I’ve been on a family vacation the past week on Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina. I could easily say that I continued my 30 Days of Fun with 7 days of beach, but I’ll try to be more specific…

  • Day 15: Drinks at the Thirsty Monk and continuing our tradition of eating Indian food in different town by visiting Kathmandu Cafe.
  • Day 16: My dad did a great job of finding the perfect vacation house for all of us. Because we weren’t vacationing in the heat of summer, having a hottub was a wonderful addition to the rental and it made it so we could (literally) jump right in to vacation on our first night at the beach!
  • Day 17: My one sister and her husband were unable to join us on vacation because she us pregnant and on bed rest. My mom printed out some photos of the two of them and we took them out with us for Mexican food and drinks at an Irish pub on Sunday night. It was a goofy but fun way to include the whole family on vacation.
  • Day 18: On Monday the whole clan was eating some Thai takeout and a dog appeared on the deck behind the glass door. Her tag said she was Honey Dew and listed a phone number. Between my sister and I, we got Honey Dew back to her owners and it was a great feeling. Plus, the fact that it was such a cute, sweet dog didn’t hurt.
  • Day 19: My brother and my sister and her beyonce cooked us all dinner on Tuesday. They made one of my favorite foods, macaroni and cheese, and it was wonderful to have food being made for me while I got drunk with my parents and Wonder Boy while sitting in he hottub. If only there were a way to incorporate that luxury into everyday life…
  • Day 20: Wonder Boy and I served a fabulous dinner of flaming cheese, macaroni and cheese, fancy hot dogs and blueberry vodka and lemonade drinks. Dinner was delicious, but more importantly, we completely pulled off cooking it together as a team. Sometimes that can be hard to do and still get the final product out on the table on time but we did great.
  • Day 21: My family went out to eat and the Charleston restaurant specialized in seafood, leaving Wonder Boy and I a little stuck. Fortunately, we were surprised by being served some delicious Gnudi, a new food for me. Gnudi is like Gnocchi made with ricotta cheese and it is so good I want to marry it.
  • Day 22: On our last day of vacation we all set out to make the best of what was predicted to be a day with some terrible weather. We went on a four-hour kayaking trip and ended up doing the whole thing in sunshine. When we came home we had some intermittent rain but really enjoyed the best weather of our vacation. Reading while floating around in the sun on a raft and drinking beer is the right way to do vacation.
  • Day 23: Last night Wonder Boy and I made the best of our 11 hour trip home by end-of-vacation gorging on Starbucks, Taco Bell and Dairy Queen. None of that was nearly as good as being greeted at the door buy Biggie and Addy.

This is a spiny sea urchin that my mom and siblings found on the beach. Beautiful.

This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.