Christmas at the Coast

Hotdogs roasting on an open fire.
Jack frost nipping through your tent.
Yule tide carols being sung by the shore.
And folks dressed in shorts and flops.​

This year, we decided to do Christmas on the coast in lovely Edisto Beach State Park, South Carolina!

After a short stay in Barnwell State Park, we headed east and didn't stop until we hit water. Edisto Beach is a small island off the coast of South Carolina, smack dab between Charleston and Hilton Head. We've never camped at the coast before, so we figured this would be the perfect time to try.

Camping Pro Tip: Travel to popular places during the off season. You'll have much more fun when you have the beach all to yourself!

Driving to the island was quite interesting. The landscape slowly turned from mountains and rolling hills to what seemed like straight jungle. Giant palm trees, vines, and Spanish Moss hung over the road as we made our way to the little island we'd call home for a week. Even the campground seemed like something straight out of Jurassic Park! Our coolers are bear-proof, but I wasn't convinced they were T-Rex proof...

We traversed the jungle without any dinosaur incidents and set up camp. We decorated the campsite with a Christmas tree and a few hanging decorations. We hoped if we lit it up well enough, Santa wouldn't be able to miss us!

After setting up, we took a quick trip to the beach to check out the area. Although the campsite was in the jungle, it was surprisingly only a few minutes away from the beach. Beyond the palms and vines, the landscape opened up to a huge salt mash, which quickly became the small town of Edisto and the ocean beyond.

We grabbed some goodies from the local grocery store and headed to the beach. There were a few cars parked at the main beach entrance, so we decided to head down the strip a bit farther to see what we could find.

A little ways down the road, we pulled the truck into public beach access #12. There was nobody there. Aside from a handful of walkers a good ways down the coast, we had the entire beach to ourselves. It was lovely. We poured a few "sodas" and enjoyed the sand and water for a little while. I won't say it was warm, but it was definitely warmer than being back home. We still needed a jacket, but we could tolerate dipping our toes in the water, which is all we really need anyway.

As the sun set over the ocean, we headed back to the campsite to make some dinner and finish out the day.

​The next morning, we did some exploring around the park. We did a long walk around to go trailer shopping (as we call it) and made our way back to the cabins. We found out the park is actually split into two. There was the inland campground (which we were in) and the beach campground, which was up the road. 

Before our guests arrived, like any good hosts, we had to get their living accommodations ready. Rose and I brought our big tent, so John and Bailey would have enough space to be comfortable for the couple days they were here. Rose bet me that I couldn't get the tent up before her workout video was over. Of course, I took the bet.

​The outcome of the contest wasn't entirely clear. While I got the tent up in time, it was in the wrong spot and not staked down. Okay, technicalities. We called it a draw and decided to take another trip to the beach to let Luna run around and check out the other part of the park.

I think Luna had fun

The other side of the park was right on the beach, but oddly, we were happy with where we were. The beach campground barely had any trees, and the wind tore through the sites, bringing all the sand with it. We didn't see too many people outside their campers. We knew John and Bailey were on their way, so we headed back to our site to prepare for their arrival. 

There were a few really good looking restaurants in the park brochure, so we figured we could splurge and go out to eat when John got here. And splurge we did...

We found this little seafood restaurant called Dockside Bar & Grill. The restaurant was pretty small and didn't even have a website, so we weren't sure what to expect. It turned out to be AWESOME!

They had tons of goodies, and we ordered them all. I finally got to try alligator, and we filled the table up with all sorts of dishes like crab dip, buffalo shrimp, scallops, and po' boy sandwiches.  I finished the meal off with some raw oysters for the table. Well, John and Rose thought they looked too much like boogers, so I ended up eating them all. We stuffed ourselves silly (or maybe it was just me...). It was a great time.

After an eventful evening, and enough seafood for a lifetime, we headed back to the campsite to wind down for the day.

The next day, Christmas Eve, nothing was open, so we decided to spend the day hiking and hanging out at the campsite. There were a few trails from our part of the park, so off we went into the jungle.

The trails twisted and winded through Jurassic (I mean, Edisto) Park, showing off cool sights over the salt marsh. Every time we got to a checkpoint, there seemed to be something cool ahead, so we kept going. In all, we went about eight miles round trip!

The trail ended at a historical marker. Apparently Benjamin Franklin's great-grandson, Alexander Bache, was a part of the very first coast survey in 1832. He was in charge of finding out how long the east coast was without use of GPS or any other fancy modern technology.

Bache and his crew came right through Edisto during their survey and left one of their markers behind. Today, you can visit the marker at the end of the trail from Edisto Beach State Park. While it's certainly a riveting historical story, the marker itself is just a concrete block in the woods. I'm not sure it was worth a four-mile hike, but luckily, the beautiful scenery made up for it.

We made it back to the campsite around 2pm and took a little driving tour to show John the island. When we got back, we did a Facetime call with Momma Aldo and the gang back in Massachusetts. The rest of the day wasn't super eventful. We just drank some beer, ate some food, and hung out for the rest of the night. We did finish out Christmas Eve piling onto the tiny bed in the trailer and watching "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" on Rose's computer. Hopefully Santa would find us, even though we don't have a chimney!

Christmas day was quite laid back. We woke up slow and took our time getting ready. Some of us took longer than others...

Once everyone was up, we did a trip to the beach to officially celebrate Christmas and let the puppies run wild.

It was a little cold and windy, but it was nice to be on the beach. As always during our off-season travels, there wasn't anyone there! Luna ran around like a crazy person. She loved the sand and made quite a fool of herself, which, of course, is adorable to us!

After a short walk and some playtime for the dogs, we took some family photos and headed back to the campsite.

We finished out the day with another Facetime call with the crew in Massachusetts, opened presents, and enjoyed the rest of our time in Edisto Beach.

Rose also got the best present ever for her dad and his best buddy, Cole (their dog). She got them each t-shirts with the others' face on it. So, her dad can wear a t-shirt with Cole's face, and Cole can wear a t-shirt with her dad's face. It was awesome seeing them try them on. 

With another successful Christmas camping trip in the books (which is something that might have to become a tradition...) we prepared to head off to Calhoun Falls State Park on the other side of the state. The beach is nice to visit, but the mountains are where we belong!