This year Labor Day fell on September 3 which is actually 19 days before the official beginning of Fall, September 22, 2018.  With that being said we decided to milk summer  a little longer and head toward the beach.  It was projected to be a 90+ degree day after all.

The Isle of Palms is an easy drive up I-26 East for approximately 100 miles before taking I-526 East for another 12 miles, hopping onto Highway 17 and crossing over to the IOP Connector.  In 2 hours, give or take, you can be looking directly ahead and into the Atlantic Ocean. We were a little unsure about the 60% chance of rain they were calling for that day but lucked up and only got into one small shower on the drive in. The clouds quickly cleared and it ended up being a beautiful, windy beach day.

We packed the car with beach essentials, chairs, towels, books, music, a cooler full of frozen water, PBJ’s for lunch and a change of clothing for later.  As you enter onto  I-526 the air changes to a heavy salty scent and the scenery of the Marsh scattered with  fishing boats and kayakers will take your breath away.

Isle of Palms has several public parking options to choose from. In addition to their metered street parking you can pull right into The Isle of Palms County Park where you will find a public beach access, public showers, restrooms, vending and on occasion food trucks or other vendors. The fees vary depending on the time of year and day of the week.  Everything you need to know is here: https://www.ccprc.com/60/Isle-of-Palms-County-Park   In addition to this parking area you will also find another pay by the hour lot located just a block from the County Park.  This lot is across the street from the beach but close to restaurants, shops, public beach access and rest room facilities. The lot is self service with boxes along the parking rows where you can choose how long you plan to stay then place the timed ticket in your windshield.

Because of the holiday IOP was SUPER crowded, more so than I have personally ever seen.  We opted to keep driving a short distance into an area known as Sullivan’s Island and lucked up to find a parking spot on the side of the road a block from a beach access and board walk. Sullivan’s is less popular with the tourists because there are no public facilities. But IF you plan accordingly you can make it work. There are some amazing beach houses along this stretch. Where does one buy 10 foot tall flamingo statues anyway?

We got on the beach just before 11am and stayed there until close to 3pm.  During that time we walked to the lighthouse, watched the wind surfers (which are pretty amazing btw), enjoyed our small pic-nic and just relaxed in the cool breeze. My husband who I will often refer to as Sugar loves music and I enjoy reading. Sitting quietly for a few hours just to enjoy our hobbies is a rare treat.

You can see the Sullivans Island Light House behind the dunes in the distance. From this stretch of beach you can also see the Morris Island Light House that sits off the coast of Folly Beach at the opposite end of Charleston.  There were a few locals scattered about on the beach but for the most part it was rather quiet, just like I prefer it to be.

 

Around 3pm we packed up and headed back to the car.  In an effort to not create a huge mess, sandy items went into trash bags in the car trunk.  We wrapped up with our towels and headed back into IOP just a couple of blocks away.  There we paid $1 for an hour of parking, hit the public outdoor showers getting as much sand off as possible, used the public restrooms to dry off and change into clean clothing and then enjoyed an Ice Cream from the cute stand on the boardwalk under Coconut Joes Restaurant.  They had a reggae band on their rooftop  which we enjoyed while tooling around a few of the local shops.

 

Since we had a rather small pic-nic we opted for an early dinner and stopped at Poe’s Tavern on Sullivan’s Island for burgers. Edgar Allen Poe lived on Sullivans for a short time while enlisted in the military.  You can see their menu and read the back story here.  http://poestavern.com/sullivans-island/                                                                                   Their burgers are famously delicious and if you go I highly recommend their homemade coleslaw with blue cheese. That was unbelievable Y’all! After eating we drove a short distance to Fort Moultrie and walked off our dinner before getting in the car to head home.

 

 

The Charleston area is gorgeous with so much to see and do.  I couldn’t possibly do everything I wanted to in a week much less a day.  Because of this I decided on a different route home that took us through Shem Creek (another famous area full of delicious local restaurants, worth checking out for sure) and over the famous Charleston Ravanel Bridge.  We jumped on I-26W from there and were home in less than 2 hours, somehow missing all of the afternoon summer evening storms.