This trip report is nearly a month late, but after reading the thread on Carolina coastal towns, I thought I might have some useful information to share. I didn't mean for this to be so long!

For our 10th anniversary (June 29), my husband and I decided to rent a house for a week on a beach outside of Charleston. We love that whole area and this would be our fourth tripthere in the past 18 months. I searched for a house for about a month, starting with a fairly wide geographic area and narrowing my choices to Isle of Palms or Sullivan's Island. I finally decided on Sullivan's Island, because it has no hotels, bed and breakfasts, or resorts and because I loved the small-town feel of the island when we visited Fort Moultrie on a previous trip.

We rented our house from Island Realty, whose offices are located on Isle of Palms. When we got there, the office staff were friendly and efficient and the whole check-in process took less than five minutes.

The house was great, very cute and for the most part, very clean. My only problem was with the bathtubs. They were older tubs, like the one in my house at home, with built in grippy, rough stips in the bottom. Soap scum tends to accumulate on these strips and so the tubs had a grayish appearance. However, since I have this problem at home, I knew that some Lysol tub cleaner, along with a Mr. Clean Magic sponge would take care of the situation. Once I had the tub cleaned, life was good! (I know, I know...vacation is so you don't have to clean...I wanted to leave the maids a note on how to get rid of the gray-grime, because I tried everything on it at home before I discovered the Mr. Clean sponges, but my husband said no.)

Anyway, the beach on our end of SI was great. We were about 4 blocks from Breach Inlet and the beach was very quiet. There were never more 10-12 people on the stretch of beach that I visited each day, and the majority of these were families with young children. The beach was wide, flat, and virtually shell-free.

Our activities were extremely laid-back. Since this was our 4th trip to the area, and since I am a trip-planning fiend, we had already visited just about every major historic home in downtown Charleston, and all the plantations, except Boone Hall, along with Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie, Patriot's Point, etc. So, we really had nothing urgent to do, other than lay on the beach, which I did every day.

The day usually started with a nice long beach walk around 7:30am. Some of my favorite memories from this trip are of my morning walks. One morning there was a huge double rainbow stretching over the SI lighthouse. Another morning, there was an elderly couple swimming with four pet ducks. When the couple got out of the water, the ducks swam after them and waddled down the beach behind them. Then there were the little ghost crabs, who would come out of their holes and "wave" to each other, as if greeting their neighbors with a "Good morning! How are you?" These morning walks truly had a fairy tale feel to them.

While I was on the beach, my husband was usually playing golf or at a driving range. He discovered that if the realty company office made his tee-time reservations, that he received a small discount. However, June is off season for golf in that area, so courses that are usually quite expensive to play were very reasonable. His favorite driving range was at Patriot's Point, because it had a shaded area to hit from.

Afternoons, we drove over to Mt. Pleasant, where we found lots of shopping, or to Charleston. I discovered why people say "Don't go to Charleston in the summer!" After being on the beach with its pleasant breezes, downtown Charleston at 4pm was sweltering. The one afternoon that we tried to shop downtown, I thought I was going to develop "sidewalk" rage. Families, with dripping ice cream cones and sticky fudge, walked four abreast, clogging the sidewalk and moving slowly, with hot, whining children trailing behind. I wound up walking several blocks out of my way, just trying to get around the crowds. After that experience, we decided to only visit downtown in the evenings!

In the evenings, we went out to dinner and/or found entertainment. Our first night on SI, we decided to go to Poe's Tavern for dinner, because we were too tired from the trip to trek back into Charleston. We weren't thinking about the fact that it was 8:30pm on a Saturday and that Poe's is a popular watering hole! We got our burgers, but it took a while.

Sunday evening we ate at RB's on Shem Creek. The view from this restaurant was great and we got to watch three dolphins playing in the creek from our table. However, our food was not that great. My fried shrimp were tough and overcooked and the hushpuppies virtually dripped grease. After dinner, we went to the Palmetto Grande theater in Mt. Pleasant and watched a movie.

Monday night we ate at the Boulevard Diner in Mt. Pleasant. Yum! My husband had a grouper sandwich that he said was excellent. My Cajun meatloaf and mashed potatoes were so good that he had to stop me from licking my plate clean.

Tuesday night found us at Vickery's, on the opposite side of Shem Creek from RB's. We ate outside on their upstairs deck and there was a wonderful breeze. The service and atmosphere here were very good and the food wasn't bad. We got to see the same three dolphins in the creek again. After dinner, we drove to the Patriot's Point parking area and walked two-thirds of the way across the new Ravenel bridge. Now THAT was cool! The bridge is gorgeous and I got some really neat pictures on our walk.

Wednesday, we had decided to go to a Charleston Riverdogs game, so we ate a quick burger at Poe's Tavern before heading over to Charleston. Things were much calmer here at 5pm on a Wednesday and our burgers were even better, since they had time for extra attention. The ballgame was a fun experience, even though the Riverdogs lost. The atmosphere was very family oriented and at $8 a seat, a bargain! We stopped in at Kaminsky's for dessert, since we were downtown.

Thursday was our actual anniversary, and we had reservations at the Peninsula Grill. This was a wonderful experience, as usual. Although the days on the beach were making me want to stay in flipflops full time, it was fun to get dressed up and and eat somewhere a little more "fancy". The food was great, the service was great, and the whole evening was just perfect.

Friday, we ate at 39 Rue de Jean, and I learned an important tip from the hostess...if you are making reservations there for dinner, request NOT to be in the bar area! We had reservations, but we were seated in a small booth in the bar section and people were standing on top of us. The food was wonderful, but it was hard to enjoy it, when people were practically jostling your elbow.

Saturday morning, we checked out of our cute little house and headed into Charleston for breakfast at Hominy Grill. It was cool enough to sit out on the patio and we enjoyed a wonderful omelet and cinnamon french toast, before reluctantly heading home.

We stopped off in Asheville on the way home and had dinner at Tupelo Honey Cafe, to ease the transition back to the real world. I love their sweet potato pancakes, and the carb rush kept me from missing Charleston too much!

All in all, it was a great vacation, very laid back and relaxing. I love Sullivan's Island and wish I could afford a house there! Oh well! At least I can rent, until I win the lottery!