Hilton Head Island, Planning & Reflections

May 14th, 2014

We went to Hilton Head Island today.  We headed toward Harbour Town Lighthouse first.  This was in a district called Sea Pines and we had to pay $6/car to enter this area.  Once we got there we easily found a parking place, one of the perks of visiting on weekdays, close to the lighthouse.

The lighthouse has a gift shop built in the bottom and another at the top!!!  Both are quite small as you can imagine.  

View to the top from the bottom gift shop

The gift shop at the top

On the landings are different exhibits

 This is a picture of the late Payne Stewart playing toward his first championship here at Harbour Town in 1989. He was tragically killed in an unfortunate aircraft accident in 1999. This picture is for my mum who liked watching him play.

Payne Stewart

Going Up!!!

 We made it to the top.

The views were amazing as they usually are once we get to the top.  

 This sign was at the top overlooking the golf course.

This was the view of the golf course

A closer shot of the 18th fairway & green

The inner harbour

We took more pictures on the way down. 

Looking down

Bryan taking a picture of Sue

and Sue taking a picture of Bryan

There were rocking chairs outside at the bottom of the lighthouse where you could sit and look out at the inner harbor. I took advantage of one of them. 

If you look closely I am sitting in the left chair

We had a walk around and sat and had a drink and ate a snack in a small square.

Sue was admiring this yacht

This was part of the garden where we sat and ate our snack

I had read about some ruins that were close by so we drove to Stoney Baynard Plantation Ruins.

Bryan showed me this, it looks like a finger & fingernail pointing

This shows the "tabby" form of building

There was another light tower, Hilton Head Rear Range Light, on the island but it was on a golf course and part of a housing development.  I read that you could get a pass into the development if you told them you wanted to look at the lighthouse.  So, off we went.....  We got to the gate and the nice security guard told us that we could indeed get a pass but he couldn't do it for us.  We had to go to another entrance.  We had a nice long chat with him though about full time motorhoming and where we were from.  He gave us very detailed instructions on how to get to the main gate which we somehow managed to remember even after spending several minutes chatting with him, truly amazing.
We found the main gate and got a pass and a code to get into the area where the lighthouse was.
Now, you get the impression that Hilton Head Island is an upper class area and it seems to cater to the rich to a certain extent. I did find out that there are some ordinary homes here too, ha!!ha!!
This development was very nice and we drove past some nice houses until we reached  another locked gate, which was where we had to enter our code to gain entry into an estate of even bigger, beautiful houses.  We kept driving until we felt we should be somewhere near where the lighthouse was and a lady was walking her dog.  We asked her if she knew where the lighthouse was and she pointed behind her, we were at the exact location.  She told us to park right here and walk across.  She was very nice, especially as our car was extremely dirty and very average for this expensive estate!!!!  As we turned the car to park we saw the lighthouse through the trees.

As we couldn't get a stamp for our lighthouse book here we took this picture for the book to prove we were here

The golf course from the lighthouse 

This was the house the lady with the dog lived in.  It was one of the smaller ones here.

We decided we were hungry and so we stopped at Applebees for a late lunch/dinner.  After we ate, we went to the Coastal Discovery Museum.  Unfortunately we arrived just as they were closing so we will have to do this another time.  We want to come back and do a trip to Daufuskie Island as well but it will not be this time.

As we entered the base I took this picture.

We had another interesting day.  After we got home we had some rain showers and our friendly frog didn't come to visit. :(

May 15th - 17th, 2014

We didn't do much these days. We both watched some sports.  Andy Murray did quite well and is hopefully getting back to full fitness after his back surgery. Arsenal Football Club won the FA Cup in London and so my mother, brother and eldest son are very happy.  

Bryan washed the motorhome and took the car to a local car wash and when he opened the trunk our friendly frog was there looking at him.  He jumped out and so is now lost out there somewhere.  He tried really hard to be a companion to us but I guess it wasn't to be.  

I did some planning and organizing.  It is actually quite time consuming trying to work out where to visit and what to do when we get there that we can afford!!!  But, it sure beats work!!!  No regrets, I have come to a lot of realizations while we have been on the road and when you have time to reflect, the past certainly becomes a lot clearer.  I thank the people who believed in me and promoted me, I thank the people who didn't or wouldn't understand me, and I thank the people who humored me and thought I didn't realize what they were doing. I have learnt from everyone I have worked with, good and bad, and that is the important thing. I have become a better person because of you all. I will never be false as some, or stoop to the lengths some have to. I believe that what goes around comes around. I have my integrity and work ethics and my family and true friends who have been there for me and I them. LIFE IS GOOD and getting better all the time...... 

Take care everyone