I just got back from a beach vacation and I had a wonderful time!
I went to Kiawah Island, which is a beach in SC about 30 minutes from Charleston. I have been there a few times with my family and one other time with a group of friends, so I knew it was the perfect place for a summer vacation. The area is beautiful, many places to stay are pretty close to the beach and the best part is that it’s not too far from Charlotte.
I stayed in the Mariners Watch condominiums, which is right across from Night Heron Park. I found a 1 bedroom condo at the very last minute on VRBO.com (seriously, like 2 weeks before I went down there) and it was perfect for us.
The condo had a bedroom with a king-sized bed, living area, small kitchen and screened porch that overlooked a lagoon. An added bonus was that the condo allowed pets, so Lily and Beamer got to come with me. This was great because we knew it would be hard to make pet sitting arrangements with such short notice. Also, Lily provided extra security… she spent most of her time standing guard on the back porch.
I didn’t really make many plans prior to coming to the beach. I just knew I wanted to relax, get lots of rest, hang out and eat good seafood. I successfully accomplished all of these things.
I spent most days hanging out on the beach. The condo was 1 row back from a beach entrance and it was nice not having too long of a walk when we were lugging all of my things back and forth. The beach was not too crowded and the neighbors were friendly. It was nice!
One cool thing about Kiawah is that there are paved bike paths and lagoons all over the island. It’s convenient to walk different places and there is lots of wildlife! I got kind of obsessed looking for alligators.
The biggest change I noticed about the area since the last time I had been there (about 10 years ago) was that there is now a roundabout and Freshfields shopping center in front of the main entrance. Freshfields has a Harris Teeter, gas station, restaurants, and specialty shops. I think it adds a lot to the area! I had to make several grocery store runs and got dinner and ice cream there one night.
I ended up going into Charleston two days during the week. We had bad weather on Monday, so I went to the movies and saw 22 Jump Street. It was pretty funny (if you’re not offended by lots of bad language). I went into Charleston again on Wednesday to walk around in the city market.
Overall, I had a really nice and relaxing vacation. My favorite part was just hanging out on the beach all day, but a close second would be sleeping in every morning and having breakfast on the porch overlook the lagoon. I loved Kiawah and hope to come back again sometime in the next few years 
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