Tag Archives: boating

Boating Birthday Party For Kids

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In the past, we’ve had kid parties at mini-golf  and other kid places like Chuck E Cheese’s.  This year we decided to try something different!

Boating Party Idea

This year we asked my son what kind of kid’s party he wanted and he said he wanted a Boating Birthday Party.  “Wow, that’s a great idea” I said, while thinking “the only problem is that we don’t own any boats”…

Yeah, we have friends that have both boats and jet skis, but I can’t really tell them, “Okay, my son wants a boating birthday party so I’m going to invite people you don’t know to use your boats and jet skis at this certain lake…, is that cool?“!  That certainly wouldn’t go over well with me, so I can imagine it would go over well with them either…

Luckily my son’s grandfather recently purchased jet skis and since he’s a great guy, he offered to bring over his jet skis and help out with the party.  Next, my wife called her good friend that has a nice newer shine boat and asked if she could bring her kids and come to the party.  The friend said she would do one better and bring their boat for everybody to use too.

 

Boating

So my son’s boating party had all of the necessary equipment lined up for use.  Since this is the first year trying this, we decided to keep the list of kids that he could invite to a minimum so that we could test the waters so to speak (no pun intended).  So my son picked four of his most solid friends, with such friends, we could have some party fumbles and they wouldn’t really mind.  So we had a great pilot test group of friends for our first boating birthday party.

Notes For The Next Boating Birthday Party

While we were successful at getting the equipment lined up, there were times when all the adults were socializing on the beach.  During this time the kids were bored and wanted beach toys to build castles.  Normally we have such toys, but both my wife and I forgot them this time.

Well, that’s a major mistake because the kids don’t want to listen to adults at a party, so I had to jumped in the car and went out searching for some beach toys for the party.

It took me 20 minutes to locate a store that carried the sand toys and then another 10 minutes to get back to the beach.  While not a party stopper, this was a major miss on our part and something that needs to be considered for any future boating party.

Boating Party Mishaps

No, we didn’t have any accidents or crashes!  But our friends with the boat had to leave early because they had to travel to Virginia that day for a small vacation!  So the kids didn’t get to go tubing in the boat much, but it was still fun for the short time that they were able to.  Big thanks to our friends for coming out and adding to the fun by bring their boat!  This wasn’t expected and was a great treat for the kids.

After our friends had gone, one of the jet skis mysteriously stopped working after we turned it off at the beach!  Oh no, now we were down to one jet ski!  The kids all took two additional turns, then we had to tow the broken jet ski back to the dock to be loaded back onto the trailer.

We were luck that the four friends that he asked to come didn’t complain and just made the most of the time they had out in the lake with the jet skis and boat!

Jet ski

Boating Party Conclusion

We had some rough moments, but overall, the friends had an awesome time (not of they had gone boating before).  Asked if they want to try it again next year, all enthusiastically said “YES”!!!

I think if we didn’t have such family and friends to have the party, we might have been able to rent the jet skis (and maybe even the boat for all I know).  While it might be expensive if you rent them for too long a period, it might not be that bad if you only use them or an hour or two.

I think it would be a blast to run the jet skis on the ocean someday.  Perhaps we’ll rent them when we are on vacation this year…

I’m happy my son and his friends had a great day, life is good!

MR

 

 

Relaxing But Fun Things To Do On Hilton Head Island

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I decided to review some of my favorite relaxing activities about Hilton Head Island that I’ve enjoyed from my past few vacation.

Hilton Head Island

Hilton Head Island looks like a shoe!

Fun Things To Do On Hilton Head Island

  • Biking – Hilton Head Island is perfect for renting a bike and going biking since its an Island and therefore very flat!  The Island is literally filled with biking paths everywhere!  You can ride for miles and it seems that you never run out of energy.  Even the heat doesn’t both you while you are riding because of the low intensity workout.
  • Family Beaches – Not near as touristy as Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head’s beaches are basically family beaches.  This is a great place to take young kids to explore the beach without the craziness of college age kids running amok.
  • Golfing – This Island is a golfer’s paradise!  Some of the smaller, less know courses are very reasonably priced to boot!  Bring bottle of water while on the course!
  • Quaintness of the Shops and Businesses – I notice that many of the store and restaurants are operated by people who live on the Island.  This makes sense, but it seems more real and since many of the residents are from northern states that have moved down there, it feels like people are there because they want to be there.  I have a favorite cafe/ice cream shop where it has the feeling of a beach bum type of place.  It was cool to see the local residents interact with each other there.
  • Seafood Meal – I know this is going to sound odd, but I enjoy seafood more when I visit Hilton Head Island.  The food taste a little fresher and just seems more authentic overall.
  • Tours of the Area – We’ve taken a few tours and have found that they are entertaining and the guides witty and very funny.  It was cool hearing about the history and the famous or rich folks that live on the Island.  It’s a nice way to relax and learn a few things.
  • Kayaking Trips – This requires more effort than biking, but seeing the dolphins swim up along us during our kayaking route was exciting and just overall cool.
  • Staying at a Larger House – We stayed at a house that had 6 or 7 rooms last time, and to me the house was huge.  I started reading a book, played games with my family, lounged in the pool, walked the nearby beach, and did whatever I wanted.  Activities by the house were totally spur of the moment and unstructured!
  • Free Things Too – Just being there is a great fun time in itself as there are plenty of great free things to do at Hilton Head Island!  Last year while getting ice cream, we saw a performer do make and tricks with animals.  At another location there was a small, free concert going on.

My list of Fun things to do in Hilton Head Island is a relaxing one, but there are many other more water activities you can do too.  Fishing and crabbing is always fun.  Wave runners and the like are an adventure too, we’ve never rented these but you’ll see them out in the ocean often times.

We usually walk around Coligny Plaza and make a trip to Harbour Town, these are touristy locations but still interesting and fun.

I guess the stimulus for this article was that fact that I was Hilton Head Daydreaming again!

Hope you enjoy your vacations!

MR