Kiawah Island

Kiawah, Kiawah, Kiawah. If you say it three times fast, and with the correct enthusiasm and emphasis, you will feel like you are making the appropriate noises to star in an action packed kung-fu movie. Ryan and I are at The Sanctuary on Kiawah Island – near Charleston, SC. Today is the first day of his work’s leadership conference, and so far we have had a pretty relaxing time … not too much leadership or conferencing going on quite yet.

After being pulled over and given a warning by a 13 year old police officer, we arrived at the Sanctuary around midnight and set up shop in our room – fully equipped with handmade furniture and an ocean view. We did a little exploring and checked out the stars and the sand and the sea. This morning, we rose and attended breakfast – a yummy whole grain bagel and a fresh fruit salad, pineapple juice, water, and coffee. After breakfast, we revisited the sand and the sea – to see what it looked like in the daylight – and found bunches of starfish that had washed up with the last change of the tide. I love starfish, and it made me sad that they didn’t make it to eat and breathe from their bellies and crawl their five legged crawls around the ocean floor. Also, did they go through an official name change in the past twenty years? I feel like they are maybe called seastars now and will get offended if I call them starfish. Kind of like the Indian and Native American situation, but not so much?

Do you love the ocean? I do. It feels and smells like home to me.

After our walk on the beach, we got spa treatments, which were absolutely amazing. I was nervous about separating from Ryan to go to the girls’ side of the spa, but once I had my snazzy robe and plastic sandals, I was okay. Did you know I get really bad anxiety about being in new places and situations? Especially when there is the possibility of getting lost. Which I did. Lots of times. Who knew there were so many doors in a spa? We got there about 45 minutes early to use the saunas and steamrooms and pools, but I’m not very experienced in the spa setting, so I didn’t really know what to do with myself. (Maybe I just need more experience and practice? Okay!) Thus, I stepped into the sauna and had flash backs to Vegas in August, so I got out, sat on a chair, and drank two glasses of water. Thus, I had to pee a zillion times, and even had to get up in the middle of my massage to pee and almost fell down because my feet were so slippery from the lotion. Embarrassing. And then I got the giggles because I walk like a duck and she kept trying to straighten out my legs and feet, but I was so relaxed that they just kept flopping over and out. During the giggles, I had what felt like a sack of tea scented sand and rice covering my face, so I couldn’t even make eye contact to tell her I had the giggles, which made me giggle even more and tried to think of not funny things – like naming all 50 states (which I’ve been thinking about a lot lately). But the massage was wonderful – thank you, Ryan’s company – and we got to listen to Citizen Cope, which made my heart happy. Do you love Citizen Cope? You should. We listen to them every Sunday, so every Sunday we have happy hearts, which is good, because our hearts might be sad on Monday when we have to go back to work.

After the spa, we ordered room service, which was disappointing. Ryan said room service is always disappointing, which is even more disappointing, because I think you should be able to get the finest of fines in your room. I think we should play Phase 10 to get over the disappointment, and then begin to get ready for dinner. I might quiz him on the 50 states. Can you name them all? I only know half of the “50 Nifty United States” song, so that only gets me through the N states. But I think I forget some. And I forget some other letters too … there are just way too many. I think we should downsize.