babies Make Four: St. Simons Island

We're back from what is quite possibly my 50th trip to St. Simons. Honestly, it's not that many, but I've been going here almost yearly since I was 4 or 5 so it may literally be my 20th visit there. On our first visit, we stayed at the King and Prince. I remember the expansive grounds and eating the breakfast buffet at the resort. After that, we've visited many different grounds, a hotel at the entrance of the island with an awesome pool, condos, hotels and houses. I've visited the island throughout my childhood, being stung by jelly fish and taking one last trip over Labor Day with my mom and dad before my high school graduation.

When Dillon and I were planning our wedding and honeymoon, we didn't have a whole lot of money so we contemplated renting a cabin in Asheville or a small trip. He had never (in the whole 5 years of us dating!!) been to St. Simons. I told him that it's not like other beach towns, as he's not a big beach go-er, so we spent our first week of married life on the island, getting major sunburns in the October Georgia sun, eating seafood and trying to salvage our first vacation in spite of the miserable swelling of our scorched shins.

After that, we've taken about a trip a year in the winter down to Georgia (we didn't go last year because of the awful sicknesses that hit our household). We've gone in almost every month, my favorite being October. But a quick jaunt down to the beach helps banish our winter blues until spring can finally arrive in North Carolina.

All these trips to St. Simons, and it still doesn't get old. There's something about driving over the marshes and it almost feels like coming home from college or putting on your favorite pair of slippers. Oh, of course there are changes on the island, but I like to think of the changes being more of a shift, kind of like how the beaches shift with the changing tides, St. Simons stays the same with only minor changes. We can always make our way to the pier or to the little beach shop that's been there since I was four. Some people may think that it's lame that we go to the same beach year after year, and maybe it is, but we know where to get the best food, take the best walk, and the best spot to relax on the beach.

It's been a good, long weekend. It was nice to re-set from a hellish few weeks of work and to actually spend time with family without the cell phones ringing or having a schedule of where we need to be. It's been hard, though, coming from 65 degree weather back to a snowy 32 in Asheville. We watched the thermometer on our car travel steadily down on our way home, a sad reminder that winter is still here. While the old groundhog has declared 6 more weeks of winter, the fine folks in Georgia probably won't have to take heed of his warning. Something that's instilling a little jealousy in my cold bones this afternoon!