Summer in kiawah

by mary alter

Every summer since long before I was born, my family has been vacationing to Kiawah Island, South Carolina. As mid-August draws close, my excitement heightens and my cares seem to leave me, for we’re almost in Kiawah, a place that feels so separate from the world I can forget I have a life off the island.

This year was certainly no exception. In fact, both in late June and early August my family and I got the privilege to call Kiawah home once again.

Instead of the American South, the feeling you get while on Kiawah is akin to islands of Greek myth… with a few modern amenities. The days there are spent laying out on the beach with a good book, sounds of the lightly crashing waves lull you into a zen-like daze as the hours pass by like the salt breeze through your ocean-waved hair.

It isn’t just the beach that makes Kiawah such a wonderful place, however. The other-worldly aura is accentuated in the marsh that encompasses the other side of the island. At low tide, fiddler crabs dance in droves on the newly exposed mud, and the sound of their clapping claws is all that can be heard.

This year, my family brought our dogs with us to Kiawah. Every morning I woke up before seven. Coming from someone who is not a morning person even in the least, the fact that I naturally woke up so early only further proves the hold that Kiawah has on my body. I would bring my dog Daisy on a walk on the beach, the rising sun behind us. She loved to chase the seabirds and run through the water. I’ve never seen her happier than on this trip, and I couldn’t say that I didn’t feel the same way.

Daisy wasn’t the only dog that had an incredible time on this trip, however. My older darling Maggie has tired back legs, so my father put her in a wagon and we brought her to the beach that way! She was the most excited once we finally got there, especially when she found a ghost crab in the sand she tried to play with! My other dog, Olivia, also got a fun ride during the trip. One of the staple activities in Kiawah is bike riding through the trails that cover the entirety of the island. Olivia couldn’t miss out on that, and my sister absolutely wouldn’t let her, putting her in the basket and taking her for the best ride of her life!

One other, adorable staple to Kiawah is the baby sea turtles that hatch through the summer months each year! Every year, over three hundred mother loggerhead sea turtles (and very rarely even some endangered leatherbacks!) lay their eggs on Kiawah. Visitors, if they care enough, can spend the night by nests due to hatch and hope to see them. If that doesn’t sound appealing, Turtle Patrol digs up the hatched nests three days after they hatched in the morning to take data and help the stragglers make it to the ocean! Every morning, you can find them walking the beach, and they love it when visitors come to watch and help! Some nests can have over ten hatched stragglers, and seeing them on their march to the ocean, only the beginning of such a long journey ahead of them, is an indescribable experience and privilege. This is one of my favorite things about Kiawah, and some of my fondest memories. I’m lucky enough to be a volunteer Turtle Patrol member for a week while I’m there next year, and at risk of rushing the year away, I cannot wait until August comes again!!

Anybody that has seen the news in recent days knows that massive Hurricane Florence has been pummeling the Carolinas. Kiawah is relatively safe from the storm, but there are many places like Kiawah, even if just because of proximity, that haven’t fared nearly as well. Please join me in donating even just a dollar to help all those affected by this disaster. Even if you cannot, keep all those affected in your thoughts and prayers over the next few months as communities rebuild and attempt to move on from destruction.

Anybody that has seen the news in recent days knows that massive Hurricane Florence has been pummeling the Carolinas. Kiawah is relatively safe from the storm, but there are many places like Kiawah, even if just because of proximity, that haven’t fared nearly as well. Please join me in donating even just a dollar to help all those affected by this disaster. Even if you cannot, keep all those affected in your thoughts and prayers over the next few months as communities rebuild and attempt to move on from destruction.

Mary Alter | @maryalter