The "Villa"

Probably the nicest place I’ve stayed at since the Mrs. and I spent a few days at the Auberge du Soleil in Napa Valley for our honeymoon oh so many years ago. (Though the richest place I’ve stayed at was the Hotel Crillon in Paris, but that was a trip the wife won through her work and we paid not for it.) Now, not being an experienced traveler, it’s hard for me to describe this place. It’s owned by someone, a person, so it’s kinda like an Airbnb thing, but it’s in a complex (we’re on the fourth floor) so it also has a high-brow hotel thing going. Anyway, the wife, an expert deal snagger, snagged this for us for a week at a price comparable to the Residence Inn we’d normally book when we stay down here.

The place is huge and the pics don’t do it justice. Two floors; the first is a dining room against a mirrored wall (which I’m still not used to), living room, kitchen with a washer and dryer tucked into a cabinet. What the pictures don’t show are the bedrooms. One on the first floor, which extends back the same amount of space as the living/dining room. There’s a full bath there too, along with a closet larger than the one in my house. A spiral staircase takes you up to the second floor, where there’s a daybed on the upstairs landing. The second bedroom, up there, has another full bath, a second bath with a sunken tub (where I’ll be reading Silverberg and Atkinson later this week), and ten feet of counter space.

The balcony off the living room has a view over the Hilton Head Sound, a narrow, meandering east-west channel that nearly bisects the island. We’re pretty much in the direct center, facing north. So far we’ve seen dozens of kayakers, boats, and flocks of snowy egrets and heron seeking tasty treats in the marsh below. But no gators. At least, so far.

Needless to say, the girls loudly and firmly proclaimed that we will be staying here at the “Villa” forthwith and forevermore, every time we visit the grandparents down on Hilton Head.

Well, off to the beach to view the eclipse …