Like many baby boomers, I’ve dreamed of owning a fabulous retreat along the Southern coast. The time, at last, is near.
A Dream Within Reach
 This year marks the 30th anniversary of my first family vacation to Hilton Head.
In 1977 the lush tropical environment of Sea Pines was unlike anything I had ever experienced. Gated, controlled, restricted, planned, preserved, it was pretty much the way God and the Indians had left it.
Nature took priority over man. Bike paths, golf fairways and neighborhoods were carefully placed among the ancient live oaks. Lighting was low, signage nonexistent. All the mailboxes were a beautiful Augusta green.
It was a different world – clean, natural, beautiful – and became the prototype for many of the planned resort communities that followed.
The morning bike rides from Plantation Villas to Turtle Beach with our small children left indelible impressions on all of us. There was something about the air, perhaps the mixing of Atlantic salt air with the florals of a tropical rainforest, that even a six-year-old noticed. In fact, when I mistakenly booked a week at Disney World right in the midst of three weeks at Sea Pines in the mid- ’80s, the children – while appreciative – made it clear that theme park rides could not compare to the long bike rides to Harbour Town.
We’ve been going back almost every year since. My five children all grew up sitting under the live oak at Harbour Town listening to children’s singer Gregg Russell. Amazingly, he’s still right there.
We would always get to the beach once or twice a year – perhaps Nags Head, or Emerald Isle, or Pawleys Island or Amelia Island – but always somewhere on the coast.
Over the years, getting back together at a beach house for a week or two every year has remained a family priority. For us, it’s even more important than Christmas.
Yet the coast is not simply a beautiful memory or an annual treat – it has always been at the center of my vision for the future. Over the years my wife and I would hit the bike trails of Sea Pines before the heat of the day and those early morning rides were catalysts for creative daydreaming. We’d talk of a time in our lives when it would be practical to have a home on the coast, when she and I would be peddling to Coligny Plaza for coffee not only on summer mornings, but in springtime and on brisk fall afternoons.
I used to carry my camera in a backpack on those long rides, taking photos of rooflines, entryways, chimney detail, landscaping, signage. As I look back on the last 30 years, I see the influences of those beautiful morning rides in elements of my office building and of my three homes. In so many ways, I’ve spent the better part of my adult life planning, dreaming, waiting for the moment when I could spend more time by the shore.
And now, as with a whole generation of baby boomers, that time has arrived. My children – now mostly in their 20s and 30s – are out of the house and on their own. Financially, a home with the Atlantic in my back yard is within reach. Mortgage rates are at historic lows and, as I have learned from watching real estate values on Hilton Head for the last 30 years, home prices won’t ever be lower. In fact, at least once every year when we’re sitting around the dinner table at Hilton Head, someone asks: "What if we had bought here in 1977?"
I don’t plan to be sitting around in 2017 saying that!
I hope our new magazine is helpful as you try to find your vacation retreat or second home ... or maybe your retirement dream home. And I hope to meet you somewhere along the "Sweet Tea Coast." – Richard Wells
P.S. If you have ideas for Coastal Homes that you think would be of value to others as they search for their place on the Southeastern shore, please pass them along. You can reach me by email at rwells@leisurepublishing.com or by mail at 3424 Brambleton Avenue, Roanoke, VA, 24018.
Would love to hear about your search.
From the Publisher Richard Wells, founder and publisher of Coastal Homes Southern Style.
Originially published in Coastal Homes magazine
Photo By Douglas Miller
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